Paint Shapes, Not Things - Demonstration Video
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- This week I am adding a 20 minute video of my blocking in a 20" x 20" canvas shape by shape.
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This is probably the best how to start painting tutorial. I always feel intimidated when I look for a subject by the amount of details that I forget that painting is more about shape and light then tiny details, at least at the start. You go from simple to complex, not the other way around. Thank you for diminishing my beginner anxiety level!
I can't believe how much I am learning about my watercolour work through watching your tutorials in oil paints. The two mediums couldn't be more different but so many of the principles you show us can apply to all mediums. The improvement in my composition is really making me feel good about what I am doing. Thank you so much Ian. You are a wonderful and generous teacher.
Of course oil and watercolor have their own dictates about how to apply paint. But beneath that as you point out is the composition, the design, the big value masses. Those are the same challenges for each. Glad you are enjoying the videos.
I agree! I've recently taken up watercolor again after not painting for too long. I'm browsing around for tutorial videos to brush up on my skills (pun intended), and found this one. There's a lot to learn from this video that applies to any kind of painting medium.
I also learned alot from this for my digital painting skills! I see now that Charcoal drawings, oil, water colour, digital is basically all the same! Amazing!
I’ve also been doing watercolors for a little over a year. I just stumbled upon your videos and this is helping my mind conceptualize how to do the details in a painting! I see how color blocking makes everything come together. You make it look so easy. I will be trying this painting myself with watercolors. Thank you so much and I’m excited to see your other videos!
Right!!
cher Ian, vos cours sont d une tres grande qualité, depuis que je suis votre méthode mes résultats sont infiniment meilleurs merci
I admire the subtle changes in the olours you are using right from the start and throuout the painting. The composition is lovely
So glad you like it.
I found this video memorizing. I was interrupted twice while watching, but instantly glued to it again as I continued. Very nice!
the longer vid was wonderful. It really helps viewers to understand more fully the process, working value, and color temp, back and forth. And the narration is really valuable to help viewers to understand "your process".. I love the brushes...
Thanks Greg. More people watched, so far, the long video than the short one. Not sure what to do with that information. I thought the reason everyone liked the videos is they were short and bite-sized.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition I like your composition videos because they are so very well articulated and the subject matter of composition is critical (a concept this beginner learned from you and your book!) and because most other artists posting on UA-cam do not talk about composition. When discussing composition, the shorter videos on Tuesday mornings are perfect as they get the point across with the right amount of time to hold my interest. Later when I have time, I love watching the longer “companion” videos to see how the painting is developed and hear your thoughts and rationale behind all the choices you make. Keeping the longer ones under 30 minutes works well for me.
In other words, the long complements the short - and I love them both.
Your commentary hits me right where I need it. Somehow your vocabulary really penetrates my brain. Thank you for the longer version.
That's great Jenny. Glad you found the vocabulary resonated with you.
It's people like Ian Roberts that make UA-cam such a valuable teaching and learning resource. Thank you Ian.
Thanks so much Paul. I really appreciate your letting me know you are enjoying the videos.
Such a beautiful painting. I was mesmerised by the way you added the details and brought the painting to life. You made it look so simple.
Glad you enjoyed. Appreciate you letting me know you like the painting.
I'd put away my attempts at oil paintings but after watching your videos on blocking in (see the shapes not the things), values, and temps, I have a sense of fresh air, clarity to get back in painting again. Your videos are priceless, Thank you!💫👍🏻😀
I'm curently an art student and your videos are really helping me grasp basic painting concepts, keep up the great content!
Thank you for going over the top with focus on pushing darks and pulling the lights. This was most useful. I love the complexities versus the simplicity. You are oh so kind to share your knowledge.
Delighted you enjoyed it Candace!
I enjoy learning so much in your videos. Ill never be a professional artist but, I do enjoy painting and your instruction is encouraging. Thank you.
such a great picture in such a short time. but as one great painter said, there's a lifetime of experience. very inspiring Ian, thank you.
Ian, thank you so much for this detailed explanation of your work. I find this fascinating. I appreciate your time and effort and thank you for sharing your process. Much appreciated.
You are very welcome
Thank you so much for sharing your excellent teaching videos. 🙌🤩 And your left handedness is appreciated. 😄
I love this! Thanks Ian. One of my biggest worries/mistakes is when I overwork the painting. The way you've broken it down and so slowly and patiently added back really taught me something.
That makes me happy to hear. Glad it was helpful.
Very helpful and fun watching everything come together. Looking at the photo I would have been going way to dark on the shadows and see how, once again, your values are where the differences are. Seeing you paint in the figure was enlightening since I have put figures in some of my paintings and forever struggled to put in features (ended up not having features, just marks) and now I see it is not necessary which will make it so much easier. I am getting so much out of these videos and I thank you once again.
Hi Julie, there's a lot of light bouncing around when the sun shines that fills the shadows with light. Cool light but light none the less. It's like Goldilocks, not too dark, not too light. Just right. And I have to say I hate fiddling with tiny features on a face. Scrape them off and it usually looks fine. Glad you found the video helpful.
Brilliant thanks for the step by step instructions.
Really excellent breakdown of solid compositional devices and setting up the entire image in a loose yet beautifully structured underpainting.
Glad I could help Chris
It is amazing to watch a lovely painting appear stroke by stroke, dab by dab. Very informative and your instruction will definitely help me improve my artistic efforts.
That's great Sherry. Glad to hear it.
Bless your heart.
You are an amazing teacher.
Thank you.
Love your illustration
makes me remind of edward hopper. love it and all the explanation
Great explanation and painting. Thank you.
I enjoyed seeing how you painted the top half of the painting.
Really a good work. The fact she is holding a bouqet of flowers, while there are no blossoms to see anywhere else in the picture makes me interpret it, but i keep the interpretation for myself since this is a beautiful painting nevertheless. ♥ Also thanks for the lecture about how you paint. it helps me as an artist to get motivation again and try something new.
Stunning
phenomenal painting
Thanks so much
Ive just found you and subbed. Your so clear on your teaching. I’m a watercolorist, but also love to do oils.
Your blocking in was so perfect. I’ve known about “ large shapes”. but watching your step by step was so helpful. Thank you so much. 🌴 Tallahassee Florida
Makes me really happy to hear it. Thank you Barbra
Thank you For sharing. Great video
Amazing tutorial! Can see how you do this very clearly! Thank you very much!
incredible, love your descriptions of the process. makes me think of painting differently
Gosh, this was useful. Thank you. I’m going to follow your lessons now. You are a wonderful teacher.
Thank you very much for this tutorial that simplifies painting. It's very inspiring. Thank you
I can appreciate where you want me to look. But know, I’m looking at everything. Soaking it all in.
Yes thank you, this is very helpful.
Oh, Ian that was wonderful! I enjoyed the longer length and detailed commentary. Oils are so different than watercolor, it is a whole different mode of thinking at a painting. Listening to you gives me new ways to think as I am working in acrylics now. By the way, l have 2 of your books and I am reading your novel, “ A Land Apart.” It is so thoughtful and illuminating, especially at the part with Brûlée and the priest. I am immensely saddened by what has happened to the native peoples in the Americas. Thank you.
Hi Barbara, first I'm delighted you are enjoying the videos. And that with acrylics the method now matches oils more closely. Of course I am delighted you have both MC and CA, but what a wonderful surprise to hear you are reading A Land Apart. I'll do a video one week on the process I went through to create the paintings for that. Delighted you are enjoying it. The beginning, as you say, of a sad history.
I've just found you and after only a couple of videos in I'm so glad I have! I love this painting.
Thank you so much Eve. Glad you liked the videos and the painting. All the best.
New fan, thank you, wonderful!
Glad I could help Suz
Thank you. I got a lot out of this. Should help speed up my plein air painting.
I came to this conclusion when I was learning how to digitally paint. I am on the 1 year mark. Although I had YT vids like this to help me. I had to disassociate everything I knew about the thing in front of me so I can actually SEE the thing in front of me. It made me make one of my fundamental rules of painting.
1. Paint what you see not what you think you see.
I used an example like this. Go look at a cup in the kitchen, then go into the next room and try to paint or draw that cup to the best of your ability. That drawing right there is what one think they see every time their eyes are off the object for more than 4 seconds. They are recollecting the brains simplified representation rather than actually painting whats in front of them.
Then the other problem I ran into trying to run to the details as fast as possible to familiarize myself with the thing. That made sure I failed all the time.
Details should be added at the VERY LAST POINT! After stringing up these random objects on the canvas, you should then add the details to brig familiarity to the viewers.
In a sense I had to turn off my brain and then make everything alien to me. It's such a rich and liberating feeling. Instead of people I saw objects and the light interacting with these objects. Then I would just keep putting shapes shapes shapes, not caring about how the person looks or the landscape looks...
I turn into a mindless zombie and let my hand move while I look back and forth between the objects and the canvas.
That's another thing, you should not think about how to move your hands/arms while painting. You should let it flow with the curves and lines of the objects in front of you.
(I will admit maybe that's a ME thing only. I haven't asked other artists yet)
My other 2 rules were.
2. Learn the materials/tools that you use well. So that you can RARELY be surprised when something happens on the canvas.
3. Paint the essential representation of the objects that give it its form. THEN add the details. If you blow off the form and structure and go straight to the details, it will always come out bad. The paining is made or broken at the beginning stages. No amount of detail will save it.
I haven't been digitally painting for a while so I haven't made any new rules. I took some time off to learn about color and mixing colors. I am trying to reduce my time...Sometimes I will go 8 hrs, sometimes 4 hrs...it's wildly different. I think it's because I haven't been practicing on speeding myself up.
WOW, this was so helpful. The finished work is absolutely beautiful. Looking forward to more of your videos, this was my first one!
So glad you like it Angela. There are now 86 videos. You can find all of them on youtube if you're interested. All the best.
Thanks for all your detailed instruction.
You are welcome Kathleen.
Really nice, Ian.
Thanks Gayle.
Nice Really painted well .
Great video!
Just stunning!
Thank you!
Thanks for the demo. It would be nice. If you share your color palate and also show how to mix different greens.
Hi Kamlesh, glad you enjoyed the video. I used to include the palette but it just takes so long to edit I had to stop. I've found someone that can do some editing for me so I may do a demo from time to time showing the palette. And I have a lesson on mixing greens coming up in a few weeks. You are not the first to ask.
I enjoyed it…thank you.
I love it. I'm so glad I found this channel. Thank you!
Glad you enjoy it Rudolf.
Yes, I believe its helpful to.me
Wanting to paint parks in my town. Thankyou.
Delighted you enjoyed it Allene
Good lesson, Ian. Thanks.
You are welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.
yes the best tutorial I have ever seen as well.
Thanks so much Joan!
Very helpful, indeed! Thank you so much for these videos!
You're very welcome Selma.
Thank you
I like your style. It's somewhat Hopper-esque
Thank you. Hopper does do great shapes of light and dark in his landscapes. Appreciate it. All the best.
yes very helpful. thanks Ian. 😀
Thanks Sarah. Best wishes.
So helpful!
Glad I could help Robin
Wonderful instruction.
Glad you found it helpful Claudia.
Brilliant thank you
Your are welcome.
really cool. thanks
Glad you liked it Jon.
Thank you, always informative and helpful.
Glad it was helpful Lynn.
You will probably never see this comment, but if you do. I just want to thank you. The art you make in these videos seem like Edward Hopper to me, which is a type of art I despise (beauty wise). I like Rembrant or Caravaggio. However, there are no other youtube channel I have seen that help me reach the art I want to make for myself as your videos. You help me understand and see art in a deeper way any other on youtube.
I think leaving that little piece of light under the hedges would have maybe made it more interesting.
Just learning today
Thank you 🙏🏾. It was helpful.
You’re welcome Usha. All the best.
very nice man!
Glad you liked it Alvin
Hello stranger. Thoroughly enjoyed watching and listening to your demo. Soaking it all in. Hope you are well and painting for yourself!! Do you have any shows coming up?
Hi Gillian, great to hear from you. Glad you liked the video. I am planning in the next couple of weeks to get a link on the youtube channel to a place to buy paintings. Any plans to go back to France? All the best.
That link will be a welcomed by many, I imagine. Travelling in the US the entire month of September then will decide which month to return to France. Most likely December. Fingers crossed. I seriously need to catch up with everyone. Lots of good things happening. Take care.
Very nice
Thanks Sherry.
Awesome, thank you!
You are welcome Dean.
Thank you for this tutorial, I'll buy a drawing tab and will try to do it with photoshop. Namaste
Glad you enjoyed it
I really enjoyed the video and watching your painting process, this is really helpful, my question is, how do you know when you've made an area looking too busy or not?
HI Edward, glad you liked the video. Your question I suppose doesn't have a cut and dry answer but I would say (using this video as an example) each shape, the lit side of a hedge, the shadow side of the hedge have the primary role to play in the image and the illusion. So you can add, nuanced color to each of those shapes to make it more interesting. I would say it gets too busy when they nuancing starts to interfere with the main purpose of the shape i.e. the shadow side of the hedge. If you start getting little marks that are too light for example you could disrupt the shadow shapes main role and then you would find that your painting looks too busy. If you keep standing back 8-10 feet, viewing distance, and see how what your painting looks like you can usually see if you are breaking apart the main shapes with too much busy and unnecessary information. Hope that at least starts to answer your question.
You are a wonderful teacher, thank you!
Would you do a demo with watercolor please?
Hi Albertina, thank you. I really appreciate you telling me. I hardly ever paint in watercolor. I probably would not be the best instructor for that. But let me think about it and see if I can develop a lesson around the idea. I've got weeks of lessons planned now so it won't be right away. But let me think about it.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Thank you so much Ian, I'm so glad you have many lessons planned!
Thanks, I like to see how you add more to the block in without getting too fussy
Hi Lorette, that's the thing, blocking in the big shapes and then nuancing them without losing them. Best wishes.
hello, are you you using oil paint or acrylic paint?
Thank you..I think I got it now
Great news.
Why didn't you include the bush on the right?
This is so helpful! thank you! I am trying to learn to paint in a naïve style so I'd stop halfway through this tutorial haha! Could you please tell me how you manage to not let your colours blend on the canvas when you come up to the edge or another / paint smaller shapes over an already painted area please? thank you!
You just need enough paint on the brush so the mark you make now pushes paint into the paint already there.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition thank you, I will keep this in mind and practice! I'm really enjoying your channel.
Are you using oil paints?
Are u using oil ?
Excellent demo! THANK YOU IAN. I am curious as to what type of video camera you use to produce all of your great lessons?? I would like to produce a watercolor demo and post it. ?
Hi Eva, delighted you are enjoying the videos. I just use my iPhone (10, I think). For youtube broadcast the quality is fine. I airdrop it to my MacBook Pro and edit it with Screenflow. Bit of a learning curve there but not much. Good luck with the video.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Oh, Okay, Thank you very much.
I am so grateful for this!
Glad I could help Mason
Hi Ian , great video and a lovely painting. Where in Ontario did you live
Hi Craig, glad you like the video and the painting. Thank you. Grew up in TO and had a farm near Thornbury for decades.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition nice I live in a little place called Bancroft
😃
I can't believe how much I am learning about my watercolour work through watching your tutorials in oil paints. The two mediums couldn't be more different but so many of the principles you show us can apply to all mediums. The improvement in my composition is really making me feel good about what I am doing. Thank you so much Ian. You are a wonderful and generous teacher.
Thanks for this demo. I’m working on “blocking in” and my paintings are improving. I find that my paintings often go through an “ugly”stage. And, because of your demos I am learning to work through this to some level of success. I too live in Ontario and a lemon tree would be spectacular.
Hi Sue, I suppose all paintings go through the initial enthusiasm stage, all vision, then as they proceed reality starts to creep in and the vision starts taking a hit (the ugly stage), then you just bear down and pull it together and it doesn't really match the glory of the initial vision, but it works.
Hey fellow ontarian :D
Great video! Thank you!
This turned out beautifully. Your mastery of “summer greens” is enviable. I found the commentary about colours used very helpful. When you are doing the block in, are you using thinned paint, or just applying the paint quite thinly? Or both? Or neither? Thanks Ian.. (I SO look forward to Tuesday mornings because of these tutorials.)
I agree, also, I am curious about the block in. It looks so bold, but the paint moves very easily. Hard to tell just by looking 0_o
Glad you enjoyed the demonstration video Linda. With a block in, particularly 20 x 20, I might use a touch of mineral spirits if the shape is large. Say the lit and shadow on the grass. I don't want to struggle to get the paint down so just enough to give a good opaque layer easily. And the paint on the first layer is generally thin. Dry by the next day often.
Brilliant! Can't thank you enough for simplifying things which takes the mystery away and makes painting so much easier.
Really happy you find the videos helpful and making painting easier. Thanks for letting me know. Best wishes.
This is so fantastic, Ian! I'm so inspired to learn to paint this way, and even to draw. I ordered the pencils you recommend (blackwing matte), and can hardly wait to get started. As an abstract painter Ive always shied away from this level of detail and almost realistic impressionism. But you totally inspired me with your helpful step by step explanations. Thank you. 💖
Makes me happy to hear it. And you are welcome.
Thank you very much for this tutorial. I think, I should really reconsider my approach to painting by working in basic shapes instead of detailing too much in a graphic style!
Really appreciated seeing the process here. You also are inspiring me to try to paint larger than I normally do! I really enjoyed this painting. Thanks for sharing your wisdom here!
Thanks so much Danny. Glad you are enjoying it
Most people cannot paint because they are painting their perceived definition of the thing, not what it actually looks like. Children do this more. They are painting the features the thing has according to them and they are painting features they consider important larger. They are painting ontologically, not visually. When we learn to actually paint what we see, we can begin to learn to modify what we see in order to get to an artistic interpretation that is more expressive than the actual appearance of the subject.
Beautifully done, Ian! So helpful to see the “fully-loaded” version, especially the “whys” behind how you decide to modify and improve. Love your subject and your approach!
Thanks Deb. So nice to hear from you. See you Saturday.
Great video on this entire painting! Can we see a photo of how you keep your palette so clean. This is such a problem for me. I end up cleaning it off then needing to remix colors.
Thank you 🙏🏼
Hi Kim, glad you liked the video. I do the same thing. I tend to block in similar colors, say all the dark greens. Then I might clean my palette and mix lit greens. I need to clean it from time to time as well. It is just I mix a series of related colors, clean up, mix another batch of related ones and so on.
This was so helpful ! Wow...I love how you did this so clearly...reducing it to the simplest forms.
This is a beautiful painting, Ian, and the longer edition is very helpful. Thank you!!
Hi Sandy, glad you found the longer one helpful. See you Saturday. All the best.
I'm into horses and portraits, but struggle with too much detail/overworking them. I'm going to try this method to see where it brings me. I'm so intrigued and fascinated to see how abstraction creates space. Love also how you exaggerate the light/warm colors to really enhance the light/shadow-play. This video is definately one of my absolute favourits. I'll go back to it time and time again for really a longer period of time. Thanks for your generosity!!!!!
Glad you found it helpful Patricia. Portraits and horses are two subjects that really pull us into the parts too quickly. Just as you are seeing they requiring thinking in terms of shapes of light and dark first.
Wet on wet I assume? Though you don’t mention it or the medium used. Wonderful demo.
Oil.