By the Stream 5x5
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's study is By the Stream 5x5.
As well as showing the progression of today's study, today's video features some of my usual rambling on a variety of topics including what I've been working on lately in the studio so please check that out.
I'd like today about drawing and how it relates to painting. This is a subject that I've covered in previous blog posts but it is so important to painting that it's hard to belabor the topic. Drawing is essentially the grammar of art. Without good drawing good painting is impossible. In many ways it is accurate to say that painting is nothing more than colored drawing.
There are some aspects of painting that require an inherent sense of aesthetics. drawing is not one of these though. Drawing can be learned by anybody. At it's core drawing is measuring and is a natural human ability. This is not to say that drawing is easy to master or easy to do, it requires quite a lot of practice to become good at. The best landscape artists have spent generally 4 to 5 years concentrating on drawing.
Surprisingly, one of the best ways to learn drawing as it relates to landscape painting, is not by drawing the landscape. The best way to learn drawing is by drawing people. This has been true since the time of the old Masters. The reason why drawing people is a better education than drawing the landscape, is because it is easy to draw a tree incorrectly and have it still work. However, to draw a person convincingly you must get the proportions correct as well as many other aspects that pertain to the figure. This knowledge translates to drawing almost more than anything else.
The type of drawing that is most useful for landscape painting is called mass drawing. This is a type of drawing that relies more on shapes than on line. I do mass drawing for my paintings using a brush and paint but you can also use the side of a stick of charcoal or even a bit of graphite that has more width than sharpness.
Mass drawing is not the type of drawing that most people think of when they think of drawing. But it is very useful for landscape, because it allows you to concentrate on the large shapes and masses whereas the fine line of a pencil or pen, means that you have to indicate the shapes either by using many lines together or just in silhouette.
I did nothing but draw for almost 15 years. Most of the reasons for this was because of my interest in comic books and illustration and not in painting so much. After many years of working as an illustrator, I became more familiar with the concept of mass drawing and also painting.
Many people come into my studio and say that they would like to paint or do art of some type. I always encourage people to begin with a regular drawing practice. This is not to say that you cannot do paintings at the same time, but without a good sense of proportion, line and shape, it is going to be very difficult to create any type of painting that people would actually want to look at.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'By the Stream' 5x5; as I stated in today's video I'm very happy with this study and I am also pleased with the larger version of the motive that we will be talking about on Saturday. I think that there is a good arrangement of values and also a pleasant composition that works very well in this study.
Unlike several of the paintings that we presented so far in this recent series of blog posts, 'By the Stream' 5x5 is a very recent work and highly representative of the direction that my work has taken since completion of my 100 days of Tonalism project.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| By the Stream by M Francis McCarthy, 5x5 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
As well as showing the progression of today's study, today's video features some of my usual rambling on a variety of topics including what I've been working on lately in the studio so please check that out.
I'd like today about drawing and how it relates to painting. This is a subject that I've covered in previous blog posts but it is so important to painting that it's hard to belabor the topic. Drawing is essentially the grammar of art. Without good drawing good painting is impossible. In many ways it is accurate to say that painting is nothing more than colored drawing.
There are some aspects of painting that require an inherent sense of aesthetics. drawing is not one of these though. Drawing can be learned by anybody. At it's core drawing is measuring and is a natural human ability. This is not to say that drawing is easy to master or easy to do, it requires quite a lot of practice to become good at. The best landscape artists have spent generally 4 to 5 years concentrating on drawing.
Surprisingly, one of the best ways to learn drawing as it relates to landscape painting, is not by drawing the landscape. The best way to learn drawing is by drawing people. This has been true since the time of the old Masters. The reason why drawing people is a better education than drawing the landscape, is because it is easy to draw a tree incorrectly and have it still work. However, to draw a person convincingly you must get the proportions correct as well as many other aspects that pertain to the figure. This knowledge translates to drawing almost more than anything else.
The type of drawing that is most useful for landscape painting is called mass drawing. This is a type of drawing that relies more on shapes than on line. I do mass drawing for my paintings using a brush and paint but you can also use the side of a stick of charcoal or even a bit of graphite that has more width than sharpness.
Mass drawing is not the type of drawing that most people think of when they think of drawing. But it is very useful for landscape, because it allows you to concentrate on the large shapes and masses whereas the fine line of a pencil or pen, means that you have to indicate the shapes either by using many lines together or just in silhouette.
I did nothing but draw for almost 15 years. Most of the reasons for this was because of my interest in comic books and illustration and not in painting so much. After many years of working as an illustrator, I became more familiar with the concept of mass drawing and also painting.
Many people come into my studio and say that they would like to paint or do art of some type. I always encourage people to begin with a regular drawing practice. This is not to say that you cannot do paintings at the same time, but without a good sense of proportion, line and shape, it is going to be very difficult to create any type of painting that people would actually want to look at.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'By the Stream' 5x5; as I stated in today's video I'm very happy with this study and I am also pleased with the larger version of the motive that we will be talking about on Saturday. I think that there is a good arrangement of values and also a pleasant composition that works very well in this study.
Unlike several of the paintings that we presented so far in this recent series of blog posts, 'By the Stream' 5x5 is a very recent work and highly representative of the direction that my work has taken since completion of my 100 days of Tonalism project.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| By the Stream 5x5 (Detail) |