If you follow me on Instagram or the brand new Vine app, (which is sooo much fun by the way!) you may have seen some in-progress peeks of our newest project. We started it this weekend. It's going to be another larger format mixed media piece much like our Cookies sign and Bakery Menu board. It'll be a statement piece...the statement being: "did I happen to mention that I LOVE Cakes and Cupcakes?...well, in case it wasn't obvious...feel free to look at that big painting hanging on my wall." We wanted to create something that would instantly transform any space into a vintage bakery...whether it's a teeny tiny kitchen...a studio...or if it's already a vintage bakery...we hope this piece will be a room maker!
We both had ideas for classic cakes and cupcakes. Old fashioned, vintage style sweets. Nothing over the top fancy or super decorative. We both sketched out some ideas and bounced them back and forth. After laying down some rough sketches and figuring out the composition we then did some clean tracings of our drawings. Doing the tracings makes the painting stage so much neater.
When we have a perfected sketch/outline we then rub our tracings onto our board or canvas. Once we've got lines down then we can start to "block in" our still life! Here you see we base coated the "cake" and the little candy toppers, as well as the outline of the "wrappers". All artists have their own formula for putting together a painting. We tend to bounce around so that all the elements will progress at around the same rate...so that in the end we can tighten everything up together.
Here you can see that we blocked in both cakes and laid the foundation for highlights and shadows. When doing a still life / table scape like this it's key to make sure that all the elements sit well together. That their light sources and perspectives make sense...and one isn't way more detailed than the other. Getting all the elements in their "dress rehearsal"state gives us an idea of where everything is going. At this point we get really really excited because we can really start to envision the finished piece. The urge is to keep painting and painting and let life fall to the wayside. But you gotta take care of your life as well as your painting. If only you could inject some extra hours into the day...or forgo sleep! We get all excited, thinking about what the background will look like...all that stuff. But everything takes time...it's a process and that's a good thing. The end result is more rewarding.
So, like I said...the painting has to sometimes take a backseat to life. We paused today to work on some orders and run a bunch of errands.We are reeeally excited to get back to this piece later tonight after dinner and whatever else. Our next step is "tightening" everything up...putting the cakes and cupcakes in their stage make-up.
Do you paint? How do you go about starting a new painting? We always love hearing about and seeing the art of other creative souls! :)
We'll be sure to show you some more of this piece as it progresses!
Ohh...and if these paintings got you in the mood for CAKE...be sure to visit us tomorrow for a super deelish, over the top fudgey...Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe!
xo Jenny...and Aaron says hi!!