The Truth About Painting Landscapes From Photos
Summary
TLDRIn this instructional video, the artist shares insights on transforming a landscape photo into a painting. They discuss the importance of cropping for composition, emphasizing focal points, and varying shapes for visual interest. The process involves creating a value sketch, simplifying details, and understanding color structures. The artist also explains the application of atmospheric perspective and how to use painting fundamentals to guide decision-making, rather than strictly adhering to the photo. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to apply these techniques in their own landscape painting endeavors.
Takeaways
- 📸 The video discusses the challenges of painting landscapes from photos, noting that often photos require adjustments to make a good painting.
- 🏞️ The artist shares their process of transforming a photo into a painting, including changes made to the scene for compositional purposes.
- 📐 The importance of cropping a photo to create a dynamic composition is highlighted, focusing on different shapes and sizes for visual interest.
- 🎨 The artist emphasizes the value of simplifying details in the painting to maintain focus on the focal point and avoid distractions.
- 🖌️ A value sketch with three tones is recommended to establish a solid foundation for the painting's composition.
- 🔵 The use of complementary colors is suggested to enhance the painting, such as making the sky more purple to contrast with a yellow building.
- 🌳 The artist advises on simplifying complex areas like trees and foliage to create a sense of depth and distance.
- 🛳️ Understanding the color and value structure of objects, like boats, allows for more creative freedom and accuracy in painting.
- 🌈 Atmospheric perspective is applied by reducing detail and warming colors as objects recede into the distance.
- 🎨 The painting process involves building up value shapes first, focusing on accuracy before adding color and detail.
- 🔗 The artist offers a free color mixing video for those interested in learning more about mixing colors for oil painting.
- 👨🎨 The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to apply the shared techniques to their own landscape painting from photos.
Q & A
Why is a photo often not sufficient by itself to paint from in landscape painting?
-A photo is often not sufficient by itself because it may lack the dynamic elements, compositional balance, and artistic adjustments that can enhance a painting.
What did the artist do to transform the original photo into a more suitable reference for painting?
-The artist cropped the photo to focus on the yellow house as the focal point, adjusted the composition for better balance, and simplified certain areas to enhance the painting's overall structure.
Why did the artist choose to crop the photo in such a way that the yellow house is not in the center?
-The artist wanted the yellow house to be the focal point but not centrally located, to create a more dynamic and interesting composition.
How did the artist use the concept of 'big shapes' to improve the composition of the painting?
-The artist identified and emphasized different big shapes in the scene, such as the boats and trees, to create a sense of variety and depth in the composition.
What is the significance of having different sizes and shapes in the composition according to the artist?
-Having different sizes and shapes adds dynamism to the composition, preventing it from being static and making it more visually interesting.
Can you provide an example of a bad composition as described in the script?
-A bad composition in this context would be one where the house is too close to the center, the boats stop halfway down the middle, and the shapes of the trees and boats are too similar, lacking dynamic differences.
What is the purpose of creating a value sketch with just three values in the artist's process?
-The purpose of a value sketch is to establish an interesting composition with a dark, mid-tone, and light, which forms the foundation of the painting and ensures visual balance.
Why did the artist decide to push complement colors in certain areas of the painting?
-The artist used complement colors to create contrast and visual interest, such as making the sky more purple to complement the yellow building.
What is the benefit of simplifying certain areas in the painting according to the artist's approach?
-Simplifying certain areas helps to reduce distractions from the focal point and also creates a sense of depth by keeping less important areas less detailed.
How does the artist ensure that the boats are constructed with the right color and value structure?
-The artist created a color value formula for the boats based on their observation, which helps in constructing the boats accurately and consistently throughout the painting.
What is atmospheric perspective and how does the artist apply it in the painting?
-Atmospheric perspective is the phenomenon where objects appear cooler and less detailed as they recede into the distance. The artist applied it by reducing detail and making edges softer for boats further away.
Why is it important for the artist to build all the big value shapes up together in the painting process?
-Building all the big value shapes together ensures that the value relationships are correct and consistent across the painting, allowing for accurate comparisons between different areas.
How does the artist use the knowledge of painting fundamentals to guide their decision-making during the painting process?
-The artist relies on their understanding of fundamentals such as value relationships, color theory, and composition to make informed decisions about focal points, contrast, and depth throughout the painting.
Outlines
🎨 Transforming a Photo into a Dynamic Landscape Painting
The artist discusses the challenges of painting landscapes from photos, explaining that often photos lack the necessary elements for a compelling painting. They describe their process of transforming a personal photo into a painting, emphasizing the importance of altering and enhancing the original scene. The artist shares insights on cropping the photo to create a more dynamic composition with a focal point, enhancing shapes and values, and simplifying details to maintain the viewer's focus. They also discuss the importance of creating a small value sketch to establish a strong foundation for the painting and the use of color theory to enhance contrast and depth in the painting.
🖌️ Painting Fundamentals and Composition Techniques
In this section, the artist delves into the fundamentals of painting, focusing on the importance of understanding the structure and color of subjects to create a painting even from imagination. They demonstrate the process of painting, starting with a neutral toned canvas and blocking out the major shapes with an emphasis on value relationships. The artist explains the concept of atmospheric perspective, applying it to the boats in the painting to create depth. They also discuss the strategic use of color, value, and detail to guide the viewer's attention to the focal point and create a sense of depth. The artist concludes by encouraging viewers to apply these techniques to their own landscape paintings and to engage with the content for further learning.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Landscape Painting
💡Photo Cropping
💡Focal Point
💡Composition
💡Value Sketch
💡Color Theory
💡Atmospheric Perspective
💡Simplification
💡Detail
💡Fundamentals of Painting
💡Demonstration
Highlights
The video explains the process of transforming a photo into a painted landscape, emphasizing that photos often require adjustments for effective painting.
The artist shares personal experience on how they took and cropped a photo to create a focal point and enhance the composition for painting.
Cropping a photo involves placing the focal point off-center and considering the overall shape and direction of elements in the scene.
Blurring a photo helps in identifying the big shapes within the scene, which is crucial for composition.
The importance of having varied sizes and shapes in a composition to create visual interest is discussed.
An example of poor composition is given, illustrating the pitfalls of a photo that lacks dynamic shapes and focal points.
The artist describes creating a value sketch with three tones to establish a strong foundation for the painting.
A small, quick study is recommended to explore color and composition, leading to discoveries about the painting.
The use of complementary colors is highlighted to create contrast and visual interest in the painting.
Simplification of certain areas in the painting is advised to maintain focus on the focal point and avoid distraction.
The artist discusses the importance of understanding the color and value structure of objects for accurate painting.
A demonstration of how to apply the color value structure to boats in the painting, considering atmospheric perspective.
The process of toning the canvas and blocking out big shapes with flat color to establish value relationships is detailed.
Building up the painting by adding detail and adjusting values and colors to create depth and contrast.
The artist emphasizes the use of painting fundamentals rather than relying solely on the photo for guidance.
The video concludes with a summary of the key points and an invitation for viewers to apply these techniques in their own landscape painting.
An offer for a free color mixing video from the artist's oil painting course is mentioned for those interested in improving their skills.
Transcripts
so the truth about painting landscapes
from photos is that 99 of the time the
photo is not good enough by itself to
paint so in this video i'm going to
explain how i took this photo and turned
it into this painting i'm going to
explain how and why i changed certain
things in the scene i'm explaining how i
enhanced certain parts of the scene and
how i made things up for the scene so i
took this photo about a year ago and it
was in the morning i really liked the
light like the boats like the water and
i've always wanted to make a painting
out of it so i decided to do that but
this wasn't how the photo was taken the
photo was actually taken like this so i
needed to crop it and this is how i
cropped it now why did i crop it like
this well first off i like this yellow
house here in the background i think i
want to make that my focal point so i
cropped it with it not being in the
center a rough judgment of the center
would be kind of somewhere around here
and i like that it's up there i also
like how these boats
the big overall shape of these boats
are leading us
to that focal point and also all of the
big shapes in the scene are different
when i blur the photo like this it makes
it easier to figure out and see the big
shapes the thing i like about these big
shapes is that they are all different
sizes and different shapes you know this
whole big shape of the boats is
different than this whole big shape of
the trees just different than this shape
and the reflection just different than
these trees and reflections grouped
together this sky up here even though
it's being reflected down to the water
it's still a different size shape now
let me show an example of a bad
composition i could have cropped it like
this which wouldn't have been that good
you know we have our
house here
a little too close to the center these
boats kind of go and stop perfectly
halfway
down the middle of the painting here you
know this is too similar to this you
know these trees
are too similar to the size of the boats
you know this big shape here it's just
not that interesting it's just that
nothing's dynamic here you never want
your shapes to be all similar it's
better to have you know like a really
big shape and then a small shape that
makes things dynamic like coming back to
this we have this big shape of the boats
and then right next to it this smaller
shape of the land and the reflection big
small you know that's a horizontal
difference a vertical difference example
would be the sky you know we have a
short distance and then a long distance
it's dynamic so after i've cropped the
photo the next thing i want to do is a
small value sketch in my sketchbook i
want to figure this composition out in
just three values a dark a mid-tone and
a light if i can break down the
composition in just these three values
and have an interesting composition i
know the foundation of the painting is
going to work now the next thing i like
to do is to do a very small quick
no more than 30 minutes study sometimes
i'll do these really small like four
inches by three inches but for this one
i did it on a six by eight inch panel
and this is actually where i figure a
lot of things out and make discoveries
about the painting so it's always good
to push complement colors and i have
this yellow building so i thought it
would be better if i pushed a little
more purple in the sky and i like how
these two are working off each other
similar thing with the boats i had the
boats this blueish purple
and blue's complement is orange purple's
complement is yellow so i kind of pushed
the warmth the yellow and oranges in
these trees a little more another big
thing i did here was simplify a lot of
areas
yeah there are a bunch of little palm
trees and you know whatever and bush is
happening here and here i just
simplified it because that area is not
important and i don't want a bunch of
detail here taken away and distracting
from my focal point here also keeping
this whole area simple is going to set
it further in the distance i'm going to
save my detail for up here in the
foreground similar thing with these
trees you know yeah there's a bunch of
branches and holes in the trees and
there's a big hole there and different
trees and a light post i know that's not
important and having this be a big
simple shape with maybe a little cut
back in the trees there is going to work
better for the scene all right now if
you have a lot of questions about color
mixing and you're not very strong with
mixing color i'm not going to get a lot
into color mixing this video because i
offer the color mixing video for my
foundations of oil painting course for
free if you want to check that out i'll
put a link to it in the description
below now another huge thing that i did
was i figured out the overall structure
of these boats in terms of color and
value what i mean is that when i looked
at these boats i figured that the kind
of base color is this purplish bluish
color and then any parts of the boat
that are flat and facing up towards the
sky are going to be catching that
reflected light from the sky so it's
going to be a little lighter and a
little bluer and any side panel of the
boat
is going to be catching that warm
ambient light from the sun that is low
on the horizon so if i take this little
color value formula that i've created
for the boats and just made a simple
cube this is what it would look like and
since i have that in my head i know that
i can use it to construct a boat
completely from my imagination if i want
it's a lot better to understand the
structure of something and what's
happening and kind of be able to make it
up if you need to then trying to paint
the photo exactly the way you see it
because
a lot of the information is just not
going to be there you're going to be
looking for things that just aren't
there and you're not gonna be given the
information that you need to construct
that part of the painting i know this
might be a little confusing so let's
jump to the demonstration part of the
video and explain this further so the
first thing i do is i tone my canvas so
i'm starting on a neutral value and then
i go through the painting blocking all
the big shapes out with flat color i'm
mainly focused on getting the value
relationships right they have to be 100
perfect right now and this is thin paint
because i know i'm going to be building
more paint on top of this it's very
important that you build all these big
value shapes up together you don't want
one area to get too far along because
you always need to be comparing all the
shapes to each other all right now i can
start building these boats with that
little color value structure formula
that i figured out but i'm also adding
into that formula the idea of
atmospheric perspective which is as
things get further away they get cooler
they also have less detail so you'll see
me put in a lot less detail in the boats
further away i'll also try and soften a
lot of edges as the boats get further
away as things come forward they get
more clear and they get more crisp but i
don't take this all the way to
completion right here i move on to other
sections of the painting and as i'm
painting i'm not really using the photo
that much i'm letting my knowledge of
the painting fundamentals guide my
decision making i know i want this house
to be the focal point so i decide to
push it a little brighter i pushed the
warmth in the trees to contrast the
cools and the boats i pushed the detail
in the boats up front to bring them
forward more and to add depth to the
whole row of boats
[Music]
all right hope you enjoyed this video i
hope you can take this information
and implement it on the next time you
paint a landscape from a photo if you
like this video please hit the like
button subscribe to the channel hit that
little notification bell so you get
notified whenever i release a new video
if you have any questions leave those
questions in the comments section if you
want to see what i'm painting on a daily
basis you can follow me on instagram
forza43 i'm chris fornitero here telling
you to go get painting
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