Big Magic: Elizabeth Gilbert on Creative Courage and the Art of Living in a State of Uninterrupted Marvel
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/09/23/big-magic-elizabeth-gilbert/
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Thursday, November 30, 2017
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
A Study In Edges
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A Study In Edges
// Artist Daily
Where Lines and Strokes Matter
Maybe you'll know the feeling I'm describing. The feeling when you are painting and you keep thinking, "What am I doing?" followed by the internal response to "keep going." Again and again it happens until that moment when you see your lines and strokes and colors turn into something? Then it turns into magic. Edges are like that too.
I hardly pay attention to edges as I create them. I see the lines and strokes I put down, but not the edges they result in. Not until they become part of what I'm painting and then, edges become a big part of the magic.
Daniel Gerhartz is a prize-winning artist and workshop instructor, and he has brought us some great info on squinting, and today he's coming to us with a lesson on the magic edges. Enjoy!
It Can Be About Edges
Often as I survey a model's appearance, I look for the one key visual aspect that initially catches my eye and make it the focus of my study. This can be an elusive, fleeting quality of light that lasts only moments or a lyrical rhythm of line.
In essence, all these characteristics are variations of line, harmony, tone, color, or edge. In Mr. Johnson, my focus was a study in edges as I strove to convey the power of the form and drama of the subject.
Find the Relationship
The key to painting edges accurately is to truthfully observe how they look in proper relation to each other and then paint that relationship. Before I set my brush to the canvas, I find it very important to take an assessment of the subject in terms of the extremes in value, color, and edges, and organize my thinking around these from the outset.
In this case, as edges were my focus, I squinted down at Mr. Johnson, and made a mental note of the hardest visible edges. These are circled in red.
Squint to See Hard and Soft
Why do I squint? If I don't, everything appears to have a sameness of edge. By gently closing my eyes about half way, the forms are simplified and the variety between hard and soft edges becomes more visibly evident.
You will notice in the circled areas that the edge quality is razor sharp in some spots. This is how they looked when I was squinting down! It is so important to paint these areas just as they appear: razor sharp!
See the difference between the sharp edge circled between his eyes and the edges of his brow line as the eye sockets rounded up into the forehead or the hard edge of the hat visor compared to the softer edges on the cast shadow on the forehead from the hat.
Neck Meet Chin
Another area of great edge contrast is on the area of the neck beneath the chin. Notice the extremely sharp edge between the neck and shirt compared to the softer edges of the cast shadow of the chin on the neck.
Also, an area that I often see painted too hard by students is the edge quality of the transition between the top plane and the bottom plane of the nose. Observe the very soft quality of this turning form.
Broad Brush
Early in my development, I admired many of the "broad brush" painters whose works I studied. I was seduced by the bold sweeping strokes they made as they rendered a head or figure.
But those "beauty strokes," as my friend Scott Christensen so aptly calls them, should not destroy the form or take away from the sensitivity with which you paint the subject. What I failed to notice was the painstaking attention to the accurate rendering of the form that was always beneath the bold surface quality of these artists.
Look for Sharpest
So the next time you have a subject before you, carefully assess the subject, squint down and let the sharpest edges emerge. When beginning a work, establish the sharpest edges as early as you can in the painting so that you can use them to compare against. This is critical!
As you progress, hold onto the sharpest edges as reference points and notice the how all of the other edge transitions relate to them in descending order. It is this great contrast that will give your work new dimension!
For more of an edge education, sign up for Paint Along: Landscape Painting, All About Edges. You'll find out how to capture a vast and lovely landscape on a two-dimensional surface with the correct manipulation of edges — and in this online workshop, master professional landscape artist, Johannes Vloothuis, will give you the keys to achieve this, and will reveal many other valuable landscape painting tips along the way. Enjoy!
The post A Study In Edges appeared first on ArtistDaily.
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hideback: Joan Miró (Catalan Spanish, 1893 – 1983) The...
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hideback: Joan Miró (Catalan Spanish, 1893 – 1983) The...
// The Curve in the Line
Joan Miró (Catalan Spanish, 1893 – 1983)
The Harlequin's Carnival, 1925
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Saehan Park’s uses curved lines and subtle colours for her characterful illustrations
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Saehan Park's uses curved lines and subtle colours for her characterful illustrations
// It's Nice That
Originally from South Korea and now based in France, Saehan Park graduated from Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR) in Strasbourg with a degree in illustration earlier this year. Her images are made up of fine linework and embrace blank spaces, as well as elements of humour which stem from the expressions of her characters. "Graphically it's very light, it might seem unfinished but it's okay for me," says Saehan. "I like to draw things without pretending that something big is happening."
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Learning from Lautrec – the Physicality of Drawing
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Learning from Lautrec – the Physicality of Drawing
// |
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Two kinds of practice
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Two kinds of practice
// Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect
The first is quite common. Learn to play the notes as written. Move asymptotically toward perfection. Practice your technique and your process to get yourself ever more skilled at doing it (whatever 'it' is) to spec. This is the practice of grand slalom, of arithmetic, of learning your lines or c++.
The other kind of practice is more valuable but far more rare. This is the practice of failure. Of trying on one point of view after another until you find one that works. Of creating original work that doesn't succeed until it does. Of writing, oration and higher-level math in search of an elusive outcome, even a truth, one that might not even be there.
We become original through practice.
We've seduced ourselves into believing that this sort of breakthrough springs fully formed, as Athena did from Zeus' head. Alas, that's a myth. What always happens (as you can discover by looking at the early work of anyone you admire), is that she practiced her way into it.
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Mind-Blowing Ultra Realistic Drawings
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Mind-Blowing Ultra Realistic Drawings
// Fubiz
Italian artist Alessandro Paglia takes his time and his felt-tipped intense black pens to create larger than life artworks. Inspired by photography, fascinated by shadows and reflection, he photoshoots every subject in his studio until he gets the perfect picture in terms of composition, contrasts, lights and shadows. Then, comes the technical part, reproducing it with black ink on rough grain cotton paper. Each artwork can require from up to 50 to 250 hours of work… Talk about patience. This pointillism technic is so fine that is hard to tell the difference between the picture and the drawing. A wonderful and impressive work.
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