Class Demo -- Painting Paints

Today's lesson:
Painting is about simplifying what you are looking at.  Simply said, it is however one of the most difficult skills for students to realize and a crucial part of learning how to "see" as a painter.  With this demonstration, my main objective was to show the student how to block-in a drawing without using contour lines, and instead, using large broad brushstrokes to form blocks of shapes existing by way of color and value.  This approach to drawing will help you simplify.

I first grouped the three tubes of paint and painted them as one large shape, much like a silhouette (I included the cast shadow as part of the silhouette).  After blocking-in my shape, I then treated the background as a shape and blocked it in.  I now have two shapes--the shape of the paint tubes vs. the shape of the background.  I then proceeded to paint the smaller shape of the cast shadow within the larger paint tubes shape... now I have three shapes.

Next, I continued to brake-down the paint tubes shape into three individual shapes, then, blocked-in the smaller shapes within.  I identified these shapes within as being: shapes of color, shapes of blacks, and shapes of whites.  I now continue on this path of creating smaller shapes within larger ones, where needed.  But before I do, I will step back from my canvas and investigate how I am to go about orchestrating my shapes.  Meaning, now that I can objectively see my shapes in a more simplified manner, I can now better plan out which shapes I want to emphasize and which shapes I choose to understate.  I can do this by making certain shapes more or less colorful, darker or lighter in value, or softer or harder edge intensity.  I can also make objects recede by introducing more of the background color and value into that object.

 Keep in mind that you want a certain amount of mystery to what you are painting.  Meaning, you don't want to have to spell out every detail, only those which you find the need to do so... leaving other details to the viewer's imagination.  Implying detail, is another way of saying it.  I target and go after those features or characteristics which describe or capture the essence of whatever it is I'm painting... much like a caricaturist–or, reference Rembrandt's sketches and you'll see what I mean.

March 15th—Painting Demo of Nick Georgiou

This exercise focuses on the beginning stages of a painting and what factors need to be analyzed when developing one's own process.  An artist will want to create a strong beginning, or foundation, in regard to his or her philosophies in order to set themselves up for a successful journey.  Having a strong idea of one's own approach, intent, mood, technique, and other considerations must be made well before ever picking up a brush.  It is not enough to set out and just make a pretty image or render something realistically.  What is key, and what makes it art, is infusing your subject with emotional content, your skew on the world, your unique perspective on how you see... this is what makes art profound and this is how an artist connects with other human beings.  

With this in mind, it is important that the artist connects with their process and establishes some kind of clear internal language or dialog.  Becoming familiar with one's voice and developing it, is the core foundation of art in general.  If a student adopts these concerns, then he/she will no longer hinge their expectations on the ultimate result... rather, the process of discovery is what becomes of importance.  Many times a student will tell me, "I want to know how to do it the right way... what I'm doing is wrong.".  In response, I would have to say that there really isn't a "wrong" or a "right" way to create art.  However, I do strongly believe that if you are not being honest with what you are doing, not following your true intentions, not objectively seeing what you are looking at, and not being true to your inner artistic voice and not following your instincts... then I would have to admit that there is a "wrong" way to what it is your doing.  Point made, when it comes to technique... it is entirely up to you.  There's no wrong way to create your own language.  Perhaps what is wrong, is that technique has trumped your concerns when intent and idea should be the main focus.  

Here are a few things you'll want to investigate when developing a process for yourself:

• Sketching-in the drawing: 

            Think about... rather feel... how you like to make your marks.  Do you like to make swooping lines or shaky lines?  Or, maybe you choose to make no lines at all, and instead, you prefer to block-in shapes with a large brush.  Or, do you like to use a small brush?  Do you like to use poignant color for your underpainting?  Do you need an underpainting?  Do you like to start with a washy sketch then followup your lines with bolder darker strokes, or do you like to establish a tight drawing from the get-go?  Do you choose to use pencil, charcoal or paint?  Establish a basis of questioning that you would like to find the answers to. 

• Blocking in your shapes:

             Look at your shapes as being abstract.  No matter if you're painting a portrait, landscape or still life, you will want to pay attention to how transparent or opaque you like to apply your paint in this sketchy blocking-in phase.  Reduce and simplify not only the dark shapes, but also the shapes made by the lights.  You will find negative as well as positive shapes.  You can then design your shapes accordingly... along with designing colors and values.    

Other tips:

• Simplify what you are looking at and reduce it to three elements... then two, then one.  This applies to value, shapes, depth, color, etc.  

• Don't forget to be expressive and tell the story of how you see what it is you are looking at.  Feel what you are doing.  Maybe this story is just told to yourself and no one else, but there needs to be some kind of "idea" or direction to what you have in mind or what you want to accomplish. 

• Forget about the end product.  It is not important.  Act as though you are discovering new things you've never discovered before. 

• Be expressive.

• Tap in to your child self.  Paint from your gut and with your instincts.  Think of physical ways to help you do this.  You may want to hold your paintbrush, not like a pencil, at the end and grip it with your hand.  Paint using your arm and not your wrist or fingers.  

• Step back and distance yourself from your painting as often as possible.  You'll want to do this to get an idea of the painting as a whole, looking at it from an overall standpoint. 

• Experiment with color, line work, opening yourself up to discovery—especially at the beginning stages. 

Artist of the week—Marie Louise Motesiczky, oil 1937

Here's a good example of how painting instinctually and with a strong foundation can yield masterful results.  You can see everything talked about in my previous post, all in this one little painting.  It's that easy!