The Artist's Curse & more - Ep.8 Oil Painting Q&A with Mark Carder
Вставка
- Опубліковано 9 лип 2015
- If you have a question for me, post it in the comments below. I'll answer as many as I can on next Thursday's episode. Here are links to each question answered in this video:
00:29 - a lesson about "the artist's curse" and how to overcome it
12:19 - I struggle with getting my values right and am using white palettes. Should I invest in a neutral palette?
13:52 - I tend to try too many styles and techniques. Have you ever had this problem?
16:09 - How far should one sit from their shadow box?
17:58 - Subject matter is very important for realism but it hard to find something inspiring and interesting. What are your suggestions?
21:19 - What size photos do you use when painting portraits?
23:32 - What do you think about impressionism and painters like Monet? Have you tried painting en plein air with the color checker?
25:54 - Your five-color limited palette allows to you paint 99% of the colors you see in real life, but you avoid overpowering colors like cadmium red. Thomas Baker is another great artist on UA-cam and he uses strong colors in his limited palette. What is the advantage to using one palette over the other?
To add to what you're saying, most singers hate to hear recordings of their voice, and actors don't like to watch themselves on screen.
Artists must realize, that after a painting is finished, it really doesn't belong to the artist anymore, but it now belongs to the viewers.
Mark, you obviously know how to paint beautifully, but what is even more amazing is the way you communicate. These are two disparate skills, and you hardly ever find them both in the same person. You are doubly gifted. Thanks!
Grovel grovel
instaBlaster.
To get over the artist's curse, try:
Looking at your painting in a mirror
Looking at your painting upside down
Taking a photo of your painting on your cellphone then flipping the photo horizontally
Not looking at your painting for a long period of time, say 6 months :) when you look at it again, you will see it through fresh eyes
Brilliant advice, thank you!
Thank you so much for the advice :-)
I wish someone had told me about the artist's curse when I was young. Thank you for sharing about this topic!
Your videos are amazing. Thank you for making them.
GenXWench
This is why I always take photos of my paintings while I'm doing it, it's easier to see what I need to work on
Thank you for taking time to teach ,your knowledge is so appreciated!
After I see my paintings I judge myself harchly when I look at it with my heart it works
I always use the "mirror test" when viewing progress on my work. Then take a picture with my phone. These two ways really help me.
Thank you mark for answering questions look forward to each episode
Thank you, Mark, for your in-depth answer. I appreciate it very much!
you nailed it mark. I feel more confident. thanks
You are really great!!! Sir,
Thanks a Lot for shearing, We all are very fortunate.
Thank you for putting my question on here. I was not expecting it since you already answered it the other day. This was another great video!
algorithms definitely got it right suggesting this one. good stuff! this guy can just talk about anything and it just makes sense...would like to take a class or two....
Another good, solid show Mark. (Well worth waiting that extra day lol).
Well done.
Nick
Thank you kindly for answering my questions! Excellent video once again. I also want to share with you how excited I am to learn about achieving abstraction through resisting the temptation to blend! I have struggled to marry realism to the beauty of abstraction. I see this union in my favourite paintings and now I feel confident I can achieve this.
Hi Mark, what an awesome video... as usual. RE Painting Style: An idea that has helped me refine my desired style/technique is using Pintrest. Start an account and begin collecting "pinning" all your favorite artist's work. Then make notes about what characteristics do your favorite works have. Now you have a target to shoot for in your own work. Getting specific about what you want is important when it comes to qualities of paintings and style; something new painters often forget.
Bryan Coombes That's a great idea!
Your theory is spot on! I take phone pics of my work and will thumb through them while on break and I see new things that I need to correct. Also the mirror trick. Even just hanging it on a wall and looking at it over a few weeks.
thank you so much for enlightening daily
Sir... you are a saviour!!!!! you talk about the real questions Artist have in our artist life..!!! Artist curse is so real and your thoughts and words on it sure keeps it real for us!!!!!!! thank you so much for this...
I just want to say how much I appreciate your videos. Even though I am not a realist painter ... I mainly do semi abstract mostly figural work ... you are SO clear and eloquent about all the fundamentals of painting that most of your discussions apply to many if not all styles of painting. I teach painting classes locally to artists of various skill levels and I often show my students portions of your videos to support the lessons I present to them. Thank you for such thoughtful and thorough presentations.
Your videos have helped me out a lot,. Keep doing what your doing
Hi Mark, just came across your videos and wanted to thank you for the great material and advise you're putting out there. Greetings from Amsterdam!
Another terrific video. I loved your talk about The Artist's Curse. You're right. Those examples by your students are beautiful. I hope they've changed their harsh opinions of their work by now.
hello Mark, I watched many of your tutorials and learned a lot and realizing how little I know!! Have been painting many years and did so much wrong. Thank you so much for your fantastic teaching work!
Gisela Geiger, Munich/ Germany
Thank you for great video and advice! I struggled a lot with artist curse. Now I use better technique, using better and right materials, paint everyday. Next day, I like my painting and proud of myself. And the most important, I clearly see want I need to work on. I see mistakes and solutions, not "nightmare" on a canvas. I'm able to distance myself and work on values, edges, colors, shapes.
Hi, Mark. First let me tell you that I love your channel: I've been watching many of your videos, particularly the Q&A ones, which are great for the newbies (like me) and more skilled painters. I started painting a few weeks ago and now I decided, after watching your videos, that I'll will try and learn your method (I am building a colour checker too :)). I already noticed I tend to make some bad mistakes (like blending colours on the canvas in an attempt to "tidy" the brush strokes, not caring much for values etc.... newbie mistakes, you know). So I'm now to start following your lessons in a methodical way. I hope you'll keep on posting your videos: they are a pleasure to watch and really helpful.
I, too, suffered from artist's curse -- still do, in fact. What I do is paint until my painting looks like I've ruined it. That's when I quit painting for that day. When I come back to my studio the next day, my painting appears to have cured itself overnight. It took awhile to learn this. So now, when my painting appears to have crashed and burned, I go home and a jigger of gin and a nap.
I don’t paint in oil but find ur series fascinating
This is so true.. I do this all the time
I noticed something similar with music when I was younger. When you learn how music is produced, some of that magic is gone. The upside is that you can make your own music, which is priceless.
Hey Mark, I wanted to address the issue of the "artist's curse" (I'm nowhere near as experienced as you so take this with a grain of salt). I have seen and heard other artists that will use squinting their eyes occasionally during the process so that their brush strokes blend together and they can check their progress. Also, other artists will use a mirror behind them and periodically look at their painting in the mirror to give them another perspective, kind of how you did with the lady and the photograph of her painting. I haven't heard you mention these techniques, but for all I know you may employ them, but I have heard you mention the artist's curse quite a bit so I thought I would throw this out there. Yay, I contributed!
From Romania with love. Thanks.
I've painted for over 40 years and can count the paintings I've been truly happy with on my fingers, the artist's curse and the strive for 'perfection' is very real in some people.
And that’s ok! The combination of all the things that make a project great is very complex. Perhaps prioritize the most important parts. Mark says perfect values....ok....that’s one.....perfect proportion.....ok that’s two......maybe chose 4 or 6? That part I don’t know. I’m thinking out loud for myself here.....once you do that the other things that cause this curse just are not important. Of course you must convince yourself of this. I hope that makes sense. Because nowhere is anything perfect and it’s ok!
cool
I love your style of painting
So relatable 🥲
amazing the way you paint and also amazing the way you communicate...
Thanks again
Hello from Canada. I’m going through your course and am really enjoying it. I have always been involved in art, in one form or another. Graduated ArtSchool as a Graphic Designer back in 1970 and spent the last 25 yrs as a glass artist. As I have gotten older and glass has become too heavy to work with, I have enjoyed returning to painting. You usually refer to ‘ still life’ subjects. I love doing portraits! Is there anything specific about painting people that is not the case when doing a still life subject? Thank you for being SO generous and sharing your amazing talent !!
It’s the same rule for people who cook really good. They don’t Appreciate how well they cook but it’s amazing to a third person every time.
I saw the title of this video in your list and was so curious about what the artist's curse was. Before hitting play I took a guess and thought, "the only thing I can think of being the artist's curse is that artist's hate their work and are never satisfied with what they've created". Turned out that's what it is! haha. You are so right about it stopping people from continuing with their artwork. Not just with painting but with every creative endeavor. I have someone in my life that plays music and after listening to them play a piece they've written, I'll think "that was awesome!" and they turn around and say it was total shit lol. Think of all the amazing art we will never get to see or hear because the artist quit too early believing their work wasn't any good. What a loss. But the flip side is that the "curse" does push you to try harder. If you're happy with everything you do you're probably not trying hard enough or challenging yourself. I've also found that if I really don't like my painting despite the fact that the colours and values are correct, it is usually because I just don't like the subject of what I am painting. So now I try to only paint things that are personal to me or that have some sort of meaning. Great video! Your channel is the best.
As an artist I'll just see these negative feelings as my prison, but if I can see through the bars and just be confident that I'm doing the right thing (and hopefully I am) I don't mind staying there. I'll just keep painting no matter what.
A friend and I went out painting plein air last week at a river. We found a great shade tree to stand under. You already know the reason as I do too. But after I got home I looked again at my painting. I did not like it because the trees and foliage were way to bright and over powering. I kept searching up until I saw your videos what is wrong with my colors. I had been doing a lot of color mixing and how to make greens. Now I know. Thank you Mark.
Sometimes when I'm unhappy with my painting I don't look at it for a day or 2. Then when I come back it's easier for me to see how well done(or how badly done) it is. Fresh eyes are important.
Thanks Mark for providing such a great video tutorial.
Just a breif introduction to my painting experiences: although I am not a profossional painter, I have started paiting (acrylic) since a year ago. After watching your video toturials, I motivated to try oil paints. At first day, I loved it so much as the oil is not dry as fast as acrylic and color blending becomes easier.
Anyway, after finishing a couple of jobs, I realised that the acrylic might be a better choice for me. Why?
Becuase first, acrylic forces me to keep the values (in oil painting, I was brushing up all values by blending, since I had enough time to ruin my job ;-)). Second, oil paint has a strong odor and becomes bit annoying and irretating. And last not least, I found acrylic is more environmnetal friendly; even if it doesnot servive as long as oil, it doesnot matter for me since I only paint for fun.
To add to my post, I heard a quote that applies here. "Art is not a matter of fact, but a matter of opinion".
Hi everyone, my name is Tim and I suffer from 'Artist's Curse'. I know this because I can get to a point of a painting when I hate it, so I put it away for months thinking it sucks. When I pull the piece back out to work on again after so long of not looking at it, my initial reaction is "Wow, who did this painting? This is great!" But then after about 2 hours of more work, I begin to ruin the painting again.... or did I? I'll know more in a few months when I see it again. Ugh.
I remember when I was studying design..so we had a class that was color and shape... human proportion..value composition and so on..I had a class mate and she was under the level of the rest .... she was drawing like a child...then she took a little break from the University....after a couple of months we meet at the bus and she was carrying a portfolio. With some papers..with a beautiful sketches... portraits. ..I said " wow I'm impress how good you are .. been honest she turns better than anyone ...but she still thinks that she was doing horrible art... progress in technique not in mind set.. thanks for your good videos...
thanks
The Artists Curse - THAT'S WHAT ITS CALLED!!!
Great. Now I'm pretty sure I'm not as good as I thought I was lol. :/ I appreciate the lesson, sir :)
Love your videos Mark, thanks! As I'm learning to paint (in my case from photographs), do you have suggestions on canvas size, and should canvas size differ depending on whether it is a portrait, landscape or still life?
The artist's curse has been studied in Psychology and it is called the Dunning-Kruger effect. It happens in science and is common.
Firstly, your shirt is amazing - so pleasing - sometimes I have the thought "I just need to 'paint' my own shirt.. I could get better colours than what's in this store.." haha funny thought. Your shirt puts a smile on my face..
Is that all you got out of this?
@@cinereus3601 lol
Mark, as you spoke about the neutral palette and canvas background colour it occurred to me that as well as selling neutral palettes to help us see our colours clearly, it would be SUPER helpful if you bottled the neutral canvas colour you refer to so we can prep our canvases with the best background colour for our purposes. PLEASE...!!!!
+Pippa Crawley It's on our "to-do list" :)
I love when I create a good painting. But I know it is good , Im not deluded. But sometimes I create a failed painting. I just know its bad and I have to give up on it. Ive learned to not be too discouraged when this happens because there could always be a great painting just around the corner.
Q: Which type og paint would you recomend for plein air paintings or for someone who's traveling a lot?
I was so proud of my first oil paintings. But now I kinda start to hate the new ones I make.
I have learned a lot from your video's. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I would like to approach a gallery owner about a show and wonder how much inventory I should have before talking with him. I have illustrated a children's book and am known in my area for my humorous drawings but I love painting landscapes and equestrian realism. Is it difficult to break into a new genre.
I think using small photograph is good to check color, and u can using ipad and zoom to get exact size you want to paint instead of printing big photo
Hello Mark; fanstatic videos, Thank you so much!!!! I have a question, Is this limited palette for beginners in painting realism only and why there are so many colors in the market?
hi Mark, will you tell us what is difference between Sir Sargent method and yours method? Will you please do a demo of Sir Sargent method.
Hello, Mark! I live in a very rural area without an art community. I was wondering your thoughts on finding a mentor? Is there a proper way to contact artists online to seek advice or critiques? Thank you for doing these videos. They are very helpful.
Mark, I see you draw with your paint brush. Do you ever do a preliminary drawing on canvas with charcoal or pencil? When would you do this?
Thanks, Brent
I applied for a job once, and did a required piece to submit with the application. I worked so hard on it. I showed it to someone before I applied and they said "Really? You've done much better than that before." It about destroyed me. I also didn't get the job.
I paint wildlife with realism. Any specific advice regarding wildlife painting . I use reference photos from my own or from friends.
Would you ever consider using a color corrected 4K (high resolution) screen as your reference in the same way that you use a high resolution photograph? Some of the color correction software that you can get nowadays is pretty advanced so it might be a cool idea to sit something like a Panasonic 4k tablet right next to your canvas and paint from it (so to speak.) You could also zoom in and out of the details in your image whenever you nedded to.
CALLOUSMANNER1 You would probably want to use a color checker rather than painting directly on the screen, but anyway, I've gotten a lot of questions about checking colors from screens and I'm going to address them in an upcoming episode when I have my new color checker to use for demoing. And you're right, with some technical know-how, a good understanding of color, and good tweakable display, you can get very good colors from screens these days (as you can with prints).
Oakie doke Mark, thanks for response.
In view of what you said about Phthalo Blue, why would you opt for Phthalo Turquoise? Why not Cobalt Turquoise? Is it just the expense or something else?
Question: Why do you use burnt umber instead of raw umber ?
I will be doing some painting in a small sitting room in a flat in England. I don't think it would be possible for me to build and use a shadow box as a tool for painting a still life, in this small sitting room. Do you think that is make or break for doing a realist still-life painting or is it still possible to do this type of painting without a shadow box?
Do you usually frame your completed work, have it framed, or leave it unframed? Do frames make a difference in profit, in your experience?
I want to take your private class but I want to be prepared. I have been color checking. built a shadow box. Need to get rid of my paints and use yours. Do you have a pre-class list of things to get or study. I have learned a lot with your videos but would love to take your class.
Mark: Consider marketing the canvas priming paint that "dead-on" matchs the neutral colored palettes you are going to be making. It would save us all time to just buy the paint to match our new neutral palettes! Time is money and I would buy both.
Robert Hopkins It's something we'll be working on at some point. :)
What do you think about lead based white paints like cremnitz? I'm quite new to painting and I'm trying to figure out which paints to have on my palette and I've heard that titanium white can be quite chalky when mixed with cadmium paints, and also that lead paint is better for painting flesh because it's more transparent. You're thoughts on this would be really helpful thanks.
tony hines I didn't have time to get to this in Episode 9 but I will probably answer it in an upcoming episode.
How do you feel about working from reference on a tablet or screen instead off of a print/photo?
***** I got a few questions about this last week that I didn't have time to answer, so I will address it in Episode 9 or 10. :)
How do you feel about the word "talent"? After long days/nights in the studio, I get a bit irritated when someone says to me, "Oh, you're so LUCKY you're so talented. The rest of us have to work harder at a living." I personally prefer the word "skilled". I think that the particular set of skills I sharpen are what allows me to paint the way that I like, not a natural born gift that required nothing.
Mary Draws I answer this in Episode 10 :)
i know you explained briefly about using a color checker outside, but could you please go in to more detail with this. can you do a demo or something to show how it works. in my experience i didn't have much luck. can you show an outdoor painting you did with the color checker. thanks
ebutuoyjg I am going to have my new color checker design ready in the next week and I want to use it to demonstrate some things, including using it for plein air, so I think I'll be addressing this in Episode 10.
Draw Mix Paint sounds great. good stuff. looking forward to getting a few color checkers
Mark, do you Self Portrait? If so, would you care to share one or two. Would you suggest using a mirror or a photo when attempting a Self Portrait?
Dunning-Kruger effect
Your patience is to unbelievable are you like that in your life
Artists curse ! Dude give me some good news ! Just kidding mark . Would love to have you as a tutor .i am having issues
it seems I even don't need to paint to be cursed. this happens to me multiple times: when I watch a painting video, at the beginning I feel the finished work is so great and I want to learn it; but after carefully watching through the process, I felt it's not good, how it's possible I thought this work is good from the beginning. somehow the knowledge of the painting process just totally ruin the initial impression
I am learning to paint by my self for so many years, I have been studied many styles and tendeces, but my problem when I painting is that I paint from my imagination, I can't to capture, to reflect them in the linen as I have seen in my imagination, besides each one painting take me a lot of time and I never like when I finished it or I feel insecure and I sufer for this.I have studied your method for give more realism to my paintings, though I like much the postimpresionist stroke and I paint figurative style. Could you please give me some advices? I do my better efforts, but I think don´t go anywhere.Could your method to help me to accurate my works?
Lilliana Pérez Alvarado Yes, painting from life will make you better at painting from your imagination, but you have to stick with it for a while. Think about it like going to school or training.
Thanks! Also all your demos and videos have been helpfull to me in the sense of to guide me and focus in my mistakes at the time of to paint, because though I know what I am going to paint, I am always nervous in front of the linen and I am very impulsive and obsessive correcting mistakes in my works. I do exactly what you advice not to do. For this reason I think I am going to improve a lot with your techniques. Besides, I have been during long time on the web triying to get painting teachings but your demos are the most complete and organized system of teaching that I have found. You have very patient explanation.I last a lot of time painting one only work because of the improvisation in the use of colors and values, but i think a conscious planificatione is better.
The paradox is: people who want to improve usually see room for improvement. People who want to feel perfect find excuses to why they might already be perfect.
What are those bumps on your forearms?
i think a mirror helps..it helps me atleast
Suggest me some oil painting books only for beginners
Q: How did the old masters achieve the soft subtle reds & blues in their portraits and figures? When I try to apply red & blue glazes on my dried flesh tones, my glazes are too rich in chroma - creating a very unnatural look. Could you break down the glazing techniques of the old masters in how they were able to apply those soft blues & reds?Thank you Mark.
thanks!
7)
there is the srtists curse and the writers curse as well as the love making curse when when you go totally soft and dead right in the middle of love making....shit happens all the time...
Maybe look at it in a mirror??
All that work and then not appreciate the result!! Maybe the raison is that when you are "just" copying real life, you miss to put in the part that is YOU..
Mark your videos are not bad, but the way you try to sell yourself is a bit too much.
This artist curse is so fucking common its not even funny