Notes to self as I redo the washbasin. I think I might start pouring the thoughts that come to me as I paint here so as to both organize my thoughts and keep them for later, since doing them on the painting is confusing.
Well, I have clearly relearned now that for an object both matte and reflective you DO have to do the whole object with the whole matte shading first before you add any reflections whatsoever because then you'd have to work around the reflections to get the full values which is so stupid I can't believe I was doing it.
I am spending a long time on this but I man, I feel my brain finally coming back to actually being present during my painting process. Hopefully I can continue to make sense of these things.
Also, I must remember when I do the matte layer of the object I still have to add the soft reflected light bouncing on it as it would on a completely matte object, which is modifying the value and color of the surface, even before the reflective "coat" layer is applied. I must think of it as if the reflective layer is a superficial coat of polished and smooth particles but that not being dense (molecules far apart microscopically) in plastic let's you see into the matte and diffuse (still overall roughened) object that underlies it. This would be in contrast with metallic objects that appear to be inherently reflective probably because metal is microscopically so dense that when you polish it you can't see past the mirrored coat.
Finally I noticed nicely a thing I remember being explained in lesson 5 which is the rim of the basic on the "shadow side" still catching a bit of the light coming from the portion of the window that is further up. Otherwise it is blocked but still manages to be a bit lit up, which is cool. I love comparing the relative sizes and shapes of area sources with the kind of effects they produce. Like a slim but vertically very stretched light source will produce an almost normal shadow side to side but soften it front to back.
Anyways here's the painto, still in progress.
Also, I really have to find a way to have the ipad at my eye level. It is so uncomfortable to draw bent over it that I can't do it more than 45 minutes at a time.
