"The Mage's Flame" (16x12 oil on panel) painting process

Greetings Steemians and Artists,

detail

New still life painting. Here is the setup. My initial visual concept is to play equal parts warm (candle) and cool (glasses with partially evaporated food-coloring-altered water) off of each other, with the pitcher as a temperature-neutral focal area between these clashing elements. In the end there's a battle for focus that I find interesting, but we'll get to that later.

You might recognize this pitcher. If you do, it might be because I've painted it a few times before, lols:

First stage. Here is the umber block-in/shape-of-shadow in brush. The rest of the painting will be by knife.

Next stage. Even before starting in on the objects, I need some background for context. If I'd taken the time to put down a tone/ground on the panel that was closer to the value of my intended background, I would go straight to the focal objects instead.

Next stage. Starting objects and a fading of the colorful background into a neutral.

Into the cloth. By pushing the cloth to the slightly cooler/greenish side, more focus is being pushed towards the candle instead of the pitcher. At this point, I'm ok with that, and wondering where this will lead me.

Adding more warm background and cloth helps to balance the temperatures and slightly reduce the focus on the candle--sharing more focus with the glasses. This increased balance begins to frame the pitcher:

I want the neutrality of the pitcher to "bleed" into the cloth below it, giving the pitcher more of a presence. I continue experimenting, trying to further equalize warm vs cool:

After working on the lid of the pitcher, I try a similar neutral effect going upwards.

Adding flame and smoke to the candle.

Refining all elements while continuing to experiment with the colors of background and cloth. Notice that I'm giving the primary fold shadow beneath the pitcher the darkest value, while the other folds are pushed to a higher key. This will help to direct focus.

More refinement and details. See stems of glassware, grooves on pitcher, flame reflection on pitcher, and the beginnings of some cloth crinkles:

At this stage of the painting, I posted the following comment (and picture below) on Instagram. It was a thought that I still like, so I think it's worth repeating here:

A process through fits and starts. This most slow and stammering period of my painting journey (over the past year) is helping me to realize that creative momentum is not as inflexible and fleeting as I once thought. I'm starting to question whether the availability of relatively uninterrupted intensity over 8ish years had in some ways become a limiting factor….It allowed me to perpetuate my tendency towards creative impatience. My tolerance for lingering on the same painting is expanding, which is exciting. Shown here is the tip of a Holbein 1066S-303 painting knife.

More detail and crinkles in the cloth. More experimentation with background, although it's not quite right in the upper left: too jagged and distracting, stealing too much focus:

More refinement everywhere:
And the finished painting "The Mage's Flame" (16x12):

While I usually create paintings with a very clear singular focus, there's a bit of a battle for attention here. To my eye, the pitcher with its more neutral colors and brightest highlight dominates (as intended), but I could easily see a case to be made for the candle as the primary focus. Either way, I'm pleased with that tension.

Thanks for reading! -David

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