Day Forty Nine: Moonrise Tarpon Springs by George Inness
Hello and welcome to day 49 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is of 'Moonrise Tarpon Springs' by George Inness.
I will be getting into some biographical information about George Inness on today's video so please check it out.
Continuing on with our discussion regarding my painting process. Today, I'd like to discuss how I manipulate photography prior to using it as reference for my landscape paintings. When I first started out with landscape paintings I had a little Canon Powershot and I started using it for photography in parks that were close to my workplace at the time.
I knew that I would get superior photos if I did photography late in the afternoon so I would take my bike out and shoot pictures at different points of interest. These early photographs I tended not to manipulate very extensively prior to using for painting. Because I was doing my photography when the light was quite warm and inviting and also because the Canon Powershot had a tendency to oversaturate and pump up colors, this worked pretty well.
As I moved on, and into better cameras that gave me greater color fidelity and detail, I noticed that my paintings colors would often be flat. After becoming aware of Tonalism and the older American painting tradition, I started to warm up my photographs a bit prior to using as painting reference. There wasn't many other changes that were made. Instead I tried my best to refer to the reference while painting and, at the same time try to inject unique and original colors into my paintings from my imagination.
Sometimes this worked okay but a lot of times I felt like I was struggling. One day it occurred to me that rather than try and insert the sorts of colors that I wanted to paint into my painting while looking at something that was actually quite different, that it would be far easier if I could manipulate the photograph to look as much like what I wanted my paintings to be as possible. I'd say I really got into this sort of process in earnest around 2011.
Since 2011 I have been manipulating my photographic reference extensively to the point where the photos themselves may look a bit cartoonish and surreal. This is actually a good thing because I am not presenting manipulated photographs the world,I am executing landscape paintings. Photos serve as fuel for the fire, grist for the mill. not as an end in themselves. As an artist working in the modern world I find it very useful to use Photoshop and computers to assist me in getting my paintings to look away I feel they should look.
Tomorrow I'm going to talk about some of the manipulations that I find particularly useful in modifying photographs to create beautiful landscape paintings so stay tuned.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Moonrise Tarpon Springs' by George Inness; I've been familiar with this painting for quite a while and what I've always liked about it is the soft atmospheric quality. I found this fairly easy to execute and one thing I learned about Inness' work from this study, was how to apply varying degrees of pressure on the brush in different ways and angles to achieve textural variation.
Varying the textures is very important for a painting of this type because the forms have been flattened extensively and are quite simplified. It's imperative that some visual interest in these areas be created through texture. I have not actually seen George Inness' original but I'm sure it evidences quite a lot of glazing,picking and scratching.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Moonrise Tarpon Springs by George Inness, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is of 'Moonrise Tarpon Springs' by George Inness.
I will be getting into some biographical information about George Inness on today's video so please check it out.
Continuing on with our discussion regarding my painting process. Today, I'd like to discuss how I manipulate photography prior to using it as reference for my landscape paintings. When I first started out with landscape paintings I had a little Canon Powershot and I started using it for photography in parks that were close to my workplace at the time.
I knew that I would get superior photos if I did photography late in the afternoon so I would take my bike out and shoot pictures at different points of interest. These early photographs I tended not to manipulate very extensively prior to using for painting. Because I was doing my photography when the light was quite warm and inviting and also because the Canon Powershot had a tendency to oversaturate and pump up colors, this worked pretty well.
As I moved on, and into better cameras that gave me greater color fidelity and detail, I noticed that my paintings colors would often be flat. After becoming aware of Tonalism and the older American painting tradition, I started to warm up my photographs a bit prior to using as painting reference. There wasn't many other changes that were made. Instead I tried my best to refer to the reference while painting and, at the same time try to inject unique and original colors into my paintings from my imagination.
Sometimes this worked okay but a lot of times I felt like I was struggling. One day it occurred to me that rather than try and insert the sorts of colors that I wanted to paint into my painting while looking at something that was actually quite different, that it would be far easier if I could manipulate the photograph to look as much like what I wanted my paintings to be as possible. I'd say I really got into this sort of process in earnest around 2011.
Since 2011 I have been manipulating my photographic reference extensively to the point where the photos themselves may look a bit cartoonish and surreal. This is actually a good thing because I am not presenting manipulated photographs the world,I am executing landscape paintings. Photos serve as fuel for the fire, grist for the mill. not as an end in themselves. As an artist working in the modern world I find it very useful to use Photoshop and computers to assist me in getting my paintings to look away I feel they should look.
Tomorrow I'm going to talk about some of the manipulations that I find particularly useful in modifying photographs to create beautiful landscape paintings so stay tuned.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Moonrise Tarpon Springs' by George Inness; I've been familiar with this painting for quite a while and what I've always liked about it is the soft atmospheric quality. I found this fairly easy to execute and one thing I learned about Inness' work from this study, was how to apply varying degrees of pressure on the brush in different ways and angles to achieve textural variation.
Varying the textures is very important for a painting of this type because the forms have been flattened extensively and are quite simplified. It's imperative that some visual interest in these areas be created through texture. I have not actually seen George Inness' original but I'm sure it evidences quite a lot of glazing,picking and scratching.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Moonrise Tarpon Springs by George Inness |