Paints 2
To paint is like seeing a movie, for it changes every second of paint dab.
Paint is part observation, part fantasy. At some point the real object, photo or nature still, can be removed from view, and continue from fantasy .
The only concerne with painting, is to dream, and enter a timeless zone .
Figurative painting contains every abstraction expression .
Abstraction is just a partly developed figurative idea .
Spend time to visalise the outcome in the mind, without an idea its an endless experiment with chance .
It may take me atleast on hour just to see a pregression .
To continue an old painting , it can be a good idea to just color the painted areas with the same color, to get started .
To be able to correct mistakes is the best way of learning, someone told me, if you got it once, you can do it always again and again.
Important to know when to stop painting, sometimes the more one paints it just becomes more messy.
sometimes the result does not get any better, then let it dry and pick it up in a month or two .
work exactly the way you want the first 100 paintings . Then learn form the masters, then learn from nature itself . Start with small formats . 20 x 30 cm max . Use 3 colors and white. red, blue and yellow .
Before starting an area, always cover the dry painting, or a white canvas with a thin layer of cooked line seed oil. rub into the canvas pixels, then wipe off with a cloth to a thin film . do not use white spirit or thinner .
For blocking in the base shapes, make shure it looks Planar and 2D . Planes and basic gradients .
Think, is this shape lighter than or darker than the neighbour. Redder than, bluer than, or yellower than the neighbour shape. Additive, because this is the way you mix, more blue, more red or more yellow, or more white into the brush . Its not so important to get the correct color at once, for it is paint, and the plane can easily be "colored" when the area is wetted . But is important to cover the entire area of the canvas.
Nonchalant brushstrokes is the excellence . When it looks effortless, and cool . These strokes can be added at minimum at the last stage of the painting, if its been smoothpainted beforehand .
For shadow areas use only blue and red, until the shadow looks blue.
The shadow color is always a respons to the color of the light, yellow light gives violet shadow, the sun is yellow . Not the objects color .
Everything turns white towards the horison . And can be used where the view has no variation, to separate the forms, exaggerate .
Color intensity, saturation and detail is always most prominent close to the observer .
Painting a house wall with windows. find the base color shade of the wall, block the entire surface in one color. Then populate the area later, add the windows, usually black firstly. Then the window frames. The final window is usually the colour of the sky, reflection of the sky. Last add white color detalis to the wall, white is a thickener.
Not so important to get the color correct at first, A small dot of a bright color can color a object into right shade .
Oil is the thinner. white is the thickener. color is the meat .
Sky, the horison is always most bright at the horison, no matter where the sun is, due to atmosphere .
Water, block in with a plain gradient, bleak in the horison, deep color in the near front, waves may be light green in the valley and dark blue toward the peaks, and ends with white foam ontop.
Trees and shrubbery. Start with the darkest leaf, cover the entire area in a dark block. treeleaf greens require a surprising anount of red, build the leaves with more yellow in the mix pool, Then add white brights on frontmost leafs lastly . Branches with a fine brush and plenty oil.
Grass mounds and slopes . Usually darkest near ground, and lightest near the top . These tend to be non form and difficult to map . however mountains in perspective, the pit, or valley may be light due to fog fog or atmosphere and the mountain top, dark .
Crescent shorelines foreground, usually shadow in the pits, and light color on the protruding shore edges . sucession of C-shapes in perspective .
Mountains and stones . A fine brush with plenty oil, acting as an ink pen, to draw out the details onto a rough plane .
Micro - Macro
In the composing phase a canvas is considered a macro structure, with a few geometric blocks that make up the image . A horizon, som boxes that are buildings . At this stage the painting is modernistic. And not before these areas are populated with details it becomes "romantic" and populating an area means proceeding into the microscopic .
Dry tecnique, Fuzzy stroke. Think clown paint . texture . skin,
Wet brush, Sharp stroke . the amount of oil added is a science in itself . Usual items is branches, grass, sea and water, the sky .
Powder tecnique . the brush is colored then whiped clean, and dotting the brush onto the canvas like powder, or make up . Shading or ligthing up areas like mist .
Avoid turpentine and special mediums at all costs . I only use Cooked Lineseed .
Old Holland
Blue B226 Sherwinger blaudonker
Yellow B12 Scheveningen Yellow Light
Red B169 Scheveningen Red Medium
White A1 titan
The best tecnique ive seen is called Mass Painting or Alla Prima Alex Tzavaras teaches this
Paint Coach is great and very inspirational : Go get Painting ! :)
https://www.youtube.com/@paintcoach
Sebastian Salvo : Odd Nerdrums place
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxg5tZraxCA
Painters Secret Geometry : Harmonic Armature
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkEd4j_JyoA&t=92s
Painters Secret Geometry : Dynamic Armature
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELRkBtPSJIM
About Framing the Panting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdTjK4bu1Kg
David Finch : comic book foreshortening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XtgOExgLt4
Music A : Playlist Ken 2024
Music B: Playlist : The Observer
Call me if you want to buy any of them or want a portrait or something specific .
Tel : +47 96 73 07 94
Epost : kenneth.olsen77@gmail.com
Some Philosophy
It is said the greatest painters are the History painters . they paint either from historical events, Biblical events or mythology (teachings of the false gods, the fallen angels) . Best esteemed back in the days 1600s to 1900 . In the 1700 Immanuel Kant wrote that art should not be judged by its quality, but by its whim, for you dont need an expert, to tell you what YOU like ! I kind of agree, but if you want to live in a house, you want a craftsman to build your house, and such it should be with a painting too, its a furniture . Kant borrowed from the Gospel where Jesus says one is not saved by your works, but faith . And so Kant copied and said the same about arts. And that was the birth of modern art. Dada, and expressionism . And it lowers the bar pleasntly so that everyone can engage in artistic freedom, regardless of skill !
Now where did the history painters go ? when the art institutions excluded all classical and romantic craftsman paintings . I have a theory, first they made it into book covers, like N. C. Wyeth . And then into comic books, likt the Phantom. for who can draw several persons in one frame, that interact and tell a story better than a comic book artist . they are the best ! Other fantastic cover art is from Warhammer . and fantasy . they truely dominate the history painting in our days . well done . I look at it and wow . its just amazing . The moderne equivalent of Barock painting is Marvel comics, with the exaggerated movements ! Composition, excells in Graphic Design an magazines . Personally the He-Man toy box cover paintings inspired me to paint, when I saw those I was like, oh man I want to do that ! And what is more classic in storytelling than action scenes between good and evil ? Between right and wrong, between oppression and freedom . In other terms : war , conflict or polarity, although Old Testamently . In theatrical terms its called Drama .
Painters paint landscapes, and what is that, its a theatrical backdrop, with no characters . Maybe portraits . But there is no story told, a mood is created, and thats certainly something . for a painting is a mood . The mood of the painting is the selection of colors and sizes of positive and negative shapes, for they count equal in importance, once the detail is removed . Even if there are several persons doing something meaningful on the area, it is the mood of it that makes it across . And a mood can be communicated with geometry and colors . A figurative painting becomes abstract once its out of focus, or blurry. Reversely one can say that an abstract painting is an out of focus realistic painting . And the great modern painters knew the skill, they also knew composition . when I think of composition I see it as the skeleton, and by arranging reconisable figures onto a geometry, your actually illustrating a diagram .
Another interesting view is that in the abstract painting it is the material, how the paint drips. the cold and warm contrasts, dark and light . See how the colours blend in unexpected neuances. see that area axplode against the format . Whereas in figurative, it is the persons portrayed that are cold and warm toward a subject matter . so one can say that the non figurative is more in the realm of physics .
I write this because im kinda disappointed in myself. Painting was not taught to me in art school 30 years ago, instead I was bitten by the "art virus" and made alot of gibberish . I had an idea of doing everything perfectly ! all the time :) and I had to get a job, now I got the job and 30 years have passed . And I thought back in the days that hey, I can draw pretty good, a painting is no bigga deal. oh boy, it is difficult . Once you get a canvas and some paint, your supposed to produce a masterwork ! like those youve seen in the museums, oh lord . Its really difficult, and thanks to Immanuel Kant, the bar is low . but now there is that Internet thing, and many people share great content about painting . and its possible to learn . with the Jesus faith I dont have to make it in the world . For He made it perfect before me . and I dont have to . Belive in Him that made you the one you are ! Love God. The God of Israel . Jesus christ in Heaven ! He who sits on the right side of his Father . Belive in Him ! And you can paint in eternal life.
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