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Painting
Part 1 will be a short lesson that gets us into the subject with some visual examples.
Part 2 will feature a full painting demostration where I will show you how to apply the episode's lesson
to your work.
and Part 3 will be a final wrap-up of the episode with some closing thoughts.
Richard Schmid said once that painters don't see more information than other people do.
You know that old painting maxim that advises you to simplify?
They contain such a strong statement of light and character and mood and composition.
And yet the medium is so primitive: It's just a bunch of chicken scratch lines on paper.
Now, Zorn was a master of simplification and merging shapes.
And that's exactly the tool he used to get such a high degree of quality here.
And these objects will be lit by light, which means they also cast shadow.
I mean it looks computer-generated and boring; it certainly doesn't look like light.
But why? Let's count the number of shapes in it: there's one two three four five six seven eight nine.
I'll start by duplicating the painting; now watch as it slowly fades into a simplified version.
I've given up the silhouette of every one of those little objects in favor of a larger silhouette.
which I'm showing you in black and white for the purposes of this lesson.
And I'd like you to appreciate for a moment how much information Cornwell has opted to lose
What that subliminally confers to the viewer is [that] this area is not important.
Rather, look up to where the guy's face is because that's where all the juicy mood and character lies.
And even when we look at the face, sure there is more information here
The lower two-thirds of the head, as well as the neck and the shirt are merged into one shape.
I think a lot of people would say that there's a lot of detail here
we can see it's actually a carefully manicured path of dark and light shapes merged together that lead us
through the picture.
I feel like everything this red line touches is an unbroken shape of dark
For example, this large shape made up of the women's veils and faces.
So Richard Schmidt is right: through merged shapes a painter does see less than what's actually there.
But what he didn't say was that painting less is actually harder
that is to express something not by being literal about it, but instead to reduce it to an essential design.
This is the finished painting. I'll be demoing for you in just a second.
water, reflections, buildings, figures, atmospheric perspective -- the whole nine yards.
If our little example in a moment ago had nine shapes
Imagine how many thousands of shapes you'll have to deal with in a picture like this.
As I build this painting, pay specific attention to areas of shadow and areas of light
So right away, I want to point out that I actually designed my pictures with shape merging in mind.
Even though I know there's going to be boats and figures and houses
I first want to block in overall areas of light and shadow as you see me doing right now.
I know that in these big areas of light and shadow that is where I will play with merging my shapes.
And I'm a firm believer that even the most realistic rendered painting is still an abstract piece of art first
because the painter always has to deal with these shapes that are divorced from reality,
I want to imply that stuff and I want you to be part of that experience
through means of merging these shapes and arriving at kind of an abstract design.
I think it's really helpful to work underneath texture, at least for me.
It helps me escape that literal mindset and get into the abstract design mindset.
And that's where you want to be especially if you're painting out of imagination like I am here.
So right now you can see the boats coming into the foreground
where the boat meets the reflection in the water -- those shapes are lost ; they're merged together.
Even the boats themselves are kind of merging into the houses.
If you look at that boat about a third up from the bottom
I don't need to show you where the tip of every boat is for you to understand it.
When you're walking around the street, you aren't seeing everything.
If I were to show you every literal shape that actually would exist in this picture
whereas if I'm doing it like I am here with merging shapes and try to mimic
in order to gain something else, which is the feeling that is going to allow this picture to resonate with
viewers.
Now, this is where painting gets very creative because I'm the one who gets to choose
Even if you work traditionally, you can scan your stuff, bring it into Photoshop, and check it out.
I like how the posts are merging into the water, merging into the boats, which are merging into the
houses.
There's even an indication of figures there, kind of ghosting in and out of lights and darks.
Now, you do want to choose the key areas where your silhouette is very clear.
Look at the third boat up from the bottom, this area here.
You notice that that boat is silhouetting over the light shape.
So that is a very clear area of silhouette where there is absolutely no shape merging going on.
And then it gives context to all the other stuff that's lost and merged
So I'm halfway through the painting here which by the way took me about an hour and a half of real
time to do.
And the thing I love about this idea of merging shapes and coming up with big areas of light and dark
is that it gives you a structure that you can depend upon for the entirety of the painting process
You know I don't feel like I'm guessing now as I'm working on this
And that leads to conviction and confidence that anything I do within that structure is also likely to
work.
You know, I think the real hard part of the painting is actually at the beginning
when you're first making these big decisions that are going to dictate the rest of the process.
but at the same time if you fail to make those big decisions early on
you will certainly run into the problem of so many shapes creeping into your painting
none of them seeming to have any purpose behind them and you'll go back and forth and back and
forth.
because I know that so long as I adhere to the structure I set out for myself
I'm likely to have a successful picture by the end and because merging shapes means you paint fewer
shapes
you can actually get a piece of work like this done quite quickly
yet you only have the capacity to satisfy three of the children.
Well you...
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