Reflecting ...

Reflect :   Verb  

1.  The snow reflects light ... (send back).

2.  Their expressions reflected their feelings .... (indicate).

3.  He reflected on his responsibilities ... (think about).

Lately, I'm sure it's because of the holidays, I keep seeing more and more artists painting reflected surfaces in their work.  Bright, shiny objects. Pretty sparkling reflections in shiny objects.  Being new to oil painting I thought I'd better do some practicing before I attempt to paint a reflection on canvas so I decided to do the 10 minute exercise to get me use to painting reflections.  

oil on paper

In the first group of painting exercises I didn't even start out top to bottom or left to right.  I had this lone red ornament sitting on a white paper towel.   Looking back on these now I see my number #1 wasn't as bad as I originally thought and my number #4 wasn't as good as I thought.  I like the reflection in  number #1 best I think.  "Reflecting" on it now, seeing the results, I'm more confident in giving this another try.  Maybe on canvas this time.

oil on paper

Hmmm, what can I say about this second group of reflected surface exercises?  When I showed this to my husband he said he was glad I told him what it was because he didn't recognize it as our sterling silver pepper shaker.  I had placed a piece of cardboard behind the pepper shaker and it was sitting on a paper towel.  Remember that in these exercises you are allowed 10 minutes and no pre drawing, so that is my excuse for having them look like they were bent and broken.  Needless to say, #4 was no better than number #1.  I'm gunna leave these out of my painting.  If you own it and you still don't recognize the object after it's painted ... its best to move on.