Through the Forest 5x7
Hello and Welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Through the Forest' 5x7.
Our video features the progression of this painting from initial drawing stage, on through to the finish, as well as my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
On today's video, I was talking about knowing when to abandon your reference, whether it is a photo or you are actually painting directly from nature.
Paintings created with an excess of detail tend to fail mightily. More detail will never save your picture if it is failing, and if it is failing it's because the big shapes, values and color modulations are not in the right places. Adding more detail to a weak painting never works.
I've talked before about this phenomenon. At that time I referred to it as the 'robot'. The robot loves to paint but is not very good at it. The robot sucks at painting because he just transliterates what he sees from his reference to the paintings surface. In other words he copies.
Nothing good ever came out of copying with the one outstanding exception of copying the work of master painters for learning purposes. Doing the same with a photo yields negative learning and just reinforces the bad habit of being a copyist.
What is the way out of this trap? How do you escape being a robot painter?
The best way I know is to internalize the lesson I've just imparted and abandon your reference at the soonest, concentrating instead on creating a pleasing composition based on the reference instead.
Over time, you will see the huge benefits that you can accrue as a painter if this is your modus operandi. As you proceed in this manner, you will also start to perceive how badly you sucked as a painter when you let the robot take over, which will reinforce new good habits and obliviate nasty bad ones.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Through the Forest' 5x7: This study works well and I'm happy with it. I'm even more pleased with the 8x10 version we'll be discussing in our next blog post. A lot of my paintings from this period were not as successful as I'd like but I'm happy to show off 'Through the Forest.'
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Through the Forest by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from initial drawing stage, on through to the finish, as well as my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
On today's video, I was talking about knowing when to abandon your reference, whether it is a photo or you are actually painting directly from nature.
Paintings created with an excess of detail tend to fail mightily. More detail will never save your picture if it is failing, and if it is failing it's because the big shapes, values and color modulations are not in the right places. Adding more detail to a weak painting never works.
I've talked before about this phenomenon. At that time I referred to it as the 'robot'. The robot loves to paint but is not very good at it. The robot sucks at painting because he just transliterates what he sees from his reference to the paintings surface. In other words he copies.
Nothing good ever came out of copying with the one outstanding exception of copying the work of master painters for learning purposes. Doing the same with a photo yields negative learning and just reinforces the bad habit of being a copyist.
What is the way out of this trap? How do you escape being a robot painter?
The best way I know is to internalize the lesson I've just imparted and abandon your reference at the soonest, concentrating instead on creating a pleasing composition based on the reference instead.
Over time, you will see the huge benefits that you can accrue as a painter if this is your modus operandi. As you proceed in this manner, you will also start to perceive how badly you sucked as a painter when you let the robot take over, which will reinforce new good habits and obliviate nasty bad ones.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Through the Forest' 5x7: This study works well and I'm happy with it. I'm even more pleased with the 8x10 version we'll be discussing in our next blog post. A lot of my paintings from this period were not as successful as I'd like but I'm happy to show off 'Through the Forest.'
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Through the Forest (Detail) |