Day 16: Scissors on the Table
There are certain subjects that test my ability, ones that let me know how I am doing in the challenge of all things painting (drawing mostly, but also in the ability to paint the subject) and one of those for me has always been scissors!
Scissors on the Table
Watercolor on Paper
6 x 8″
$75
Now you may be asking yourself, “why scissors?” and I will tell you. For me scissors are deceptively difficult to draw and paint. The foreshortening is harder than I think and getting the long angles of the blades going in opposite directions with the handles being ellipses (or circles) in perspective and making it all work together is harder than I ever imagined.
I tried to draw and paint scissors for years with miserable results. But of course I did not just stop trying or put them in the category of things to never paint. No, every year I would try again and here I am this year, at it again.
The other thing that can be a challenge about metal scissors like these is the metal and making it seems like, well, metal. The thing to go for is the values and not to focus too much on the reflections.
I am back in my studio in Rome today where temperatures are hovering around 0 degrees (Celsius). The real challenge today was keeping my fingers from freezing and finding things to do while waiting for the watercolor to dry, which it never seemed to completely. We do not have heating in our studio and we do have the most amazing huge north facing windows. Those are perfect most of the year, we just have to make it through the winter.
The real lesson in today and all paintings really is if it is too hard, that is good, it gives us somewhere to go, something to do, a gap to close in on and a guide to what’s next. Scissors, so not simple!