[Early Years] "Foil Things" (9x12 oil on panel) painting process and animation

Good morning Steemians and Artists,
Today I'm showing you the painting that started my obsession with foil.

detail

Here is the physical setup:

Here is the beginning stage. A block-in with umber (on a very colorful ground....a little of this shows through in the end):

Next stage. My initial plan is to make the foil goblet the primary focal point, with the apple in support.

Next stage. I'm painting directly with a knife, which is a great way to get a lot of paint down quickly (Caveat: as long as you've become as comfortable handling a knife as you are handling a brush. Just like with the brush, the only path is through practice and repetition. Fully half of my career has been spent with knife in hand.).

Next stage:

Next stage:

I wanted something small and round to help with the composition on the right side, but couldn't find anything small and round to wrap with foil. I ended up using my giant track ball mouse and just scaling it down.

Although my initial goal was to make the goblet the focal point, the apple clearly wins out. Had I been able to more successfully push the dominance of darks and lights in the goblet (and restrained the value range in the other foil objects), it might have stood a chance at overtaking the isolated green of the apple. But in this case the apple is the odd man out, and the foil has been painted as the common element. It's all about how it's painted. In the end, I was happy with this switch in focal point, but as a rule you have a much better chance of success if you establish the dominance of your main focus throughout the entire process. I got lucky.

And the finished painting, "Foil Things" (9x12 oil on panel, 2012):

And here is a gif animation of that process:

Thanks for reading! -David

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