Exercise 7 Still life man made objects

Although I did consider other subjects, somehow I had a strong compulsion to paint glassware. Viewing images of Morandi's bottles and jars for the research of still life painting, must have got into my head somehow.
When I experimented with a few connotations I noticed the combination of straight and curved contours and reflective clear and dark glass surfaces formed interesting negative shapes and juxtaposition of angles. When I did a few very simple line sketches of these arrangements  each one inspired me enough to consider perhaps using in the future as part of a series. On studying my small tonal sketches I was impressed by the air of static calm the subject emitted  The reason for my final choice of a square format was that it appears to balance the arrangement of verticals and horizontals. On a very dark blue ground I used mostly calming (analogous) colours such as blues, purples and greens, with the exception of yellow ochre and white on the supporting surface, also ceruleum blue and yell ochre on the wall behind both under the paint on the right and in a thin wash over the paint towards the centre to give an impression of reflection. Ceruleum blue was added to other colours to cool them down and help them recede, if necessary. Cobalt blue was added in the same way for the warmer hues to help them advance. Other colours were alizarin crimson, burnt umber, pthallo blue and a touch of cadmium red.  All the background surfaces were painted using plastic and cardboard cards. They were very enjoyable to use and produced a very textured effect. Curves were more difficult but possible with smaller cards, tending to producing quite angular marks. I did find them quite liberating and easier to handle than palette knives.
In the background I had trouble getting the correct tone directly behind the objects. So, I toned down the overly warm and then overly light tones with glazed  of pthallo blue, then pthallo blue mixed burnt umber. The majority of the objects surfaces were painted with a brush as I think this created a pleasing contrast of textures with the background.
The highlights on the rim of the drinking glass where fiddly and I had to adjust and re-adjust it several times. It still seems to look a bit heavy.

Before further glazes

The tall jar was the most challenging to get the tones to look convincing. I think I got there eventually, but not before applying quite dry layers in multiple tones (it looked too broken up and very unappealing to me), then covering it all with opaque blue to try and reflect the colour behind. This caused it to look dull a flat, so I then varied this effect with dark blue using smooth wavy movements of the brush and wrist. I think the cause of most of my problems here were due to getting confused with the tones by following all three of the below:
1. the actual objects in front of me.
2. a monochrome photograph.
3. the sketch,
ie. the tones on the photo looked different to those on the actual objects and I feel now that I should have followed just one, probably the sketch.

After alterations -
glazes

I changed some of the background's colours but kept to the tonal values as much as possible. It looks more true to the charcoal tonal sketch - which I had simplified to broad areas of tone.
Of the two paintings - this one and the previous still life natural objects, this is my preference. To me it exudes a look of calmness and  at the same is time inviting. The colours and tones, I think play a big part in this. The lighter toned areas in the background prevent it from becoming what would otherwise be a dark and sombre  atmosphere.
Natural Objects: In comparison - I'm not sure if I like the colours used - dominated by muted green of the underlying cloth and the muted brown purple of the onion which look a bit hard together. I've also left a hard boundary between the green surface and the light area behind it. Even so, though the objects are quite mundane they have very interesting features.

LATER:
The blue behind the bottles looked quite heavy and my tutor suggested  it would be possible to alleviate this by going over with layers of glazes.

Glaze experiments

Several layer of mixes of cerulean blue, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre and white were applied thinly in combination with a little matte medium to help maintain the integrity of the paint. Certainly I think the glazes have had the intended effect; the blue has calmed the deep yellow and the yellow ochre has calmed the blue. The dark red/blue over most areas seem to add some cohesiveness. The pale blue area and the yellow orange in the lower part, were popping out a bit too much in relation to the rest of the composition. The glazes seem to have had the desired effect, though have dried to a fairly dull finish. Of course this change later if I decided, maybe with glaze medium, varnish or similar.

Another variation the above

On this second version, the shadow on the left side of the far left bottle was softened after I took a photo of this one. I followed a very similar techniques as in the first. I prefer this one in many ways: more harmonic - colours seem to balance better especially the lower surface, apart from the tall bottle, which I think is slightly too close to the top