Day Seventy Nine: The Coast Guard's Hut by Lowell Birge Harrison
Hello and welcome to Day 79 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'The Coast Guard's Hut' by Lowell Birge Harrison.
Lowell Birge Harrison was a well-known Tonalist painter and teacher of art. We've covered several of his paintings in this series. Today's video features a track from my album Tomorrow's Yesterday Today.
Continuing on with my history as an artist and how I eventually became a landscape painter; today I'd like to talk about my first attempts to do landscape painting using the computer.
Towards the end of my tenure as a commercial illustrator I had discovered some interesting techniques whereby I could, in the computer, basically paint over the top of a photo using a new layer and sampling colors from the photo below. This was back in 2007 or so. At that time, Adobe had some brushes that attempted to be more like actual brushes. With a bit of practice I was able to use these tools to get results, mostly on animal subjects, that resembled an oil painting.
I thought that maybe I could use these techniques to create landscape paintings using the computer that looked like they had actually been painted with oil paints. There has been quite a history of attempted natural media brushes and effects in the digital realm. Some of these media work better than others for example, pastel and chalk work fairly well in the computer. You can also get some fairly convincing watercolor effects. I have seen people use the painting tools in Photoshop and painter to create some incredible work and there's no question that good artwork can be accomplished with digital media.
When I first started attempting to do landscape paintings with the computer using the brush tools available in Photoshop, I had quite a struggle to create something that had the proper feeling to it. I made about 6 to 8 attempts at pulling off a landscape painting in Photoshop. At the time I didn't think they looked all that bad but it didn't take long for me to realize that I was fighting an uphill battle, and that what I was producing was a bit stiff and also far more work to do than it would be if I was to just use actual paints and brushes.
I remember going to the bookstore in my neighborhood back then and looking for instructional books on oil painting. One of the first books I came across (that I still recommend very highly) is called the Painterly Approach by Bob Rohm. There is also a DVD of the same name that I recommend as well.
Another guy who's books that I looked at was Kevin MacPherson, he has some great tips and advice and he is the guy that put me onto working with a limited color palette (a great way to start BTW). A book of his that I recommend is fill your oil paintings with light and color and also painting inside and out. These are fantastic resources for painters just starting out. He has a relatively streamlined approach to teaching painting that is encouraging for a beginner.
After getting my hands on some good books, I initially attempted to apply their lessons to what I was doing with the computer as I have not quite given up on creating good paintings with digital media. I discussed this topic in my previous blog here.
Tomorrow we will start talking about my first attempts to do landscape paintings with actual oil paints and canvas so stay tuned for that.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'The Coast Guard's Hut' by Lowell Birge Harrison; I was attracted to this painting because I thought it would work in a square format and I liked the blue tone. Like quite a few Birge Harrison paintings I've seen, this is predominantly a sky picture. It's all about capturing atmospheric effects for ol' Birge.
I was initially going to make the house a tree. If you watch the video you will see in my drawing stage that it is a tree however when I got to my color stage I decided to go ahead and paint it as a house, after all was very simply done and that little bit of light in the window is very necessary I think to the success of his painting and therefore my study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - The Coast Guard's Hut by Lowell Birge Harrison, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Lowell Birge Harrison was a well-known Tonalist painter and teacher of art. We've covered several of his paintings in this series. Today's video features a track from my album Tomorrow's Yesterday Today.
Continuing on with my history as an artist and how I eventually became a landscape painter; today I'd like to talk about my first attempts to do landscape painting using the computer.
Towards the end of my tenure as a commercial illustrator I had discovered some interesting techniques whereby I could, in the computer, basically paint over the top of a photo using a new layer and sampling colors from the photo below. This was back in 2007 or so. At that time, Adobe had some brushes that attempted to be more like actual brushes. With a bit of practice I was able to use these tools to get results, mostly on animal subjects, that resembled an oil painting.
I thought that maybe I could use these techniques to create landscape paintings using the computer that looked like they had actually been painted with oil paints. There has been quite a history of attempted natural media brushes and effects in the digital realm. Some of these media work better than others for example, pastel and chalk work fairly well in the computer. You can also get some fairly convincing watercolor effects. I have seen people use the painting tools in Photoshop and painter to create some incredible work and there's no question that good artwork can be accomplished with digital media.
When I first started attempting to do landscape paintings with the computer using the brush tools available in Photoshop, I had quite a struggle to create something that had the proper feeling to it. I made about 6 to 8 attempts at pulling off a landscape painting in Photoshop. At the time I didn't think they looked all that bad but it didn't take long for me to realize that I was fighting an uphill battle, and that what I was producing was a bit stiff and also far more work to do than it would be if I was to just use actual paints and brushes.
I remember going to the bookstore in my neighborhood back then and looking for instructional books on oil painting. One of the first books I came across (that I still recommend very highly) is called the Painterly Approach by Bob Rohm. There is also a DVD of the same name that I recommend as well.
Another guy who's books that I looked at was Kevin MacPherson, he has some great tips and advice and he is the guy that put me onto working with a limited color palette (a great way to start BTW). A book of his that I recommend is fill your oil paintings with light and color and also painting inside and out. These are fantastic resources for painters just starting out. He has a relatively streamlined approach to teaching painting that is encouraging for a beginner.
After getting my hands on some good books, I initially attempted to apply their lessons to what I was doing with the computer as I have not quite given up on creating good paintings with digital media. I discussed this topic in my previous blog here.
Tomorrow we will start talking about my first attempts to do landscape paintings with actual oil paints and canvas so stay tuned for that.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'The Coast Guard's Hut' by Lowell Birge Harrison; I was attracted to this painting because I thought it would work in a square format and I liked the blue tone. Like quite a few Birge Harrison paintings I've seen, this is predominantly a sky picture. It's all about capturing atmospheric effects for ol' Birge.
I was initially going to make the house a tree. If you watch the video you will see in my drawing stage that it is a tree however when I got to my color stage I decided to go ahead and paint it as a house, after all was very simply done and that little bit of light in the window is very necessary I think to the success of his painting and therefore my study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, The Coast Guard's Hut by Lowell Birge Harrison |