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Thursday, February 25, 2010

"...in my opinion you produced a masterpiece of painting. Smooth, elegant, varying the values of color, in a beautiful dreamy image composition that draws our attention. I advise that you publish this painting in the gallery so that it will be best appreciated by all. Congratulations..." Wow! Thanks!

It might be of interest to see how this image came about. As covered in 'Real Art Real Easy', this is an example of how to use the artistic concept from a painting by another artist to create an original work of your own. This is very different from copying the other artist's painting itself. You must analyze the picture, identify the visual idea, apply it to your own reference material and create a completely new work.

Here is the painting by Russian artist Bato Dugarzhapov...do a google search to see more of his work. You may agree with me that he is one of the best, a modern master.

What is Bato's 'artistic concept'? The most obvious element is probably the color/value scheme. He has limited himself to a high key, purple-gray monochromatic scheme which creates a wonderful mood. He has also eliminated all details which adds to the dreamy quality. These are concepts that he imposed on the natural scene to communicate the feeling he experienced as simply and directly as possible. Remember, the artist's task is not to 'report' what he saw, but to 'show' what he felt. This painting would be very different if he had used a full range of color and value.

Here is a scene I saw on our recent trip. It was at the beach in Santa Barbara, California. A young girl laughs as she tosses food into the air for the seagulls that hover over her in a light breeze. The feeling was joy, happiness, fun, carefree. It was all gray tones. I colorized it in Paintshop to reinforce the feeling I was after. Not so blue and somber as Bato's purple-gray. More of a lilac color, light and happy.

I thought the new ArtRage Pro real media program would be a fun way to make this image. I made a square format to work on, selected the color and the 'Tube' tool. I squirted out lots of paint and then spread it around with the palette knife tool. Composing intuitively with no preliminary sketches and working wet into wet I placed the figure first. Then the seagulls where added where they felt right. You can see I used three of the four in the picture, repositioning them in a more pleasing way and inventing a wing for one bird. Without planning it I've ended up with a radial structure that serves quite well. Glare from the sun was added with almost white paint.

Give this method a try and you'll be surprised at the results!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

I will post the acrylic and watercolor paintings made on the trip in the next few days. Here is something done today in Artrage. A scene inspired by the Santa Barbara beach.

Feeding Gulls
8x8" to 16x16" prints
Digital Oil

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