I signed up for another self-taught Schoolism class, Painting with Light and Color with Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo, and man, it’s kicking my butt! The 1st week covers painting still lives under neutral diffused lighting, which is overcast or cloudy weather. Seattle winters are perfect for this type of lighting scenario, but funnily enough, 2 of my still lives were taken from New Jersey in my parents’ backyard (the pumpkin and bag). 

The problem is not in the reference gathering, but in the painting. My lack of digital painting expertise caused me to simplify my still life setups. It’s a humongous change of mental gears for me, going from animating to lighting/rendering in Photoshop. My brain is exploding a bit. Hopefully, like most things, it’ll come more easily with practice.