Sometimes the universe just knows, right? It seemed very much that way last week at the easel. The lesson in my classes focused on thinking outside the box -- specifically, the box of a reference photo and all its limitations.
I work from photos. Pet portraits would be, uh, challenging to paint with a live model. I also never know when or how long I'll get to paint. Photos are the foundation of my work.
But they are not everything. Cameras, as best they try, just don't work the same way the human eye does. In the hands of the average person, they overexpose and over focus. They grab everything in a frantic, shutter-quick attempt to commit it all to pixels. It's up to the artist to translate and distill what's in a photo into a piece of artwork.
Here's how timely and apropos this lesson was. I've been working on an architectural rendering, really tight work, so I decided to try out a landscape scene based on a photo I took earlier this month. My goal was a loose, open study. Easy. None of which is my usual style. But it was worth a try to give my eyes and hands a much-needed break.
My iPad agreed. I know this because the battery was down to 5 or 6%. Of course it was. I had exactly enough juice to quickly sketch a few trees and shadows, plus the indication of a gently sloping path. I managed to find the same photo on my phone, but that little screen really isn't great when you're trying to preserve your vision. My technology was telling me that I was on my own.
And that was exactly where I needed to be. The reference photo is only that: a reference. I couldn't copy the photo so I had to simplify the composition, choose my palette independently and paint freely. In other words, I had to create.
It was a great exercise, and a hugely successful painting session. Here are some progress shots:
I work from photos. Pet portraits would be, uh, challenging to paint with a live model. I also never know when or how long I'll get to paint. Photos are the foundation of my work.
But they are not everything. Cameras, as best they try, just don't work the same way the human eye does. In the hands of the average person, they overexpose and over focus. They grab everything in a frantic, shutter-quick attempt to commit it all to pixels. It's up to the artist to translate and distill what's in a photo into a piece of artwork.
Here's how timely and apropos this lesson was. I've been working on an architectural rendering, really tight work, so I decided to try out a landscape scene based on a photo I took earlier this month. My goal was a loose, open study. Easy. None of which is my usual style. But it was worth a try to give my eyes and hands a much-needed break.
My iPad agreed. I know this because the battery was down to 5 or 6%. Of course it was. I had exactly enough juice to quickly sketch a few trees and shadows, plus the indication of a gently sloping path. I managed to find the same photo on my phone, but that little screen really isn't great when you're trying to preserve your vision. My technology was telling me that I was on my own.
And that was exactly where I needed to be. The reference photo is only that: a reference. I couldn't copy the photo so I had to simplify the composition, choose my palette independently and paint freely. In other words, I had to create.
It was a great exercise, and a hugely successful painting session. Here are some progress shots: