My daughter has been asking me to paint with her. I finally made some time for painting over the New Year’s holiday. We set up a still life of objects we found from around the house. We put an ordinary desk lamp above it for lighting. Here is a photo of the items we found.

My daughter is working with acrylic paints and I have been using watercolors.

First, I suggested we make sketches as a warmup activity. Here is my sketch.

Then I painted a first draft painting. Here is my first draft.

I did two more iterations of the same still life arrangement. Each time I zoomed in the focus of my attention a little more. Here is my second painting

‘See how my strokes are bolder and more confident this time? I left out some of the details.

Finally, here is my third painting. I was interrupted in the middle of making this one. It is a lot more free than the first two.

Today’s Daily Create calls for making a composition using the Rule of Thirds. I typically have this rule in the back of my mind whenever I am making drawings or photographs although it varies on how closely I adhere to it.

Out of the three paintings, I think still life number two most closely follows the rule of thirds.