Geopeto wrote:I like that forest scene also, but i must agree with Paul about, i don't feel like i am there. Then again after 30 years of trying i don't get that feel from a good many of my oil paintings, more so now than before though. But i do like your work, very much.
To get a viewer to experience that true, IMMERSE-O-VISION™ YOU-ARE-THERE feeling, you can do one or both of the following:
Sensory Method: Feed sensory information into the viewer's perceptions to fool them into believing that their surroundings are based on the sensory information they are receiving.
Associative Method: Place a character into the world within the picture, and make the viewer associate with that character.
The Sensory Method won't work with a tiny little picture like the one I've drawn. It only encompasses a small portion of your central vision, and cannot change your perception of your surroundings because the image simply doesn't surround you. Creating a wide panoramic mural or projecting images onto a giant screen are tried-and-true methods that have been in use in centuries. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to big screens or cavernous European cathedrals to paint in (I've been in a few). At best, I can achieve the sense that I've scratched a little window into the environment.
Associative Method: If I were to make a narrative series with a story that ran long enough (for as little time as it takes for a person to get sucked into a good TV show) then I don't necessarily have to rely on the Sensory Method. When you get 'sucked into' an image, what's really happening is that you forget about your own surroundings and body and begin living in the body of some character on the screen. It doesn't matter how realistic the imagery is, at the very least, the viewer gets the sense of living in a real world as long as everything within that world is consistent with the universe designed around the story. Making people associate with a character means designing characters that share behaviours in common with the viewer and placing them in credible situations that the viewer can empathize with and feel as if they are experiencing the same situation.
Pick your poison. Personally, I want to possess at least the bare minimum technical rendering ability to affect the general public through the Sensory Method before I progress to the Associative Method. After all, people are taking precious time out of their day to see my work, I may as well make it as easy as possible to get sucked in by showing them images that are recognizable and somewhat consistent with reality. Doing this sort of thing at this early stage in my developing skills takes every bit of mental effort I can squeeze out, so I'm really not in the mood to begin throwing in characters at this point. A man does not get stronger by jumping into a Byzantine exercise machine that forces him to simultaneously lift individual weights attached to each and every muscle in his body. You work on a few areas at a time until it becomes effortless, and then you can try multitasking.
I'd also like to add that a person cannot immersed into a picture unwillingly. There MUST be some amount of participation on the part of viewer, I just try and make it as painless as possible.
Geopeto wrote:
A couple oils for review, i am looking to do a style like this digitally, these are on location, and then from memory. I have far to go digitally because i still fight thinking in one layer, like canvas. I hope it does not take 30 more years because i don't have that long.
Has anyone had a problem thinking from one layer to many, or did you all start, with a layer system?
last lndscp.jpg
FrmFrtPrch1.jpg
NIce work! Mark
As for the layers vs. no layers, the last two images were done without layers. I used to use dozens and dozens of layers at one point, but after training myself to paint on a Nintendo DS Lite with no layers and no undos, I learned I had to think ahead, and before painting something, I had to spend a little time thinking about what was sitting behind the thing I was trying to paint. In many ways, it was like working with traditional media except that I didn't have to wait for paints to dry, didn't have to deal with toxic heavy metals and turpentine thinners, mixing colours is a lot easier, and I don't have to spend an hour afterwards cleaning up my brushes.
I find that the less you rely on layers, the greater the burden you place on your intellect, the more forethought is required, the less attached you can be to particularly well-painted areas. I feel it makes for a stronger artist. Layers ARE beneficial, however, in multistage processes where things are done in passes (esp. animation) or where frequent edits (with fickle clients) occur.
Regardless, with any medium I need:
- The ability to pick colours accurately and reliably
- A paintbrush which allows me to create smooth, controlled transitions based on pen pressure
- A paintbrush that allows me to make sharp markings
...and that's all!
It's amazing the things you can get done with just a circular brush.
