Why Painting Is So Hard
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2024
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Let's talk about why painting is so hard and challenging!
A. The act of putting something to paper in an accurate, beautiful and interesting manner is an amazing skill. It's not something that SHOULD necessarily be easy.
B. The different stages of incremental improvement.
1. Going beyond symbolism
2. Adding YOUR experience of the subject
3. Repetitive practice
I hope you find this helpful! Let me know your thoughts in a comment ^_^
- Liron
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** MUSIC CREDITS **
Music by Joakim Karud / joakimkarud
Music by @joakimkarudmusic
You have just ‘nailed it’ Liron! You’ve just verbalized my biggest frustration, and my primary goal........to finally break away from painting what I SEE and begin painting what I FEEL. I fight this every time I sit down to paint. I have to say, listening to you is so refreshing because you have such a wonderful way of expressing what I think we all deal with and you really do GET the struggle. Thanks for all you do. I have learned so much from you and you are an amazing artist.
Yes! Thanks Liron. I saw a beautiful pale early morning winter sky a few days ago. Pinks, blues, grays and different shades of white with not much volume. I thought, hmmm. Those colors deserve voluminous volume. Later that day I painted it the way it made me feel. I didn't like what was under it so now I'm looking at that sky until I feel what deserves to be under it. I may fail but I love the process and its unique to me.😁💜
In my opinion I equate artistic style to handwriting or signature. Everyone learns how to write the same letters but each person has their own natural writing style. I think as artist or student artist complete exercises and paintings each person will find there own artistic style. I had an expectation of what I thought my style was going to be but as I completed drawings, paintings and exercises that I had a natural style. I’m still finding it but me going through your courses continue to guide me in this adventure.
Too many people WANT and prefer to copy other people's styles, unfortunately. When you're addicted to shopping, cellphones and avoiding collectors calling you, while you're likely fat and unhealthy (if you're in the US or another Western country), you never develop as a person. So, there's no desire to be authentic recently, only fake filtered copycat garbage. I rarely see any unique styles. Mostly a few popular styles done by too many people.
Thank you for sharing from your heart.
My pleasure! Thank you for watching 😊🙏🏼
Your great gift: you're able to de-mystify the process while still having reverence for the awe and alchemy of it. Painting is a frustrating blast precisely because of its mix of the systematic and the magical. Thank you for everything you do, Liron, you're a loved presence in my studio practice.
Thank you 😊😊 Happy I can use these abilities to help you and others! More on the way 😉🎨🎨
The topics of your video's are very unique and VERY what people often need to hear and cant hear anywhere else on you tube.
Liron, can you make a video with a practice schedule with exercises for every day of the week? Like the video you had done talking about your weekly practice but like a practical one that we can follow and take ideas from the exercises.
My goal is to create a weekly practice schedule and improve my drawing and painting skills.
Thank you very much!!
Yes, pleeeeaase! I'm hooked back on watercolor but I have to overcome my after-work-lazyness on a regular basis...a "one-a-day-challenge" or something would be sooo helpful for that!
He's good at public speaking and his editing is very basic. He set it up to do it easily. He could make a video every day, and still have a few hours for practice and occasional commissions. Work smart, not hard.
I love your insight and honestly
Thank you Donna ^_^
Happy I can share with you
I am happiest and most pleased with my work when I am not trying to paint or draw like another artist's work. I just try to pick up techniques to help me improve my own work. My friends seem to like my art that I paint when I am painting what I feel and not what I see. It is almost like they see my struggles when I try to put in too much detail.
That’s amazing! Authenticity really works 😁👏🎨
Thanks for posting this! I’m currently working on my first commission (alcohol marker illustration of a ski boat at sunset) and it’s been going well but it’s also been terrifying. When I took on the commission I thought, “Oh, yeah! I’ve been working with markers for a year now. I can do that!” Then I realized that the only part of this piece I’ve actually drawn before is...none of it. I’m a perfectionist so it’s been really hard for me to accept with this piece, which is a nature scene with a very precise and specific type of vehicle, that the very nature of alcohol markers necessitates some amount of surrealism. I’m happy with how it’s turning out and how it represents the way I see the world, but at the same time it’s trippy seeing the difference between photos and my interpretation of them, and I have to keep reminding myself that my client is familiar with my style and if she didn’t want my style she would’ve just framed a photo of the boat or asked somebody else to draw it in photorealism. Hearing what I’ve been telling myself come from somebody else who’s further along on their artistic journey is really encouraging.
Yes! The fact you got it in the first place means something 😁 I find that commissions push us to do things differently, which teaches us a lot of new things we wouldn’t have learned if we painted only what we want all the time (:
Words matter. “Authentic” - that’s the word you used that I have never thought about to describe how I hope my paintings will be, but you have articulated it. Not authentic as in realistic, but authentic as in my own, genuine expression. I love your demonstration and technique videos, but I am equally grateful for those that provoke thought and insight. Thank you so much.
So happy that word resonated with you, Gail (:
Yes, authentic can be so many things - it all depends on the person.
I think for me authentic currently means raw and as direct of a representation as possible of the subject, in a believable manner.
Thank you for the kind words ^_^
Yes! ❤
I think the two factors that prevent people from painting authentically are social media and the feedback loop from it and the never ending quest to find a style. If you want to find a style the solution is to keep drawing and painting because you naturally have a style. The only thing you need to do is get out of your way. However most people i see are trying to emulate people to use that person's style instead. Having a style and liking your own style are two totally different things. I think my work looks uniquely mine however I'm working to tweak that into something i like better.
Social media might be good at getting you out there and exposed to others but it's not a good community for artists i think. What is popular =\= what is good necessarily. I follow a bunch of artists who are excellent but not popular. I think too many people want to be popular on social media rather than authentic to themselves. If authenticity is the goal then stay off social media.
What does social media have to do with doing art authentically? Most artists are insecure and don't share stuff online, they CONSUME it. I just suspect, most new artists follow the same handful of lessons that the brave minority posts. I think that most artists aren't authentic simply because they aren't authentic as humans, to begin with. You need to know your unique self and live fully as yourself, otherwise your art is just as fake as you.
Thank you Lion! I’ve been,for all my adult life, a nurse & have used my left brain function to analyze & problem solve in my professional world as well as in my personal life. Now that I’m retired, my goals have been to learn something so new - things that I knew almost nothing about, but appreciated nonetheless. I started with orchids & moved into watercolor art.I’ve made lots of progress in learning to replicate some skills by watching UA-cam. I’m intentionally looking at scenes & analyzing what catches my eye about the subject matter. In my minds eye, I paint it as realistically as possible, and then I paint it a second time (in my brain), to make a viewer notice what impresses me about the scene. I can only do this in my mind now but my goal is that one day my hands can snapshot what draws my eye. I think this is the process that you described in the video. Thanks again for sharing with us.
Thank you for another thought-provoking video. The quest for authenticity reminds me of when each of us was young and the teacher in school was showing us how to form the alphabet. We used to have to fill those little triple-lined worksheets with letters that were formed JUST SO according to her exact instructions. We did our best at it, but it took slow and deliberate effort that wasn't comfortable and none of us continued to write like that once we made it through that part of our education. We each developed our own unique style that sets us apart from everyone else and that others can easily identify as having been done by us. Best of all, that style happened all by itself without us having to even think about it. I suspect that's how it is with art. As long as we attempt to paint to some standard that someone else has set for us, we're fighting our inner selves just like we did for the teacher. We just need some some distance from "performance art" and some time spent just messing around and having fun and our authentic styles will reveal themselves.
Thats a very interesting analogy! I will hold that 1 i guess its in the personal brushstrokes that our personal selves lye so we need to sit back and relax on that and it WILL break through 👍🏻
Excellent analogy 👍🏻
Been following you ever since I first watched you on UA-cam ... want to say I so appreciate and learn from all you share Liron ... thank you. You are a great teacher and artist. Hoping next time you’re in Cleveland you have a workshop event.
Thank you Nancy! 😊🙏🏼 I hope to come visit again soon!
I don’t live in Cleland, but would travel there for a workshop!
More great insight, Liron, very thought-provoking. Your transparency and openness with your process is refreshing - you don't pretend to have all the answers and aren't afraid to show it, and that's both humbling and compelling. Thanks again for sharing so much of your journey, you're really very inspirational.
I’ve been away from the art world and practice that I lost my confidence and creativity. However, having listening you by pure coincidence I got hooked and I slowly got my easel , paint (still perfectly in good shape) and brushes. For 4 days all I did was washes. Then I dared following you.
Liron, this completely makes sense. I am just breaking through being able to simplify what I am looking at so I can make that leap to my own expression. You explained the stages very well...I now have some moderately good technique and I am just starting to be able to plan my paintings to say what I am feeling. I am not yet achieving the impact/emotion I want to evoke. When I post something I may get 2 or 3 likes...yet I know my technique is good. My goal for this year is to have my paintings "sing" what I am feeling :) Thank you for sharing your experiences with us...helps me to know I should not give up!
No doubt you nailed it. We can study a subject but practice drawing the same thing a hundred times you will see that at the end it looks like your style comes through. Easier said than done, thats my biggest challenge. Thank you Liron.
Thank you Alicia! 😊 That’s so true
Liron
What you are saying applies mainly to figurative painting. However, even that involves less realistic, less tangible aspects, which you touch upon. Personally I do not think a painting should be "a photograph in paint". The artist should interpret the subject and change it to meet their creative goals. Get away from the "tyranny of reality". This is a level beyond technique that many artists don't seem to realise exists.
Andrew
Yes it is true. most of the time we are not able to depict the things exactly similar to what we expect. Repited practicing may lead to perfection.
Great analysis Liron, makes perfect sense when u think about it. Also I honestly can tell your work apart from others as soon as I see it even amongst many others . You do have a style .
Yep. I only started watercolouring a few months ago. I have more or less learnt some of the basic techniques, or at least in theory! But it's the finding my style and favourite subject matter that is proving a bit of a hurdle. I don't want to produce exact, perfect, detailed copies of what I can see (partly because as I have absolutely no artistic background and no drawing skills, it would be almost impossible, but partly because if I wanted to produce exact photographic images, I would take up photography). On the other hand, as much as I admire the skills and talent of artists who produce very loose, almost abstract paintings, I don't particularly want to go that far myself. I guess it's just a matter of experimenting and practising until I find my path, but it's difficult. It feels a bit like trying to decide what you want to do when you grow up when you really don't know what you want, only what you don't want!
I always feel that for me, my ability to put “me” into my work is way ahead of my technical ability.
That's still better than being a copycat. I'm sure now your skills caught up to your personal style! ❤ After 3 years.
As a realism painter I often hear people comment on my work saying “WOW that looks so real and the detail is incredible” and I take that as high praise even though a loose watercolorist would scoff and say “why not just take a picture if you’re going to paint like that”? To which I’d say “I am not a machine (ie: camera) making a photo, I am using both my hand and my brain to paint that “same” image, but on a 2-D surface with paint, graphite or pastel. In my playbook that is talent. Great vid Lion.
Colored pencil here and realism. Pencils are a long slow process. It can take months to get that final mark on paper. But sometimes I have doubts about my realism. But I realize I can see more. It takes many different pencils to create the color of the shadows going to light on a face. And many layers. So I think he's right about some seeing more details.
Agree!
Photo camera can do realism better than you. Copying reality is easy. Interpreting it is way harder, you seem to fail at that.
Thank you for permission! In my practice, I am finding fault with myself if it does not look realistic enough and then often end up overworking it. I need to learn to let go and not judge myself as hard because I'm afraid it will hold me back from finding "my style". For instance, I love COLOR and I want to experiment with using colors that are not necessarily in my reference photo, but it's hard for me to break the conformity. Thanks for your videos!
Realism is for photo cameras. You're an artist with your unique view on life, so use your brain! Don't try to beat best tool for realism, called a camera. Others can take a photo too. But creating art is very different. Creative process is NOT done by copying with photorealism. Use your brain!
The symbol thing is the most important thing imo. After the age of 12 we percieve things through an idea. Like the hand is a ball with 5 sausages attached. So we don't see the reality but the idea we have what we think it looks like. It takes great efforts to change that. You actually create new pathways in your brain once you figure that out. Really fascinating.
I'm still struggling to paint what I see, but I can appreciate that there comes a time where you have to break away from that to grow as a painter. I think a passionate painter never stops growing. 😁 Great message.
Yes, and I think that's the bottom line - it's a never-ending learning process (:
And different people can go through it in significantly different orders and ways!
If you want to paint what you see, there's a better and easier form of art. It's called photography. Fine arts like painting requires artist mind interpretation of reality, not photorealism! So...Watercolour is a wrong tool for realism, you photo camera is.
You always have the best topics! I am always very happy for your insights and lessons! Thank you!
Thank you so much ^_^
Trying to go based on the messages and questions I get, very happy these hit home!
That's the level I'd like to get to, is being able to compose and express my feelings into the paintings. Not sure if it would be understood by others but more importantly for me to feel satisfied with what I'm expressing.
so insightful! I think this is the major challenge for every real artist
Indeed! (:
Thank you so much for this! especially #2, I am trying to convey this to my friends and family. most of them get it, my mom is the hardest to sell, ha. thanks again for all you do for us as artists.
So, why do you need to convey anything to them? Why? Is your ego trying to be "RIGHT", and them wrong? Why are you even talking about it? Apply this to your art! Don't use empty words.
Excellent video! You have verbalized the challenge I face every time I start a painting. The technical aspects of art are daunting enough that I often lose the end goal that I am creating an expression of my perception, not someone else's perception or a camera's capture.
That's it Liron!! Personal, unique, creative!!! This is exactly what I can't seem to get. I try to emulate different people's work, the ones who can paint with ease and produce a subject in art, like you of course. But I can't seem to create it myself. I have most of the skills but I still tend to copy what I see, it's just not enough for me. You've been a great help.
So, why not stop copying others? Just stop! I see only handful of styles done by millions of copycats. Value of that is zero $.
I understand what you are saying on an intellectual level, however, I’m not getting it on a deeper level. I rather feel like what you’re saying is floating just outside myself and I can’t grab it and hold on to it. I can’t believe you put it into words that at least gives me a bit more insight. Thanks for the video, as always, well done.
When I imagine myself painting, is a relaxing and fulfilling experience. But when I actualy do it, its stressfull.
Why? Are you perceiving your process as incorrect or something?
This is very encouraging and helpful on all levels. It truly is amazing how people throughout the ages have been able to depict scenes, portraits and events without the help of cameras. I believe we all have our own unique gifts for expressing ourselves creatively and conveying these qualities to others, so it's not productive to beat ourselves up if we can't do it right away. Just the desire to do it and to keep practicing until we get the results we want is all that's really needed. Thanks for this, Liron! :)
Interesting topic. There are some of my paintings that I do that just make me happy when I look at them. Usually it's the result of a happy accident. It's more of an expression than a representation of the subject.
Yes! The key was probably that it was pure expression - making the result less of an issue 😉 Way to go!
I think it was Schumann who said that Chopin could publish his music anonymously and everyone would still know it was his. I think that's what you are talking about.
So I was looking for info on toxic oil paints. . .and happily found this channel.
Bob Ross story says it all. Stay away from toxic arts, it's no joke. It's death.
Painting is hard or very hard because making good or great composition is very hard.
You can find as much as you want what you are "your expression" but if "your expression" is mundane or garbage then it's useless to others (you may think it's masterpiece).
Great artist make great composition and great subject.
I have seen great work using just simple techniques hanging in museums.
Wise man, I always like your videos and interesting, teach me a lot from You. Have start this year painting a little every day so far and one of the goals are painting a little every day, I made a very little sketchbook/doodle-book to use if I don’t have time or an idea of to paint. I wanna try not thinking so “high” on the pressure and with this I hope the fun-to-paint - feeling comes.
Great tips! Thr paradigm shift gives me hope :)
Happy to hear 😁
Spot on Liron, I know exactly what you are saying. I’m struggling with this A LOT. I can do a decent painting that looks exactly like the subject, but I can’t create a painting that has an imaginative aspect to it. This is very frustrating. I might as well take a photo as keep reproducing reality. I like painter like John Blockley, or Kurt Jackson for instance. Their work has a strong abstract element to it but is still recognisable as the subject. This is my goal. Realism is still fun to produce and I enjoy the process, but it’s not what I’m really after.
Photo cameras do realism better than you. So, just stop. Start thinking how to interpret the reality your unique way. Not just cooy it.
Thanks for your thoughts. I would love to improve, despite of all my practicing it doesn't seem to be. I
Hi Liron, happy new year. Does one of your books cover the fundamentals of art? Like value, shape, color, composition etc?
Israeli New Year is not on January 1. Their calendar obviously isn't western too.
It's my problem exactly. I love watercolor. But not knowing how to have a basic skill of drawing really hinders me. Not having a depth of field makes things difficult as well.
Are you better at drawing now, after 3 years? How did you improve?
I just read Citreon's comment below...yes! "The systematic and the magical" I think that is what you are saying too.
Well said.
recation ..exactlly
I have found it’s like peeling an onion layers an layers and it’s a process. I have just clicked in my brain to focus an paint the light an suddenly A whole new world opens new frontiers to conquer 😀 awesome video
Learning to paint is so hard because most instructors approach it in the way you outline it... and this approach misses a great deal of training that each of those instructors (including you) have acquired. "Breaking through symbolism" amounts to teaching students to draw outlines rather than yanking symbols from their child memories. From there they are told "go work on your muscle memory, your hand-eye coordination and you'll do great." THEN, at some point instructors start trying to teach composition, impressionism, etc.
But the truth is, to move beyond doing contour drawings one must train your motor and visual cortex (not right-side cognitive processes) about how to identify shapes, form, shadow, value and do it all simultaneously. This is HARD, particularly since art instructors NEVER taught about shifting from cognitive decision-making to training automatic interpretation of visual input. We humans are limited in our cognitive abilities. We are not good at multi-tasking anything requiring cognitive analysis. This is easily demonstrated and yet it's simply assumed that artists are doing it in their "right brains." Insert a bit of brain biology into the discussion and training to be an artist becomes a different process. Liron, if you think about where MOST beginner artists are on the learning curve you'll notice that most of them are beyond symbolism and struggling with the stuff I'm talking about here. Worrying about more sophisticated concepts in art is in their future, and they should be.
Fascinating, and dully noted.
Thank you for sharing 🙏🏼
Any information sources you recommend visiting to learn more about this?
@@LironYan I should have added that my comment wasn't to be critical of you in any way. We humans never talk about our brains properly. At least part of the reason is that we're very familiar with the "thinking" parts of brain activity, but our brain is very good at hiding the things it does subconsciously. We'd go nuts otherwise.
Here's an example of why this isn't just a semantic argument. When we walk into a restaurant our visual cortex immediately feeds us with information about 1) the size of the tables (are they rectangular and large enough for our group, 2) where the aisles are wide enough for us to walk, 3) and where chairs block the way. But think about what we NEED our brain to do when drawing that same room. Suddenly, drawing the table as a rectangle when it's foreshortened and actually looks square, where aisle borders need to converge, where cross-aisles need to be foreshortened, etc. shows us that we're asking our brain to reinvent how it interprets what's being seen. The fun thing is that good artists can switch back and forth between these two modes of viewing the room WITHOUT HAVING TO THINK ABOUT IT. If you have to think about all this stuff your cognitive brain will never be able to do all the things required to do a good drawing.
Try intuitive art lessons. There's almost no copying involved, but rather growing self-confidence in arts naturally.
I’m watching this video because I almost had a painting related meltdown for a commission