Every artist loves dappled light. So every artist who is worth their salt has at least one painting called “‘such and such’ in Dappled Light”.
Well here’s mine:
JoeWinklerArt.com
February 28, 2012
New Small Oil Painting
Finished another small oil painting recently. This one is 6x8 inches.
Every artist loves dappled light. So every artist who is worth their salt has at least one painting called “‘such and such’ in Dappled Light”.
Well here’s mine:
"Flamingo in Dappled Light"
JoeWinklerArt.com
Every artist loves dappled light. So every artist who is worth their salt has at least one painting called “‘such and such’ in Dappled Light”.
Well here’s mine:
JoeWinklerArt.com
February 20, 2012
Composition in Art - Suggested Read
There are loads of books out there on composition in painting (and photography too). All of them contain the same information, but present that information in different ways.
Of all the books I own that contain artistic composition chapters, the one called “Classical Painting Atelier” by Juliette Aristides, is one of my favorites.
Everyone knows what the “rule of thirds” is in pictorial composition, but in Ms. Aristides book, the idea is covered in much greater, and more interesting detail. She Explains and illustrates the “armature of the rectangle”, which is essentially a way to divide the picture plane and place subject matter in a way that will give you an effective, and pleasing composition.
Reading the book, you learn where this harmonic division of space originated, and you see various examples of how great artists have been using this armature for centuries to create their masterpieces (it goes all the way back to music and early Greek civilization folks). The Greeks rocked at artistic composition!
Division of a 10x14 picture plane with armature lines visible.
Circles indicate division of horizontal and vertical thirds.
The book also goes into detail on how that armature has been adapted to picture planes that are not typical rectangles - like altarpieces in a church, or decorative shields (works in tondo) for instance.
The cool thing is, you can take any of your favorite paintings from history, and apply the same divisional lines to them, and learn a bit of the compositional thought process and design decisions made by the artist. This is stuff that makes the viewing experience that much richer!
Ms. Aristides is a super oil painter, and her book is beautiful and informative!
When not working from life, I work from my own photographic source material. The composition chapter in “Classical Painting Atelier” struck me so hard that, shortly after reading it, I catalogued all of the various sizes of canvas and supports I own, then went into Photoshop and created the armature for each size, which I use during the planning stages of my painting process.
The armature of the rectangle applied to a 9x12 still life.
Now when I review reference photos I shoot, I can design and crop them properly, not only putting the center of interest where it should be, but manipulating the secondary parts as well, in a fun effort to come up with the best composition I can.
JoeWinklerArt.com
Of all the books I own that contain artistic composition chapters, the one called “Classical Painting Atelier” by Juliette Aristides, is one of my favorites.
Everyone knows what the “rule of thirds” is in pictorial composition, but in Ms. Aristides book, the idea is covered in much greater, and more interesting detail. She Explains and illustrates the “armature of the rectangle”, which is essentially a way to divide the picture plane and place subject matter in a way that will give you an effective, and pleasing composition.
Reading the book, you learn where this harmonic division of space originated, and you see various examples of how great artists have been using this armature for centuries to create their masterpieces (it goes all the way back to music and early Greek civilization folks). The Greeks rocked at artistic composition!
Circles indicate division of horizontal and vertical thirds.
The book also goes into detail on how that armature has been adapted to picture planes that are not typical rectangles - like altarpieces in a church, or decorative shields (works in tondo) for instance.
The cool thing is, you can take any of your favorite paintings from history, and apply the same divisional lines to them, and learn a bit of the compositional thought process and design decisions made by the artist. This is stuff that makes the viewing experience that much richer!
Ms. Aristides is a super oil painter, and her book is beautiful and informative!
When not working from life, I work from my own photographic source material. The composition chapter in “Classical Painting Atelier” struck me so hard that, shortly after reading it, I catalogued all of the various sizes of canvas and supports I own, then went into Photoshop and created the armature for each size, which I use during the planning stages of my painting process.
Now when I review reference photos I shoot, I can design and crop them properly, not only putting the center of interest where it should be, but manipulating the secondary parts as well, in a fun effort to come up with the best composition I can.
JoeWinklerArt.com
February 13, 2012
Say “Wine and Cheese”!
While my latest hood ornament oil painting patiently awaits me to finish it off, I have begun the block in stage on a new oil painting. It is a little 14x10 inch still life, that will be titled “Wine and Cheese”.
After tweaking the composition on the computer, and transferring the drawing down accurately, I then spray the pencil lines with Krylon fix so they won’t smudge. Next I coat the surface with acrylic matte medium, which goes on milky-white, but dries clear which allows me to do the block in stage seen below.
Tell you a secret though, I didn’t use oil paint at this stage. I used raw umber and black acrylic. That’s the only time I ever use acrylics, as quick under paintings. Sometimes I’ll do a color block in at this stage, but I envision a very muted and limited color scheme as the finish state of this piece.
This composition originated from many reference photos I shot at an office party a couple years ago.
WHAT?! You’re not allowed wine at your office gatherings? How unfortunate for you!
JoeWinklerArt.com
After tweaking the composition on the computer, and transferring the drawing down accurately, I then spray the pencil lines with Krylon fix so they won’t smudge. Next I coat the surface with acrylic matte medium, which goes on milky-white, but dries clear which allows me to do the block in stage seen below.
Tell you a secret though, I didn’t use oil paint at this stage. I used raw umber and black acrylic. That’s the only time I ever use acrylics, as quick under paintings. Sometimes I’ll do a color block in at this stage, but I envision a very muted and limited color scheme as the finish state of this piece.
This composition originated from many reference photos I shot at an office party a couple years ago.
WHAT?! You’re not allowed wine at your office gatherings? How unfortunate for you!
JoeWinklerArt.com
February 9, 2012
New Oil Painting, Nearly Finished
Here’s what the new oil painting looks like right now:
Either way, the complementary combination of blues and oranges seem to be popping fairly well.
A few of the middle values in parts of the hood ornament reflect the warmth of the sunset, while other planes reflect the coolness of the higher part of the sky, away from the horizon, (the apex you might even say).
Either way, the complementary combination of blues and oranges seem to be popping fairly well.
February 7, 2012
Two Quick Artistic Items
Item number 1:
In case you missed the story last week, the oldest known copy of da Vinci's Mona Lisa, was discovered at the Prado museum in Spain.
Done perhaps by a pupil of da Vinci, they think that the colors represent what da Vinci’s, looked like when it was freshly done during the Renaissance. Read the entire story by clicking here.
Item number 2:
As I continue to work on my new oil paintings for 2012, I wanted to just give a quick comment about one new art supply I purchased in the past year. It is the artist palette seal from a company called Masterson and it is GREAT.
This thing works fantastically well in keeping my oil paints from drying out. If you’re like me and your schedule does not allow you to oil paint everyday, I highly recommend you buy one of these.
I’m getting more and more into the habit of premixing values and colors. A couple weeks ago I mixed a new palette of colors on a Friday night. Painted with that same palette, the next day, the following Wednesday, the following Saturday and the following Sunday. Each time placing my palette back in the palette seal at the end of the session.
JoeWinklerArt.com
In case you missed the story last week, the oldest known copy of da Vinci's Mona Lisa, was discovered at the Prado museum in Spain.
Item number 2:
As I continue to work on my new oil paintings for 2012, I wanted to just give a quick comment about one new art supply I purchased in the past year. It is the artist palette seal from a company called Masterson and it is GREAT.
This thing works fantastically well in keeping my oil paints from drying out. If you’re like me and your schedule does not allow you to oil paint everyday, I highly recommend you buy one of these.
I’m getting more and more into the habit of premixing values and colors. A couple weeks ago I mixed a new palette of colors on a Friday night. Painted with that same palette, the next day, the following Wednesday, the following Saturday and the following Sunday. Each time placing my palette back in the palette seal at the end of the session.
JoeWinklerArt.com
February 2, 2012
New Oil Painting, Next Steps - Values and Other Decisions
After working up the background a bit more, I have now begun to further develop the hood ornament itself.
I shot several source photos of this hood ornament at a car show two years ago, all of which I am able to use, despite the fact that each of them are under different lighting conditions. When I shot the reference photos for this, I kept wondering around to different cars, but kept returning to this same car as the sun was going deeper and deeper into the horizon. So my reference shots are a range of cool, overcast light, to sun breaking through the clouds, to full scale silhouetted subject at dusk.
I could have made this simply a silhouette composition with all the emphasis on a dramatic sky, but I didn’t go that way because I wanted to play up the interesting interior shapes of the hood ornament itself.
So the most important things to decide on for next time are the value to use for the darkest shadows, and, the color that will be reflected in the middle tones. There are little to no highlights, but the one or two that are there, will be placed last.
Basically I could, at the next stage, go with a variation of cool colors in the middle tones and make this thing look really metallic (which it is), but that would be totally unrealistic for such a back-lit subject with such a warm sky. I noticed that in one of my last reference shots for this, there’s an awful lot of warmth in the middle tones, so I think I’ll go that direction and see if it works.
Let you know next time!
JoeWinklerArt.com
I shot several source photos of this hood ornament at a car show two years ago, all of which I am able to use, despite the fact that each of them are under different lighting conditions. When I shot the reference photos for this, I kept wondering around to different cars, but kept returning to this same car as the sun was going deeper and deeper into the horizon. So my reference shots are a range of cool, overcast light, to sun breaking through the clouds, to full scale silhouetted subject at dusk.
I could have made this simply a silhouette composition with all the emphasis on a dramatic sky, but I didn’t go that way because I wanted to play up the interesting interior shapes of the hood ornament itself.
So the most important things to decide on for next time are the value to use for the darkest shadows, and, the color that will be reflected in the middle tones. There are little to no highlights, but the one or two that are there, will be placed last.
Basically I could, at the next stage, go with a variation of cool colors in the middle tones and make this thing look really metallic (which it is), but that would be totally unrealistic for such a back-lit subject with such a warm sky. I noticed that in one of my last reference shots for this, there’s an awful lot of warmth in the middle tones, so I think I’ll go that direction and see if it works.
Let you know next time!
JoeWinklerArt.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)