The Truth About Painting Landscapes From Photos

Summary

In 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

00:00

🎨 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.

05:01

🖌️ 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.

Keywords

💡Landscape Painting

Landscape painting is an art form that depicts natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, bodies of water, and forests, often with human or animal figures and man-made structures. In the video, the artist discusses the process of transforming a photograph of a landscape into a painted scene, emphasizing the importance of composition and the artistic adjustments made to enhance the visual appeal.

💡Photo Cropping

Photo cropping is the process of trimming parts of a photograph to improve its composition or focus on a specific element. The artist in the video describes how they cropped a photo to highlight a yellow house as the focal point, adjusting the balance and composition to create a more dynamic and visually interesting painting.

💡Focal Point

A focal point in art and photography is the center of interest or the main subject that draws the viewer's attention. The video explains how the artist chose the yellow house as the focal point and cropped the photo accordingly to ensure it was not centrally located but still drew the viewer's eye.

💡Composition

Composition refers to the arrangement of visual elements in an artwork to create a coherent and aesthetically pleasing image. The artist discusses the importance of varying the sizes and shapes of elements in the scene to avoid a monotonous and uninteresting composition, using the boats, trees, and reflections as examples.

💡Value Sketch

A value sketch is a preliminary drawing that focuses on the distribution of light and dark areas in a scene, typically using only a few shades. The artist uses a value sketch to establish the foundation of the painting by determining the relationships between dark, mid-tone, and light areas before adding color.

💡Color Theory

Color theory is the study of how colors interact and how they can be combined to create different effects. The video mentions pushing complement colors, such as making the sky more purple to contrast with the yellow building, to enhance the visual impact of the painting.

💡Atmospheric Perspective

Atmospheric perspective is a technique used in painting to create the illusion of depth by making distant objects appear cooler, less detailed, and more indistinct. The artist applies this concept to the boats in the painting, using less detail and cooler colors for those further away to give a sense of depth.

💡Simplification

Simplification in art involves reducing complex scenes or objects to their basic shapes and forms to enhance clarity and focus. The artist simplifies areas of the painting, such as the trees and bushes, to avoid distracting from the focal point and to create a sense of distance.

💡Detail

Detail refers to the fine and intricate elements of a painting that add realism and depth. The artist reserves detail for the foreground and areas of importance, such as the boats in the foreground, to bring them forward and add depth to the scene.

💡Fundamentals of Painting

The fundamentals of painting include principles such as color theory, composition, value, and form. The artist emphasizes the importance of understanding these fundamentals to guide decision-making in the painting process, rather than relying solely on the photograph.

💡Demonstration

A demonstration in an educational context is a practical display of how to perform a task or technique. In the video, the artist provides a step-by-step demonstration of the painting process, explaining how they apply the concepts discussed to create the final artwork.

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

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if you have any questions leave those

questions in the comments section if you

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forza43 i'm chris fornitero here telling

you to go get painting