Quite similar to the loose style that I got quite a few emails about, painting fast is not a style nor a skill. We live in such a hurry today, and quite often we want things fast: Email over a hand written letter, people read the headline and come to conclusion instead of study deeper, we stream videos online instead of physically go to a Blockbuster and pick up a movie. Granted, many of these changes are for the better, we are able free up more time for things are more important. But many people in this generation started to weight speed more than quality.
Read MoreBehind the painting - Beuna Vista Street
Welcome to another Behind the Painting! Where I share my process and thought behind one of my recent paintings - Beuna Vista Street. This painting is based off a photo I took during my vacation in California in the past December. I took my family to Disneyland California Adventure. While I brought my camera just to take photos of my family. I came across this specific scenery which I thought has the potential for a good painting. So I quickly took a photo of it.
Subject Matter
When I was there, the background tower caught my eyes. I love the Spanish looking architecture! It provides great shape with wonderful lighting on it. On top of that, the lamp post, the palm trees and the cables all provide great visual interest and shape languages. Now that I think of it, this is a bit of cheating because it is clear to me that Disney put much thought into designing the theme park, so finding visual appealing scenery is quite easy! But as always, it is not good to copy the photo one to one. Some adjustment has to be made in order to create a better composition and design. So here are the things I've changed:
My interpertation
- Crop (blue) - I was using 28mm focal length when I took this shot. Human eyes focal length are closer to 50mm. Which means 28mm gives me more view than a typical human eye. It will also cause some distortion of the image. So what I do in the first is to crop my reference image. I intentionally cut off part of the palm trees to make it looks taller.
- Scaled up the tower (green) - Since the Spanish tower in the background is my favorite element in the scene, I want to emphasize on it just a bit more. It will still be in the background. But making it taller creates a more dramatic scale and visual interest, as well as better composition.
- Taking out the visual competition (yellow) - The lamp posts on the right is another great visual interest, but the palm trees on the right are overpowering them. So I pushed them back a lot more and make them a lot shorter. That makes the lamp posts stands out more and frames the scenery more.
- Change the figures (red) - Figures are necessary in this scene because I hardly see Disneyland without visitors. However, some of the people in the photo are quite close to the camera, that makes them looks really big. It breaks the scale that I want to achieve, so I change the figures quite a bit to a couple taking a kid facing the viewer. If you look carefully, you'll also see the kid is wearing a Mickey Mouse hat ;)
- Adding more stuff - I added a cable tram in my painting. Even though it's not in the original photo, I know there is a red cable tramp that goes back and forth in the theme park. I believe paint that tram in will add the authenticity and will make the painting more interesting, so I google a reference photo from the web. Since I am not copy this photo exactly, it is not an issue.
And here's the finish painting again:
Now the picture looks more balanced, hopefully more interesting and exciting! Again a successful painting takes quite a bit of thinking and planning, one of the biggest mistake is to blatantly copy the photo reference. You are not a camera, you have time and freedom to change things around to make it your own picture!
Top 60 Watercolor Blog
Yesterday I was informed by Feedspot that I am one of the top 60 watercolor blog! It was an honor and a pleasant surprise, because I've only been blogging for about an year. I really want to thank you for your support and subscribe. And I also really appreciate anyone who shared my blog to others. If you find the content here helpful, please share my page to others! I know this is just the beginning, and I will be continue to write and paint.
The power of white spaces
I once shared a portrait painting on the web. There were quite a few feed backs. One of the feed backs jumped out to me. The person said I shouldn't leave the background so plain, it will be nice if I paint the portrait in an environment. While I appreciate the person's feed back. I have to disagree that we have to fill the page with as much visual information as possible.
Like a brief pause or silence in a piece of music. White space is essential to bring out the contrast and to help the viewer focus on the subject. Experienced artists understand how to use those effectively. This is especially important for watercolor. Since you can't paint white, you need to put in some thoughts and leave the white out. Unless you are using gouache, but it is not as clean and doesn't feels the same.
There are few reasons why you want to leave an area white or very light (one light wash):
- Bring out the dark/shadow next to it - When you leave white, it turns into light in your painting, when put light next to dark, it turns into form.
- Enhance the silhouette - There are places in your painting you want a strong shape and silhouette. Especially if the shape is dark, leaving it in white space can really makes it pop. Even if it's just a few little dots of bird in a white sky, it creates the sense of space in a 2d surface.
- To give your painting a soft light quality - You might've seen some photos with a subject sitting in front of very bright background. Such as a person sitting in front of a window. Because the camera expose to the subject, the background is blown out into a soft bright bloom. This is not always bad, it can gives a very soft look if this is what you're going for. Same thing for painting. While we don't have to mimic all the soft lighting quality, by leaving the subject in a light white space we can create the same effect.
Design a painting is as important as important as how you paint it.
Design a painting is as important as how you paint it. The more I paint the more time I spent thinking about the composition, value grouping and shape design. Some of the painting that I love have great design. Because that's the first thing you see, it makes your painting technique secondary. They are both important, but far too many people focus on painting skill and forget about the importance of painting design.
When life gets in the way...
Today is not a painting tip, but I think it is important for me to share this with you. In the perfect world, soon after my kids going to school, I will make myself a cup of coffee, play some of my favorite music and set up to paint without distraction. And after my kids go to bed right when they need to, I will take a hot shower, change to something comfortable and paint again. Sounds awfully nice, but that's not the world I live in.
I am writing this blog post right now listening to two of my kids coughing on their bed due to the flu. The baby doesn't want to submit to his comfortable bed without putting up a fight for another 30 minutes in mom or dad's arm. Dirty dishes in the sink, trash are piled up waiting for me to send them to the dumpster. All of these while that white piece of Saunders Waterford paper on my easel is waiting for me to turn it into a painting.
Yes, life gets in the way. We may have a seemly perfect plan for our days to do the thing we love, but there are always things in life that hinder us from getting to the things we love. People often ask me how do I have time to paint while working on a full time job and raising three kids. I usually answer their question with another question:
How do you not have time for something you love?
Don't get me wrong, I struggle with time just like anyone else. My wife and I often tease each other how much more we could've done without the kids. But I can not throw this at them. To juggle with all these and manage time for painting is my responsibility. It may be true that my day job and my family took a big chunk of my time away. However, if I'm being honest with myself, I know I still have plenty of time to do the things that's important to me. So often I'll choose to paint instead of being a couch potato (I do not have cable at home). I write my blog and work on my YouTube video instead of surfing on the web. I sometime even have to say NO to friends' hang out and party. Here are a few things that might be able to help you:
- Set a time to paint weekly - Here's the fact, if something is important enough for you, you WILL mange the time to do it. And the only way to get good at something is to do it consistently, not once in a while. Set a time to paint weekly, NOT when you feel like it and NOT "when you have time". Set that time apart, if something is conflicted with your schedule to paint, reschedule that thing, not your painting time. Unless it's something you absolutely have to attend, you should always respect your own painting time.
- Break it into different sessions - I often do a under drawing before I go to bed. I then wake up early to start painting. Sometime I do the drawing and first wash the night before, and I finish it the next day since I need to wait for the wash to dry anyways. The point is, you don't have to pressure yourself to finish a painting in one go. If your time is tight, you can be a bit more flexible on this. Plus when you take a little time to do a drawing first, it will motivate you to finish it whenever you look at it!
- Accountability partner - My friend Jennifer often paint with her friends in a group. I love the idea to have a painting group, where you meet up with your fellow artist and paint together. I personally am not able to do that every week. But my website and internet present is acting as my accountability partner. If I slack off I will have nothing to show, so in other words - You are my accountability partner!
Every master painter has countless paintings in their lifetime. It's the mileage that makes them who they are. Nobody with an excuse saying "I don't have time" becomes a master. Yes, life does gets in the way, but it won't stop you from keep painting unless you let it.
New YouTube video!
Here's this month's YouTube painting video! Hope you enjoy it.