Enamel Coffeepot 15" × 22"

Chapter Sixteen
GLASS AND METAL

You may not have thought of these smooth, shiny objects as having textures at all, but they do—smooth, shiny ones. They're a real challenge to capture in most cases, because you're not only concerned with local color but with reflections and, in the case of glass, transparency. What you can see through the glass affects the color/texture as much as the local color itself. Highly textured glasses—cut or molded glass—pose an additional challenge, as the facets catch and hold the light, then return it to the eye.

Really, it's a matter of simple observation. Look at what you see and the logic involved. It's not necessary to paint a “portrait” of a specific decanter or teapot (unless you're a photorealist). You can simplify what you see by mapping, as you did for the glossy fur a few chapters back. Notice how the light breaks along a facet and what reflects there. See what it is that is near that silver coffeepot or copper skillet that will affect not only reflections but color.

Glass is a combination of transparency and reflection; shiny metal is all local color and reflection. Both tend to have a broad variance in value patterns. Very, very light tints will be juxtaposed directly beside the darkest darks, and often there's only a mid-value or two between these two extremes. (That's what gives the shiny sparkle: light-lights and dark-darks without a lot of mud in between.)

When you're painting shiny metal, local color becomes extremely important. Copper, bronze and brass all have color of their own, while silver is almost completely reflective and pale in the extreme. Notice the variety of colors that went into the copper pot, and the white of the paper that says shine. (If I'd been painting silver, only the reflections and a bit of luminous gray would have to tell the story.)

Duller, tarnished or highly textured metals, on the other hand, have a very close value range. Not a lot of deep darks or sparkly whites here. Look for ways (drybrush, spatter, spongework) to express the texture that hard use has given these objects.