KEEPING AT IT CHALLENGE "Bottlescapes"

The challenge here is to represent something transparent. I find a series of quick--"just whip it in"--pencil sketches helps to get used to new turf. Even carbon pencil. Then try watercoloring a few.

David Millard suggests, "Build your sequence of washes, wet over dry, wet over dry." Bone dry, is often his phrase. "To achieve transparency, let your background wash run right through your bottles. Lay a pale tone over all but the white areas. Lay in a second wash, avoiding the whites. Begin a series of deeper glazes, always applied wet into bone dry."

"Design your negative areas . . . create patterns with the shapes."

"Uses only stage lighting . . . spot, side, back, and silhouette. Front flood lighting is deadsville--no good shadows. "

"Work to get mystique, poetry, power, and subtlety into your sketch. Include this still life form into your repetoire."

Quite the challenge. I find colored bottles without labels the artsiest. Stained glass.

Millard also said, "Have you noticed that the closer you approach photographic reality, the more you lose the poetry?" I'm noticing that.

Let's take two weeks for these first bottlescapes of our lives. A lifetime for the rest. Post at will, but let's end this one in two weeks, on the 23rd of Jan.

PS Try googling "still life bottles" and hit images. Some real inspirations.