This Week's Ebay Painting HERE
10x10 inches
oil on canvas
Painter Tip
Learning Your Subject
When you get really interested in a subject spend some time researching it before you start a series of paintings. Let's say you want to paint palm trees. The first thing I would do is start looking at varieties, their habitats, the bark, trunks, fronds, fruits and other interesting arboreal information about them. You can do this at a library or on the Internet. Yes, it will take time but you will really understand your subject before you start painting it.
The next thing to do is get out the trusty sketch book and pencil and start breaking down the subject into small parts of study. Go out to arboretums or botanical gardens, find the palms and start sketching sections of the trunk, fronds, fruits and so forth. Pay close attention to the way fronds connect to the trunks, how the trunks grow into the ground, the patterns,textures and other parts.
More on studies tomorrow........
4 comments:
Linda, couldn't agree with your tip more. In fact, coincidentally, I'm working on a post that makes an analogy between human anatomy and the anatomy of natural things. Eg, ocean waves have an anatomy of sorts, as do each species of tree, etc.
Studying through sketching is the best way to discover those unqiue characteristics.
Great analogy Ed. I am a research freak from way back. I research everything that catches my interest. Having a lot of info to draw on really improves painting skills.
Love,
Linda
Good post, Linda. Valuable info. I'm working on my next still life painting in the same fashion - studying all the angles first. I take ages to set it up, haul out a huge amount of stuff to test out, then decide on a "final". Then, I leave it set up some time before I start to paint. ( and will probably change it again! ) Now, there are times when I don't do this much prior work, but I like it when I do.
Jean, It always pays off.
Love,
Linda
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