Are there differences between Asian and Western style of painting?

Early last fall a friend, who lives in Spain, remarked after attending a watercolour show, how different some of the European styles were to the North American tendencies.
 
Last November, I subscribed to "L'art de l'aquarelle" (also available in English under the name of Art of Watercolour) from France.  This wonderful magazine features artists from around the globe and it's so interesting to see their approach and results.  At a recent local watercolour workshop, someone had brought a copy of this magazine and the facilitator asked participators what they thought about the painting on the cover which was from Adisorn Pornsirikarn. I was so surprised to see how quickly people jumped at the opportunity critique this painting which I thought was wonderful (I can only dream of painting something as beautiful). It's only afterwards when replaying the comments in my head did it occur to me what criteria they were using to judge this painting. Many commented on the lack of a unique focus and the lack of many colours.  Here is that painting on the cover of the magazine. What do you think about it?

 

In North America and mostly likely also in Britain, there are "established" composition guidelines to create what we have deemed to be esthetic paintings.  I've listed some of these criteria in previous blogs.

Not only can these differences in style be seen in compositions and materials but also in the creative process and in particular in the use of perspective. Most Western painters commonly use single-point perspective (a scene seen from a specific point in space). However, many Asian artists will use multiple perspectives as well as multiple focus points especially in large landscapes, where the viewer is encouraged to "travel" through the painting moving from one focus point to another.

In addition, Asian watercolour is based on simple brush strokes.  If you go to YouTube and check out Adisorn Pornsirikarn, you'll quickly see what I mean.  When I look at an Asian watercolour landscapes, they do not appear to emphasize the three dimensionality or perspective as much as Western art does.

I wish I new enough to distinguish beyond that. At the end of the day, are there esthetics criteria that are better than others?  What differences in style have you noticed from watercolour artist from various countries?

Today's artist find is Mia Feigelson.

Have a great week,

Danielle

Information Overload

There is no shortage of information for those wanting to learn how to paint. The abundance of information can be overwhelming for self-taught artists. How does one absorb all of the information from books, internet (including YouTube), videos, etc.?

 

If you’ve painted for a while and continually strive to improve your paintings, you’ve encountered teachings on the following: values, composition, design principles, techniques, soft and hard edges, mixing colours, center of focus, use of neutral greys, warm and cool colours, etc. It is overwhelming at times. What should we focus on and can we focus on all of these?

 

One strategy is to pay attention to information that is important. However, that requires that you are aware of what is considered important. For a beginner, this principle is not obvious. For artists that may not be linear thinkers, a bit of structure and discipline may be required.

 

If I were to categorize the types of things we learn, this would be my breakdown; I’d be happy to present other models you may suggest. First and foremost basic skills such as those presented in the fundamental presented ArtTutor are a must:

• Washes, mark making, dry brush, wet in wet… 
• Colours: the wheel, mixing, hues, tints, shades…
• Values or tones… 
• Special techniques: sponge, splattering, salt…

Once you are comfortable with these, you can start applying other principles. 

 

What do you do with all of the other learnings?  They are overpowering, but a bit of planning will help. During the planning stage you should:

• Determine subject
• Develop composition: through a number of small sketches, you can experiment with various design principles including knowing what your focus is and where you want it to be. You can play with the elements to ensure the eyes wander in the painting and doesn’t flow out of it. 
• Determine values at this stage
• Start thinking of soft and hard edges and how you want to unify the painting. 

Once you have your plan and a preferred sketch, you can paint more freely and focus on some of the other learnings such as colour temperature and application of techniques.

 

As with any other skills, practice will improve them.  However you should prioritize what it is you want to learn and improve. Focusing on one learning at a time will increase your chances of improving that skill or learning.  For example if you want to improve your use of neutral greys, you're going to have to paint a number of watercolours to get the feel of where and how to use this, in addition to learning what colour mixes work in what context.

 

I’m sure that the more we practice, some of the learnings will be applied subconsciously; it’s like learning sports.

 

At the end of the day it's all paint and paper and lots of fun...

 

Today's artist find is Yuko Nagayama.  It's interesting to see how many successful Asian artists do not have the same design concepts as North Americans and other countries. For example, the  rules of thirds does seem to apply to the focal point.

 

 

Have a great week,

Danielle

 

Importance of greys

When you look at a scene, are you most attracted to the bright and saturated colors? When I go outside in nature and especially in my garden, I see the colours of the leaves and flowers.  When in the city, the bright colours in advertising, street signs, lights, clothes and cars stand out.

Therefore, it’s only natural that most artists prefer to use bright and highly-saturated tones when painting. The challenge with that tendency is that with too many bright colours, the eye doesn’t know where to rest because everything in the scene is shouting "look at me".

By including neutrals in paintings, they provide variations for the viewer and allow for centre of interest to stand out.  It's like watching a ballet with the prima ballerina being the star and the other dancers supporting her.

Neutrals also create a sense of depth and recede into the distance when used with brighter colours. When painting objects in the distance we should try use more neutrals because there is usually less contrast with objects that are far away, especially when compared to objects that are closer to you.

Neutrals do not always have to be grey, they can be muted greens or blues.

Neutrals also create interest and provide subtle but important variation for your pieces. Nature is a more neutral than we realize. For instance, green grasses may actually be a neutral green, toned down with subtle red and purple tones.  By maintaining a  balance of both neutrals and saturated tones, we can create interesting paintings with a sense of depth.

So how do we mix neutral greys? Ideally you mix a triad: first make a secondary color - such as a violet from red and blue using  equal amounts of color, then add a small amount of the complementary colour - yellow. Here are a few triads that might work for you (all paints are W&N unless otherwise noted)

• raw sienna, ultramarine blue and permanent carmine 
• berlin blue (MaimeriBlu), rose madder genuine and aureolin yellow
• cobalt blue, rose madder genuine and aureolin yellow  
• cobalt blue, indian red and aureolin yellow
• viridian, rose madder genuine and aureolin yellow 

What’s your favorite grey triad?

Grey can also be produced by mixing red with green such as viridian and rose madder genuine or alizarin crimson with thalo green. These greys tend to be on the cool side.  It's the touch of yellow that helps make it neutral.  It's important to know what type of grey you need.

You can also use greys out of the tube. One of the only advantage of doing this is the ability to reproduce it exactly in the future.

Some artists produce the most wonderful muted colours from the "muck" on their palette - as Jen (aka Jaka) would say.

This week's art find is from Jim Black:

Have a great week,
Danielle

Benefits of painting in series

Whether you paint for yourself or to sell your paintings, painting in series has numerous benefits.

 

You might ask what does working in a series mean? It’s creating a number of paintings with a unified theme, that are cohesive and coherent. Some artists may not be aware of the advantages to creating multiple paintings about the same idea, topic or subject matter. 

 

If the Art Tutor gallery is any indication, many recreational artists produce "onesies." Their typical approach goes something like this-- "I'll make one of these, now I'll make one of these, then I'll make one of these," and so on and so forth, resulting in an assortment of work. We are so eager to try out so many things that we jump from one topic to the other.

 

Many of us have the attitude that we paint whatever we feel like making and there's no common thread. Artistic freedom is often a reason quoted for this approach. How much can you possibly learn or benefit from such a brief encounter with a given topic? So why should we consider painting in series?

• You increase your knowledge on the topic or subject within that art;
• You accumulate greater knowledge and experiences from working within a well-defined set of parameters. This allows the artist to expressing himself from a range of different perspectives within those parameters.
• Working in series allows you to nuance your compositions more subtly, paint decisively and with greater ease to provide greater impacts.
• Repeating similar topics allows you to focus on different angles, perspectives, contexts, etc. This type of exploration allows you to improve faster.
• For those looking at art, viewing a series provides a more fulsome experience that informs the viewer. 
• If you participate in art shows/fairs, a series will provide viewers with a more appealing and unified selection of body of art.
• Lastly, practice makes perfect. Ok maybe not perfect but it certainly improves your abilities to paint a certain topic or theme. 

If you have considered working in series to improve your body of work, but prefer to paint different topics, consider working on several series simultaneously. Or take a break from working on a series and make one or two of whatever you want to make; then get back to work on the series.

 

Forcing yourself to maintain a high level of focus and discipline without getting distracted keeps you totally involved in the results. Research any professional artist that you admire and follow their work. You’ll note that in almost all cases, they were able to focus their attention and improve what they do because they worked in series. Think of the number of time any athlete repeats and practices their skills. Those who have hours of practice tend to have better results. The same applies to many disciplines such as writers, musicians, etc.

 

This weeks artist find is Brynn Caroll.

 

Have a great week,

Danielle