Emily-Rose Alcock Art

When I first started out as an artist, I thought glass was really difficult. But truth be told once the process is simplified it’s actually easy. The structure is really just made up of different shades of highlights and shadows that surround the background colour.

I first took my reference photo by placing the glass inside a cardboard box. This is because I wanted the light to bounce off the glass and back off the back of the box to really cast a dark shadow and brighten the highlights. Contrast is really important for depth.

I applied a whisky coloured oil paint thinned down with refined linseed oil first. I then painted in the outline of my glass and all of the shadows.

If you look at a lot of Alla Prima (wet on wet) paintings, you’ll notice the shadows often blend one into the next. The shadows painted over the brighter under layer give depth, because some of the under painting shines through.

My shadows were all mainly warm, except the small amount of black I added to darken some.

I then began to add the highlights, some cool and some warm.

I pulled the highlights through into the background to represent how the light was bouncing off the glass and onto the back wall.