Common Surface Problems

A Silver Urn

Introduction You can visualize the general appearance of silver and can contrive an accurate mental image of its beautiful texture. But actually, after examining what is really there, you wonder how you can begin to paint it. what you see is a series of reflections on a shiny silver background that are distorted into unusual shapes bearing little resemblance to the objects reflected. No two pieces of silver, therefore, will ever appear to be exactly alike; each will be drastically effected by its surroundings. The problem in painting silver is to capture these reflections. But remember that enough silver tones must be interspersed with the colors of the reflections to show that they emanate from a silver surface. There are two approaches to painting a silver surface. One is to copy the silver exactly, being as precise as possible in painting the reflections and etched patterns. The other is to use the piece in front of you only as a guide, allowing yourself some freedom in rendering the subject. I've used the latter approach for the following demonstration. Don't take liberties with the rendering of the shape or proportions of your subject as a whole or you'll destroy the base which controls the reflected patterns. Any departures from a realistic rendering you do within the permitted range should be minimal for one simple reason; silver is too difficult a subject to play around with! Etched patterns and filigrees offer a main source of interesting colors and highlights, but don't vary from reality unless you're positive that you're within the realm of possibility. I've found it helpful to exaggerate the tonal values of silver by making the darks slightly darker and the lights slightly lighter. Although silver is difficult to paint well, it need not be frightening. If you approach your subject slowly and carefully, as I'll describe in the following steps, I don't think you'll find any major difficulties.

Step 1. For this demonstration, I'm adding a small amount of phthalo blue to the basic wash of raw umber and white. This gives me a silver-blue tone. I make several strengths in order to capture the silver tones of the urn. I thin the darkest of my base with some turpentine and loosely draw in the general shape of the urn. In some areas I even use angular lines - like those around the base of the urn - to help me gain the proper proportions. To further indicate perspective and proportion I take a little of my darker mixture from the color pool and dab in a few major shadows, such as those on the handle and lid.

Step 2. For this step my palette remains unchanged. My objective is to paint the entire urn by roughly indicating all the values or reflections in vague, broad strokes. Capturing the value and location of a reflection accurately is far more important than painting its precise shape. I use my lightest mixture from the color pool to fill in the lightest values found in the lid, the base of the pot, the handle, and the feet. I lay in the darker silver values all over the urn with the appropriate value from the pool. I use this same value to sketchily add the etched pattern found at both the top and bottom of the pot portion of the urn. Using a darker value from the pool, I add major shadows - such as under the lid, along the left side, and under the pot on the right. To capture the highlights on the handle, in the large streaks in the pot, and on the lid, I use pure white. As these tonal values are filled in, note that the basic drawing automatically becomes more refined.

Step 3. I expand my palette to include yellow ochre, underpainting white, burnt sienna, and more phthalo blue. In this step I concentrate on refinement and accuracy. Note that my brushstrokes follow and accentuate the shape of the urn. I mix yellow ochre with blue and burnt sienna to get a dull greenish brown which I use thinned with turpentine to indicate the background. For the reflections of the background in the urn, I use the same color with white added for coolness. Examples of this are the long streak in the center of the pot, the curving streaks on the lid, and other areas previously indicated with a mix of medium tone. There are some warm reddish reflections, so I take yellow ochre, mix it with white, add more burnt sienna but less phthalo blue than prescribed above and place it where needed, such as on the handle and on the streak on the far left side of the pot. I mix more blue into the original mix used in steps 1 and 2 for areas such as the right side of the pot, lid, and base. The darkest tone - like shadows of the feet - is phthalo blue and burnt sienna mixed to a near black to the cool side. I use underpainting white for the pattern areas at the top and bottom of the pot. I'm toning down all the areas filled in with white in step 2 by mixing small amounts of burnt sienna and blue into white, giving me a bluish-gray, off-white color.

Step 4. Now it's important to lay in precise colors in their proper locations to refine the shape of the urn and enable me to blend accurately. Blue is the predominate color reflection so I use white, umber, and I add extra blue for the spots on the lid, handle, and left side of the pot. Note that I'm blending most of these blue reflections subtly. For the red reflections, such as the long streak by the handle, I'm using straight burnt sienna left unblended for intensity. I use my phthalo blue and burnt sienna combination for the darkest portions of the urn, like those on the right side, on the lid, and for the shadows at the bottom. I use underpainting white exclusively for the etched pattern areas. After sitting on my palette for half an hour or so, this white becomes extra sticky and is even more suitable. I apply it by twirling a #2 watercolor brush where I want to represent the pattern, producing a raised brushstroke. Titanium white is used for the bright highlights such as those on the handle.

Like everything else, practice will make for more proficient renderings of silver. However, if you approach it with determination and knowledge you should have little problems mastering the subject. Next we will work through an exercise in painting candlelight! See ya then...