Bringing Art to Life (4)

Now, before you get worried about this week, don't worry; I had my fair share of qualms too. It's been a month, and I think it's time to get cooking with gas.  This week is going to be an overwhelming mix of knowledge and painting, and let me start by saying, there are going to be bonus blog posts.  Let's discuss the title that I have, Bringing Art to Life.  No, this isn't some resurrection scheme I have, it is simply transferring life to paper.  And when I mean life, I mean moving, interactive life.  Not trees, but moving life, like animals... and people. That's right!  To go all out this week, and push myself to the limits, I have a self-portrait!!!  I was thinking about painting an animal, say, the cat, or a random bird, but a human, that is a test of skill.  Now, before you worry, I did a SELF-portrait, simply because if it looks bad, I'm not suing myself.    But without further ado, let's move on.  

Hello World!

There are several ways a painting such as a self-portrait can be observed, one obviously being an artistic focus.  As you all know, light can be different colors, and be bright or dim, affecting the way objects look, including source photographs.  This week, there is only going to be ONE light source, and all light is to be blocked, making mixing and .gifs less of an eye-strain.   Another focus is the more logical anatomical focus, which observes how the subject should be shaped.  Proportions and lighting both lead to areas where art and physics interact, and these will be pointed out along the way, for those who happen to be more intellectual and analytical.  

So, this time, we are definitely using a grid, no excuses.  If everything is proportional to the larger canvas, many anatomical requirements will be skipped, meaning less studying, and more painting.  Let's begin!

Day -1 (3/14)

Preparing the Canvas

As I said earlier, getting proportions down correctly will be essential for bypassing most of the physics and anatomy needed to paint a city scene self portrait.  What I learned from past experience was that I suck with tracing rulers, so I decided to trace over the source photo with graph paper, placing each shape, object, or speck into position.  

Graphing's odd purposes

Day 1 (3/15)
Beginning the Background
  

Now, using the magic of paint dryer, I can effectively paint the pitch black sky, and wait for it to dry the next day, preventing the annoying plague of horizon blending.  So let's talk about a few different subjects as the background dries, and maybe even work on a few other areas of the painting. 

So this blog post, we are going to talk about the nature of shapes and how our brains perceive them this week.  On paintings or even photographs, 3-D objects can start to look 2-D, and more flat and rectangular than thick and far.  This relates to how our eyes see things, bringing in science and psychology information into something as simple as a brushstroke.  The retina of an eye senses light, and therefore processes things as 2-D, as it doesn't know that the lighter hues of the paint might be different sides of the prism.  Luckily, when looking at tangible objects that are right in front of you, the brain's visual processing assumes the dimensions as 3-D, because it's right there.  One of the main theories behind this is that the surroundings around such objects can be combined as a whole scene, forming a greater whole, making it easy to pick out objects.  However, on a flat canvas or paper, adding depth might become considerably difficult.  This retinal recognition is called form perception.  So using this information, what can it do in painting tall buildings?  Well knowing that a constant, smooth surrounding helps pick out 3-D objects, contrast and bright surroundings can help bolden the prismatic buildings behind me.  

More blog posts are sure to come, and as I find it easier to make 50-frame gifs rather than 300-frame gifs, blog posts will become shorter, but will be more frequent.  Expect a bonus blogpost around Thursday, another around Sunday, and maybe another more after that. Anyway, goodnight (even though no one's reading this right now) !