Just a Tad

Back in My Brain

I took the painting class to paint from life but, after seeing that Calvin and Hobbes piece, I wanted to try something similar. I started drawing a couple my characters with the intention of painting them more realistically lit. Just studies in prep for a later painting. But as I drew them into my watercolor paper sketchbook, I shrank one and placed it farther back so I could add a background instead of a random color. I should have literally collected photo reference, especially for lighting and the bush.

I wanted Slag in the dark to play with some glowing elements. It wasn’t until I added reflected light that it really felt like a cave instead of just a rocky frame. I took a break and came back to it the next day. I knew that adding a strong light on Rocket would place him in the scene so I scanned what I had so I could plan it in Photoshop. I took it too far though.

The great movie director, Alfred Hitchcock, said that a movie felt finished once the storyboards were done, “The rest is just moving the meat around.” I’m sure he was nicer to his actors than that but the point is that you don’t want to disperse your creative energy before finishing the actual painting.

I experimented with some pastel pencils which gave some nice texture to Slag, pushed the far rocks into the distance and lightened the sky. My favorite stuff in the painting is the rock work over Rocket’s head. It was both intentional and filled with happy accidents. I really should have increased the amount of light coming from the upper right but there was plenty of paint on the page already. I decided to  call it done, if not finished and move on.

I consider the next one more successful in that more of my intentions  made it to the page. I still didn’t plan out the composition and perspective. The tree to the right looks mature but it’s only steps away. It should be much larger or painted as a sapling. If you’re not working from a photo or from life, that sort of preplanning is invaluable. Even in plein air works, a thumbnail sketch helps figure out composition and light values. I am so damn smart after the fact.

I wanted to paint a backlit forest so there’s a lot of experimentation with that. But I also wanted to try to sell light coming through his leaf hand. It kind of works but what destroys the illusion is the lack of a bright light source, out of frame and to the left. To fix that I would need to brighten all the colors on the left side of the little onion boy. You can see a suggestion of the light source by the shadow of the tree but the sun can’t be shining from behind the kid AND from the left. I was in a “leave well enough alone” mood and so I did.

The idea of doing another floral still life doesn’t excite me, but I can always pull this guy out again to add some fun.                                -- Tad

 

(The images in the blog seem much duller than usual. Click on them to see a larger, brighter image)

Overcoming Fear/I Was Right to be Scared

I posted all my class paintings on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, good or bad. It was forcing me out of my comfort zone because, eventually, I should be painting out in public. But now we're under a Stay the F**k Home order at least til the end of the month and I can use all the comfort I can get. So I'm just posting my new painting here and it's not even done. And I'm not going to finish it. Sigh. First, let's look at it.

The smaller this is, the better it looks. You'll note I didn't do a regular scan I'm a coward. HEY! I'm 67! I'm at greater risk for that whole virus thing.

All right, here's what happened. It was time to start a painting. I finished my class and needed to see what I learned. But I had trouble facing the page. I looked through old vacation photos. There were lots of great photographs but not great for painting. Either the format was vertical or the lighting was even. I thought that I might take one and change the lighting in the painting.

I set up, knowing I was being silly and started throwing paint down and soon realized I was ignoring everything I  had learned in class about starting a painting. My first thought was to make it a predawn scene with everything in the foreground cool blues with a pink sky suggesting a sun rising behind those hills. But that set me adrift because I had no reference for what the colors should be. So I switched back to copying the photo.

I stopped midway and put it aside for a day. The painting looked better in dim light and across the room. I decided I just had to go in and beat into submission a section at a time. It was wrong to try a detailed scene at a size much smaller than my class paintings. As far as color mixing, I could not get to the color of the beach. And the water? I had done at least two class painting with water but this eluded me. Frankly, my frustration and impatience got in my way. If I calmed down and did the proper analysis, I could fix this, or at least get it closer.

And that's when I said, "Screw it." What am I trying to prove? This painting stuff should be fun, not a punishment. I learned that I had to approach a painting in an organized way. I must pick a subject that fits the size I'm working in or vice versa. Ideally, something I'm excited about whether it's the play of light on the subject or the contrast of colors or the subject matter.

That brings me to the question, "What the hell should I paint next?" We're allowed to go out on walks as long as "social distancing" is used. That means I could walk into the nearby hills and set up my tripod. But I'm facing overcast skies and intermittent rain. So I'm thinking that I might return to what I was trying to get away from. Painting from my head. Like the Calvin and Hobbes painting in the last post. Find real world reference and put my characters in it. I can start by doing studies of the characters in the sketchbook which is the perfect size for that.

We'll see.

                                                                                                                      -- Tad

Finished! Time to Start!

This is the last painting from the online course by Lena Rivo. It is not as impressionistic as her stuff, nor is it as realistic as a James Gurney piece, whose stuff I love. What Rivo teaches is how to sell the illusion of light. I think I succeeded in that. I'd feel fantastic about this if these were mostly my first color choices. They aren't. There are a lot of false starts under those layers of paint. Originally, the water was much too dark. It was obviously wrong. It should have been obvious after laying down the first strokes, but at least I realized it in time to change it. But before I did, I took a picture. Here it is, several step earlier.

Give it a click to see it bigger, along with the reference photograph. Squint so you're seeing the basic values instead of the color. The blue is darker than the parts of the wall in shadow. In the photo, the reverse is true. As soon as I made the change, I was back on course. The last bits added to the painting were the "white" highlights. That's in quotes because even those aren't actually white. There's a slight bit of cadmium yellow in them.

That's part of the illusion, to add the little touches to a painting to sell that the boy is a dimensional figure sitting in light. That the bright light reflects off his shorts and colors the back of his arm. That the shadows tend to be cool because, when out of the sun, they are reflecting the blue of the sky.

Anyway, it was a relief to finish. There were two more paintings I could do, "Bonus Module." Videos of the teacher painting in real time but with no narration or instruction. I'm sure I'll watch them sooner or later but I feel the need to try a painting without all the hand holding. If get a little lost, I'll go back and review the lessons on Color Mixing and Values. I'll definitely be reviewing those whether things go well or not.

I feel like this will be a huge step, but really, I a few paintings before I took the course. In fact, they're not that far back in the blog. So I am optimistic that I will improve on those. For instance, the backpack of this painting is more detailed than what was shown in the course. "Detailed" isn't automatically better but it's closer to what I want to achieve and the backpack shows that I was thinking about that. But let's say It goes great. What then?

Farther back in the blog you'll find posts of my science fiction idea that I thought I'd turn into a comic book, then graphic novel, then half prose/half comic, then maybe just a heavily illustrated novel. I was thinking I could paint some vignettes of those characters in action situations. Maybe put them in locales that I paint from life with alien modifications. That feels like it could be fun to work on. What made that idea absolutely exciting is this painting by Gabriel Soares! https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0XG0Xe

Yes, the log is not as detailed as the backpack but look at the illusion of light! I love impressionistic work so who knows where I'll end up? Way excited to move on!                                                                                            --Tad