DweezelJazz Art Blog » Color

Sketches, Digital Painting and Experimentation As Part of the Work Flow

DweezelJazz — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:03:00 +0000

Last week I sketched and inked a drawing of the Tower of London, scanned it into the computer and then painted it using Corel Painter Essentials and Adobe Photoshop.

This is the first time I’ve used Painter. The program came as bundled software with the wacom graphic tablet I got long ago and I finally slipped the disk into the computer and installed it.

Painter provides brushes that make it possible to quickly build texture into a painting, which otherwise takes me more effort to create in Photoshop. Painter also has a really nice color wheel that I find very intuitive and easy to use (I’m using version 3, the color wheel may have changed in version 4, it is said to have been improved).

After applying what might be called an ‘underpainting’ in Painter, I opened the file in Photoshop and continued painting, smoothing things, adding more emphasis to different colours and placing the final touches on it. I use a really great set of brushes in Photoshop, that I bought from Portland Studios, designed by Justin Gerard.

I love painting digitally. I don’t find that it takes less time or effort than painting with physical paints, but I love bright luminescent colors, and painting on the computer is very like painting with light.

When I was a kid, about 7 years old, I was often invited to go to a neighbor’s house to play. My friends had a light box with a plastic sheet/screen on it that had tiny holes through it sized to hold colored plastic pegs. The kit came with a variety of drawings etched in white on black paper.

The idea was to place the paper on the screen, push the colored pegs through the paper and the light behind, inside the box, made the peg light up. Punching those colored pegs through that black paper and seeing them light up brilliantly in the otherwise dark room was something I still remember vividly. The thrill of the finished ‘work of art’ gleaming in super bright colors! I guess some things about a person just don’t change with time: painting on the computer nowadays gives me similar delight.

Painting digitally is also a great way to investigate compositions and colors for a painting. I’ve used the computer to create a rough reference for a couple of the egg tempera paintings and also for some watercolor paintings. It’s an excellent way to experiment and learn. From now on I plan to make a digital painting rough part of my routine work flow to use as a reference in painting an egg tempera or watercolor piece.

Here’s one of the sketches, from the movie Chain Reaction, I drew and inked using a Pentel brush pen.

'At Party' Brush Pen Ink Sketch

Working With Photographs As Reference For Paintings

DweezelJazz — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:49:17 +0000

There are many stages involved in creating a painting of a scene. I’m an indoors type of painter so I like to use the convenience of a camera to record the details of a subject for future reference. Using photographs for reference is really great, if a few things are kept in mind and a couple of pitfalls avoided. The main elements that I have found to be of vital importance are:

composition
color
perspective
free nature of the art

Attention to Composition

The first thing to do is to capture the subject or place that you’re interested in with the camera. This can be a bit tricky. The number of photos I’ve taken only to find, when I get home, that they just don’t have what I’m looking for to inspire me to a painting. I’ve written a few posts about what I look for and strive for when taking photographs.

Cropping a photograph can make a tremendous difference to the feel of the subject. Understanding composition and using it to show off your subject in the most flattering way can change a prospective painting from dull and commonplace to really eye-catching.

I really liked this photo of trees in a park in England.

"Stourhead Majestic Trees" Reference Photo

Cropping it to an oval brings focus and a kind of movement to the trunks as the eye is drawn into the painting.

You can see more about the park that inspired this painting in a previous post: Egg Tempera Painting of “Stourhead Majestic Trees”.

It’s also fun to put together a composition from a variety of reference photos, as was done with the “Knight and Monument” watercolor painting shown below.

The monument is a war memorial from a photo I took in London from a double-deck bus; the trees are from the French Jura mountains; the greenery in the foreground was taken from a flowerbed in Geneva; and the Knight and his horse are taken from a variety of shots of people on horses from a movie – the man on the horse is different from the one on that horse in the movie. Creating this painting was a lot of fun.

Another facet of composition to be aware of is to exclude any details that are present in the photo that aren’t essential to the meaning of the piece, or may even be distracting from it. In this reference shot of a road in the town of Gex, France, the removal of the trash cans and cars, along with all the markings in the road, helped to focus on the real essence of the scene.

Reference Photo for View of Gex Town Hall from houses and church

Below you can see the watercolor painting, “Gex Church View”, that resulted from using this photo as a reference. The lamp that you can see at the top of the photo wasn’t included because it distracts from the main focus of the scene and draws the eye up, when it’s important for the art to draw the eye into the painting.

The painting is for the Gex Book. The back of the Gex Church is to the left, and there are houses to the right. Looking down the street you can see the dark grey turret of the Town Hall; it has the same distinctive clocks on all four sides. Beyond is the Geneva valley. In the distance, Le Saleve is visible to the right.

The Importance of Color

Color is one of the things that is probably the most influential of all factors in a painting. At least, I’ve discovered that this is true in my perception of artwork. If the colors are appealing to me, I am often immediately drawn to a painting, and then I look closely at the subject of it.

Even though I’m strongly driven by color, it has taken me quite some time to begin understanding how to use color to the most benefit. A short, but very clear article, that I’ve found very helpful is at Indezine.com: “What Is Color Theory”. I have also found the image of the color wheel shown on the book called “The Color Star” by Johannes Itten to be useful.

I haven’t read Itten’s book however, since one of the customer comments on Amazon.com mentioned that his books are extremely good, but that they are rather heavy in theory and somewhat complicated. Perceptions of complication are somewhat subjective, and whether it’s the case or not for this book I don’t know, but I decided to wait and see if I could achieve what I wanted with paintings before committing myself to further study!

The thing about cameras and computer screens, and printers for that matter, is that most of them all portray the same colors a bit differently. Some cameras are set to give a very bright, colorful rich image, while others tone down a lot of colors and almost give a blue tint to everything. My larger camera does the latter.

So it’s important to remember the colors and lighting of a place or subject that you saw as best as you can. Some artists do quick sketches and watercolors on site so that they can better remember the essence of the light and atmosphere of the place. Then they combine this with the use of photographs to provide more details. James Gurney has good articles on this and many other subjects at his blog Gurney Journey; one in particular on this subject is Using Photo Reference.

The reference photo shown below is somewhat limited in its color appeal. And there’s a tourist in the way! (No, I didn’t take this photo, but I was there.)

Reference Photo for View of Le Saleve and French Alps from Gex

I decided to portray what I know of the atmosphere and feel of the place in the following way with the painting, “Gex View Across The Valley”:

This painting too is one I’ve just completed for the Gex Book. There are spectacular views from the town of Gex, which is located in the foothills of the French Jura Mountains. In this painting you can see to the south of Gex, across the valley towards the city of Geneva in Switzerland. Le Saleve is the first set of hills on the other side of the valley. Le Saleve is in France and not Switzerland, the Swiss border ends pretty much at the foot of Le Saleve. The mountains beyond it belong to the Mont Blanc Massif.

Draft page layout Gex Book

Here you can see how it looks in the page layout for the book. In a previous post I mentioned that the other sketch that wasn’t yet completed on this page (which happens to be this painting, and is now completed) would be of a view down the valley towards Bellegarde – well, turns out it wasn’t – this one also faces towards Le Saleve! But there is a view looking down towards Bellegarde in at least one painting still to be done for the book, and it will be painted and shown here on DweezelJazz Art blog eventually.

Look out for Proper Perspective

Many camera lenses distort. Even with anti-distortion on, the distortion of lines, especially towards the edges of the image, can still be very pronounced. I was so surprised when I started looking more closely at just how much distortion can go unnoticed by the casual glance at a photo. It’s almost as if the eye makes up for it. But in a painting, I think it’s a different story. If the perspective is odd, then it most likely will get noticed, especially if it’s unintentional!

Making the Art Unencumbered and Expressive

It’s super easy to get lost in all the detail that a photograph provides. It can become an all-consuming goal to try to portray the scene or subject in all it’s complexity, with the utmost accuracy. Unless this is done with extreme care, this can quickly kill the feeling, life, and atmosphere of a piece. It’s very good to consciously decide in advance how much detail is wanted, and how it will advance the aim of what the painting will convey. Always staying aware of atmosphere, feeling, and even the emotions of the piece will help to maintain the focus of the goal for each painting. It will also help to consider these things when choosing the predominant colors for a painting.

More important than detail or accuracy is the conveyance of meaning, atmosphere, life, and what the artist finds uniquely interesting in a scene or object, rather than to present all its details in accurate duplication. Individual expression and viewpoint is what makes creating and observing art so endlessly fascinating.

‘Gex House Front’ Watercolor Painting

DweezelJazz — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:09:13 +0000

I mentioned in the last post, Summertime Activities, that as soon as I’ve finished the drawings, I’ll start painting scenes for a book. In preparation, I’m doing a few scenes that I don’t intend to put in the book so that I can play with style, color and atmosphere. Here’s one I did last weekend for just that purpose. All of the photos in this post can be seen larger by clicking on them.

'Gex House Front' watercolor painting by Nat Wildish

There are many beautiful houses dotted all over the Pays de Gex in France. One house front in the town of Gex caught my eye and inspired this watercolor painting. The delicate touches, such as the fine ironwork on the front door, demonstrate a sweetness and finery without showy gaudiness, that I really love about France.

Monochromatic study in progress of 'Gex House Front' by Nat Wildish

I started ‘Gex House Front’ with a monochromatic study in sepia tones. I really enjoyed doing this and liked the outcome. My best friend and very talented artist, Shannon Ryan of ‘Shannon Ryan Art’, gave me the hint that sepia has black pigment in it and can darken a painting, and can even make the watercolors turn somewhat muddy when other colors are added on top of the sepia. I probably won’t use sepia all that often in the future, but I had great fun experimenting with it and will probably use it in small amounts here and there.

Here’s the monochromatic under painting, which is kind of neat all in itself – like one of those old tattered and faded photographs from long gone days of the past. The house has probably also been there long enough to merit such a photo, and maybe there is one somewhere.

'Gex House Front' monochromatic watercolor painting by Nat Wildish

River of Tulips Painting Revisited

DweezelJazz — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:10:37 +0000

‘River of Tulips’ started as a 16 x 10″ (41 x 25 cm) egg tempera painting. I spent many hours of labor over the details of the tulips. But I remained unhappy with the result. So I took a photograph of the painting and, last week, painted over it digitally until I arrived at a painting that now conveys the idea I originally had in mind.

Digital Painting of 'River of Tulips' by Nat Wildish

I could easily paint on the original egg tempera painting with egg tempera paint until I arrived at the result you see here. Maybe one day I will!

Here’s the original egg tempera painting of ‘River of Tulips’:

Original Egg Tempera Painting of 'River of Tulips' by Nat Wildish

I can see merits in both versions of the painting. Which one do you like best, and why? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

Using Safari Books Online To Learn How To Produce Fine Art Prints

DweezelJazz — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:50:39 +0000

"Portrait of a Horse" in egg tempera by Nat Wildish

Selling art seems, at first glance, to be a fairly easy thing to accomplish. But there are loads of things to learn. This last couple of weeks I’ve been concentrating on understanding how to make prints.

I’ll have two sources of artwork for prints: my egg tempera paintings and digital artwork that I paint on the computer. The egg tempera paintings can either be scanned or photographed in order to create prints; I’ve chosen to photograph them. The digital paintings need to be created, right from the start, at the correct size and resolution in order to print properly. It doesn’t work to paint them on a ‘small canvas’ document and then expect them to print larger. And scaling the document below 75% or above 120% digitally doesn’t generally give good results.

This means that right up front, before I create the artwork, I need to decide what size prints to produce. I’ve spent the last week reading four really good books on the process of printing, considering all the options, and how to process the digital files to be sure of color consistency and sharpness of the print.

I’ve been able to find out how to color-manage the whole process, from the camera, the monitor, right through to the printer, and how to either work with a print service provider, or to print them myself with a printer at home. I’ve found out what papers and inks to use, what calibration and profiling equipment is best, how to process Camera Raw digital files, and how to use Photoshop to implement the whole process.

Access to the online library Safari Books Online, created in 2001 by O’Reilly Media, Inc. and The Pearson Technology Group, has enabled me to thoroughly and quickly research the subject. This service is fantastic. For a monthly subscription of $42, it allows unlimited reading of all of their books and training videos, or for $22 they allow ten books per month. They offer a great deal at several different subscription rates, click here for more details about the subscriptions.

There’s no obligation to continue the subscription beyond one month, and it can be canceled at any time, so long as it’s cancelled before the start of the next monthly billing cycle. They have loads of really great informative books; buying each individual book would incur a very large expense. There’s a good introduction to the service in a review written a year ago on developerlife.com – reviews. This helped me to get a better understanding of how the service worked, and then I looked into the details on the Safari Books Online site itself before subscribing.

"Maldives Palm" in egg tempera by Nat Wildish

I usually take notes when I read textbooks or informative books. This allows me to quickly access the information I find most helpful in a book, in a layout easy for me to quickly scan visually. It means that, in the future, I don’t have to sift through the entire contents of a book to find the details that I want to use. And while I’m taking notes, it allows me to process and understand what I’m reading at much greater depth. I find it a very efficient and effective way to work. Doing things this way, I rarely need to keep a book once I’ve read it.

I love the idea of being able to access this information online without having to waste the resources it would take to have that book in print, delivered or bought from a store and then to not need it after reading it for a few days. It’s a much more environmentally friendly way to go about things, and one that my way of working naturally accommodates.

The Safari Books Online has been vital in enabling me to access really good books on a subject that is otherwise extremely difficult to get a good grasp of. And until I read all four books that I chose to read on the subject of printing, I really didn’t feel equipped to move forward with the process. The Safari Books Online service also provides what they call ‘Rough Cuts’, in which authors provide the text of a book while they’re writing it. One of the books I read, which was absolutely brilliant, was a Rough Cut for a book that isn’t due to be printed until July of this year, 2009.

These are the four books I would recommend on the process of taking a digital file from creation to print:

Inkjet Tips and Techniques An Essential Printing Resource for Photographers by Andrew Darlow
Mastering Digital Color: A Photographer’s and Artist’s Guide to Controlling Color by David Saffir
Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications by Claudia McCue (this is a ‘Rough Cut’, due to be published in July 2009)
CMYK 2.0: A Cooperative Workflow for Photographers, Designers, and Printers by Rick McCleary

Safari Books Online cover many topics and are constantly expanding their library. Searching their library is a really good way to find excellent books on different subjects. And at the bottom of each book description they also include Amazon.com customer reviews, which is a really excellent way to gauge the relevance of a book to your needs.

Next, I’m going to read a book specifically on Digital Painting, “Photoshop Studio with Bert Monroy: Digital Painting” by Bert Monroy; then I’ll read a couple of books about digital SLR cameras, and about the one we have in particular, so that I can competently take photos of the artwork.

After that, well… I’ll see if there’s anything else relevant to my art goals.

"Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest" egg tempera painting by Nat Wildish

I hope to have most of the research of this type finished within the next month. And then I can really get to work on the art, which is, after all, the most enticing part. I hope that sharing some of my process in researching and in particular the books I found on printing can be of help to you. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions I’d be very happy to hear them.

The Influence of Color on Photography Composition

DweezelJazz — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Conscious awareness and use of color in photography can dramatically enhance the impact of an image. Knowing a few facts about colors and how they interact with one another can make a huge difference to how we aim the camera to capture scenes that interest us.When a light color is surrounded by a dark one it has the effect of confining the enclosed color, enhancing its clarity and richness. This can isolate an object from its background giving it a vivid crispness.The viewer is left in no doubt as to the subject of the photograph.When a color is surrounded by a light color, it appears to spread out into the light color and the strength of it seems lessened.The yellow in the center of this white flower is a good example of this: it appears to be very delicate and faint, and gradually merges with the surrounding white.This can be contrasted with the orange-red flower below, in which the yellow center appears to be very bright and well defined.Colors may appear to change depending on the colors they are next to. The larger areas of color will have more influence over the smaller areas of color. In this photo, the orange petals appear to be much more vibrant next to the darker color of the soil, whereas the petals surrounded by the light grey stone appear to be less striking.When two shades of the same color are placed next to each other, each one makes the other look lighter and darker respectively. The bright green tree in this image looks all the more light and shiny compared to the dark green one in the background because the two colors are next to one another.The stark repetition of alternating light and dark patterns can create the illusion of movement or dictate the direction of eye movement across the image..Pastel colors always appear to our eyes as being less vivid. They give an image a more gentle touch. Scenes displaying more monochromatic colors can present a very dramatic and yet peaceful atmosphere.