We put a lot of pressure on artists (on ourselves) to be original. We think we should be able to turn that blank canvas into something no one has seen before, something totally authentic, illuminating and wondrous. Truth is, people aren’t very good at being original. Inventing totally new things from scratch is nearly impossible for us. What we’re really good at is taking something and altering it slightly. Copying is one step, altering slightly is the next.
Use photos as a jumping off point. The painting must be allowed to be it’s own image, not confined to match the photo. If you find yourself saying “I copied the photograph perfectly, so my painting must be good,” check yourself.
Below is a blog post illustrating how some impressionist paintings were born from photographs. Photography was new then, and likely very exciting. It caused painters to question what the point of painting was, if an image could be captured in a click. It also allowed painters to play with a new tool, which ended up changing how they recorded moments, movement, and how they established compositions. For example, Degas’ hazy figures, some cut off at the edge of the frame, to my knowledge did not occur until photography hacked them off with the shutter click.
You can see how the painters used the photographs as inspiration, collaged them, altered them, and the painting was made “original” from that process.
Wherever you are in this process, enjoy it.
[image_with_animation image_url=”1185″ alignment=”” animation=”Fade In
FAMOUS IMPRESSIONISTS COPIED PHOTOGRAPHS
Source: http://www.fogonazos.es/2006/11/famous-painters-copied-photopraphs_06.html
No invention of the Industrial Revolution influenced Impressionism more than the camera. Most of the Impressionists had cameras and experimented with their new images. Photography inspired impressionists to capture the moment, but did you know that some of the most famous paintings of Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec or Paul Gauguin were inspired on an original photograph? Here you have some interesting examples:
Iryna Yermolova was born in Ukraine, and has lived in England since 2005. Her figurative works are illustrative, bold, spontaneous, and colorful. They can be a bit too illustration/pretty for my personal tastes, but they still give me some good inspiration for my own painted figurative studies. [image_with_animation image_url=”3855″ alignment=”center” animation=”None”] The fresh quality of the paint might feel as …
Want to do something fun in January? Sign up now for our FREE 30 day creative challenge by subscribing to this blog. Subscribers will receive challenges in their inbox starting January 1. SAL 30 Day Creative Challenge Every January, the League sponsors a FREE 30 day creative challenge open to all artists everywhere, working in any media. This January we’ll post a daily …
Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed Text from Stanford.edu: Throughout his long career, seminal California artist Richard Diebenkorn (Stanford BA ’49) always kept a sketchbook—a “portable studio,” as he called it—to capture his ideas. The books contain 1,045 drawings that span the artist’s career and represent the range of styles and subjects he explored—both gestural renderings …
Thursdays are vocabulary days for our 30 Day Challenge, and our inspiration for today comes from A Word A Day, by Anu Garg Scrooch PRONUNCIATION: (skrooch) MEANING:verb intr.: To crouch or huddle.verb tr.: To squeeze. ETYMOLOGY:A dialect variant scrouge (to squeeze or crowd), perhaps influenced by crouch. Earliest documented use: 1844. USAGE:“We asked the model to scrooch down so …
Impressionists and Photography
PAINTING FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
We put a lot of pressure on artists (on ourselves) to be original. We think we should be able to turn that blank canvas into something no one has seen before, something totally authentic, illuminating and wondrous. Truth is, people aren’t very good at being original. Inventing totally new things from scratch is nearly impossible for us. What we’re really good at is taking something and altering it slightly. Copying is one step, altering slightly is the next.
Use photos as a jumping off point. The painting must be allowed to be it’s own image, not confined to match the photo. If you find yourself saying “I copied the photograph perfectly, so my painting must be good,” check yourself.
Below is a blog post illustrating how some impressionist paintings were born from photographs. Photography was new then, and likely very exciting. It caused painters to question what the point of painting was, if an image could be captured in a click. It also allowed painters to play with a new tool, which ended up changing how they recorded moments, movement, and how they established compositions. For example, Degas’ hazy figures, some cut off at the edge of the frame, to my knowledge did not occur until photography hacked them off with the shutter click.
You can see how the painters used the photographs as inspiration, collaged them, altered them, and the painting was made “original” from that process.
Wherever you are in this process, enjoy it.
[image_with_animation image_url=”1185″ alignment=”” animation=”Fade In
FAMOUS IMPRESSIONISTS COPIED PHOTOGRAPHS
Source: http://www.fogonazos.es/2006/11/famous-painters-copied-photopraphs_06.html
No invention of the Industrial Revolution influenced Impressionism more than the camera. Most of the Impressionists had cameras and experimented with their new images. Photography inspired impressionists to capture the moment, but did you know that some of the most famous paintings of Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec or Paul Gauguin were inspired on an original photograph? Here you have some interesting examples:
[nectar_image_comparison image_url=”1190″ image_2_url=”1191[nectar_image_comparison image_url=”1192″ image_2_url=”1193[nectar_image_comparison image_url=”1194″ image_2_url=”1195[nectar_image_comparison image_url=”1197″ image_2_url=”1196 Paul Cezanne [nectar_image_comparison image_url=”1198″ image_2_url=”1199
Paul Gauguin
2. Paul Cezanne
3. Toulouse Lautrec
4. Vincent Van Gogh
5. Edgar Degas
Coming soon: More examples from Toulouse Lautrec, Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Degas, and more!
Original post: http://www.aloj.us.es/galba/MONOGRAFICOS/LOFOTOGRAFICO/POSTIMPRESIONISTAS
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Iryna Yermolova
Iryna Yermolova was born in Ukraine, and has lived in England since 2005. Her figurative works are illustrative, bold, spontaneous, and colorful. They can be a bit too illustration/pretty for my personal tastes, but they still give me some good inspiration for my own painted figurative studies. [image_with_animation image_url=”3855″ alignment=”center” animation=”None”] The fresh quality of the paint might feel as …
#30SAL Creative challenge starts January 1!
Want to do something fun in January? Sign up now for our FREE 30 day creative challenge by subscribing to this blog. Subscribers will receive challenges in their inbox starting January 1. SAL 30 Day Creative Challenge Every January, the League sponsors a FREE 30 day creative challenge open to all artists everywhere, working in any media. This January we’ll post a daily …
Diebenkorn’s Sketchbooks
Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed Text from Stanford.edu: Throughout his long career, seminal California artist Richard Diebenkorn (Stanford BA ’49) always kept a sketchbook—a “portable studio,” as he called it—to capture his ideas. The books contain 1,045 drawings that span the artist’s career and represent the range of styles and subjects he explored—both gestural renderings …
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Thursdays are vocabulary days for our 30 Day Challenge, and our inspiration for today comes from A Word A Day, by Anu Garg Scrooch PRONUNCIATION: (skrooch) MEANING:verb intr.: To crouch or huddle.verb tr.: To squeeze. ETYMOLOGY:A dialect variant scrouge (to squeeze or crowd), perhaps influenced by crouch. Earliest documented use: 1844. USAGE:“We asked the model to scrooch down so …