It's all about the cloth

I learned a lot just from doing this one painting. That tan cloth coming in from the side was the very first part that I painted in, and you can see the shading's not at the same level as the rest of the painting. Went to the center can/thing, then the pots, then the watering can, then the cloth (I think, or close to that order at least). About half of the time was spent on the cloth alone.

This was my second painting ever. It took, if I remember correctly, just over one hundred hours. This assignment was to do the still life in the traditional layering style. I was pretty happy with it after I finished the second layer, thinking it was done. My teacher said it wasn't. So I did another layer, and it looked better. Teacher said it still needed more. I told her I was plenty happy with it as is (partially joking, mostly not), but she said I'd be even happier once there were more layers added. Did more, begged to be finished more, teacher said I'd be happier more later (Pam is an awesome teacher!!)... Once I was done, I had to admit to her, "Yeah, you were right".

Acrylic on canvas; 18"x24"
Spring 2003