| Often when I'm teaching a workshop, setting up for a still life demo, my students will say, "Tell us what you're thinking!" But at this point (and always when I'm setting up a composition) I'm simply playing with my subjects, moving them around, looking (through my viewfinder) for fun things to happen with the light and the arrangement. When I see something good, I then look around for problems - there are usually several. I try to solve the problems (usually just awkward moments) without losing the cool thing. If I can't, I go back to playing. I never stick with any collection of items for very long - I'll swap things out or switch to a different set altogether every few minutes. When I can find a cool thing AND fix all the problems, I paint it. Sometimes this takes 5 minutes (oh heavenly day!) but mostly it takes longer - anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for these little 6x6 compositions. On a tough day it can be longer.
-Carol |
