The power of white spaces

February 15, 2017

I once shared a portrait painting on the web. There were quite a few feed backs. One of the feed backs jumped out to me. The person said I shouldn't leave the background so plain, it will be nice if I paint the portrait in an environment. While I appreciate the person's feed back. I have to disagree that we have to fill the page with as much visual information as possible.

Like a brief pause or silence in a piece of music. White space is essential to bring out the contrast and to help the viewer focus on the subject. Experienced artists understand how to use those effectively. This is especially important for watercolor. Since you can't paint white, you need to put in some thoughts and leave the white out. Unless you are using gouache, but it is not as clean and doesn't feels the same.

There are few reasons why you want to leave an area white or very light (one light wash):

Bring out the dark/shadow next to it - When you leave white, it turns into light in your painting, when put light next to dark, it turns into form.
Enhance the silhouette - There are places in your painting you want a strong shape and silhouette. Especially if the shape is dark, leaving it in white space can really makes it pop. Even if it's just a few little dots of bird in a white sky, it creates the sense of space in a 2d surface.
To give your painting a soft light quality - You might've seen some photos with a subject sitting in front of very bright background. Such as a person sitting in front of a window. Because the camera expose to the subject, the background is blown out into a soft bright bloom. This is not always bad, it can gives a very soft look if this is what you're going for. Same thing for painting. While we don't have to mimic all the soft lighting quality, by leaving the subject in a light white space we can create the same effect.

Design a painting is as important as important as how you paint it.

Design a painting is as important as how you paint it. The more I paint the more time I spent thinking about the composition, value grouping and shape design. Some of the painting that I love have great design. Because that's the first thing you see, it makes your painting technique secondary. They are both important, but far too many people focus on painting skill and forget about the importance of painting design.

When life gets in the way...

February 07, 2017

Today is not a painting tip, but I think it is important for me to share this with you. In the perfect world, soon after my kids going to school, I will make myself a cup of coffee, play some of my favorite music and set up to paint without distraction. And after my kids go to bed right when they need to, I will take a hot shower, change to something comfortable and paint again. Sounds awfully nice, but that's not the world I live in.

I am writing this blog post right now listening to two of my kids coughing on their bed due to the flu. The baby doesn't want to submit to his comfortable bed without putting up a fight for another 30 minutes in mom or dad's arm. Dirty dishes in the sink, trash are piled up waiting for me to send them to the dumpster. All of these while that white piece of Saunders Waterford paper on my easel is waiting for me to turn it into a painting.

Yes, life gets in the way. We may have a seemly perfect plan for our days to do the thing we love, but there are always things in life that hinder us from getting to the things we love. People often ask me how do I have time to paint while working on a full time job and raising three kids. I usually answer their question with another question:

How do you not have time for something you love?

Don't get me wrong, I struggle with time just like anyone else. My wife and I often tease each other how much more we could've done without the kids. But I can not throw this at them. To juggle with all these and manage time for painting is my responsibility. It may be true that my day job and my family took a big chunk of my time away. However, if I'm being honest with myself, I know I still have plenty of time to do the things that's important to me. So often I'll choose to paint instead of being a couch potato (I do not have cable at home). I write my blog and work on my YouTube video instead of surfing on the web. I sometime even have to say NO to friends' hang out and party. Here are a few things that might be able to help you:

Set a time to paint weekly - Here's the fact, if something is important enough for you, you WILL mange the time to do it. And the only way to get good at something is to do it consistently, not once in a while. Set a time to paint weekly, NOT when you feel like it and NOT "when you have time". Set that time apart, if something is conflicted with your schedule to paint, reschedule that thing, not your painting time. Unless it's something you absolutely have to attend, you should always respect your own painting time.
Break it into different sessions - I often do a under drawing before I go to bed. I then wake up early to start painting. Sometime I do the drawing and first wash the night before, and I finish it the next day since I need to wait for the wash to dry anyways. The point is, you don't have to pressure yourself to finish a painting in one go. If your time is tight, you can be a bit more flexible on this. Plus when you take a little time to do a drawing first, it will motivate you to finish it whenever you look at it!
Accountability partner - My friend Jennifer often paint with her friends in a group. I love the idea to have a painting group, where you meet up with your fellow artist and paint together. I personally am not able to do that every week. But my website and internet present is acting as my accountability partner. If I slack off I will have nothing to show, so in other words - You are my accountability partner!

Every master painter has countless paintings in their lifetime. It's the mileage that makes them who they are. Nobody with an excuse saying "I don't have time" becomes a master. Yes, life does gets in the way, but it won't stop you from keep painting unless you let it.

New YouTube video!

Here's this month's YouTube painting video! Hope you enjoy it.

How to avoid muddy, dirty looking colors with fewer brush strokes.

January 31, 2017 in Technique

The past weekend I painted a portrait of my wife. She has been my favorite person to paint since college year. I talked about this last year when I was discussing why I paint what I paint. Since she's someone I see everyday, I know very well how she looks. It becomes easier over the years as I paint her over and over again.

Create a moving picture

January 24, 2017

This week let's talk about creating a moving picture. And no, I'm not talking about animation or film. I'm talking about how to capture movement in a 2d painting. From a person walking, dancing to something more subtle like eye movement.

It is quite interesting when we study the history, we notice artists were trying to capture motion way back in the stone age. There are numerous example from the cave painting of Lascaux. We can see in both painting the animals has multiple limbs and outlines. Those artists from the past were trying to capture the motion to tell the stories.

We can certainly see modern comics adapt the same idea. By drawing multiple limbs and action in a single picture. The artist is fitting multiple time frames into one image. While it looks comical and unrealistic. It does convey the message clearly. We might not want to do that in a fine art painting because it can look odd (unless you are trying to paint some funny looking abstract fine art painting). One thing to learn here is that to convey sense of motion, a perfectly still image is not going to work.

Besides drawing/painting different frames of actions in one picture. Another example of artist trying to achieve movement in a still image is by using the illusion of motion blur. This animation still from Tom and Jerry is using that. While we can see the multiple ears and hand, we can see Toms leg and the arm has this motion lines that suggesting motion. This is mainly simulate the slow shutter speed of a camera when taking a photo. When a camera capturing a moving subject in a slow shutter speed. More light information from the moving subject transmitted to the camera. This is why sometime we get these blurry photo when we are trying to capture a moving subject.

While a blurry image is not something people are intended when they are taking a photograph, it is not unusual when a photographer intentionally do so to capture motion. Take my good friend an a great photographer Oliver Regueiro's work for example. His Koi series were all taken with long exposure shots. They capture the movements of the Koi fishes beautifully. I love them much better compares to the ordinary still photo of the Koi fish. Besides Oliver, there are many photographers doing long exposure shots with waterfall, rivers, and even vehicles.

Now all that being said, how do we apply those in our watercolor? It's true that painting multiple limbs and making blurry painting might not be the best choice. But we can certainly take the idea and apply to our painting. And instead of look at one of my painting, let me show you how a true master does it!

Early Trackwork at Kyneton - by Joseph Zbukvic

Fast, confident stroke - A fast confident brush stroke can achieves sense of movement. Especially when dry brushing on a rough surface paper. When you make a fast mark, it shows speed, and speed is motion. I use that all the time when painting foliage, thin wires, and the light reflection of the car. In this case, you can see the horses' legs, feet and tails are done with these type of brush work. They feel fast, unsettled and in action!
Loose, spontaneous marks - When I paint a figure walking, small bird flying in the sky, or even the eyes of my portrait. I try to keep my marks loose and spontaneous. If you paint everything too refine, it starting to look like a photograph. And that means stillness. If you are trying to paint a very still and quiet picture, that might not be a bad thing. But since we are talking about how to create motion in your painting, it is best to avoid painting too detailed and photo real. By painting loose, broken and spontaneous marks, the viewers eyes won't be fixed or settle down. Their eyes will naturally move around and read the image by combining the loose marks you made. We can see those type of marks on the figure, you can feel they are moving and turning.
Let the water flow - This is EXCLUSIVE for watercolor. Only watercolor stays alive when you put down the paint, not oil, not acrylic and not pencil. If you let the water flow when you paint, let the wet on wet do its magic, you are leaving the "mark of the time". In the case of this painting, it is clear to me that he let watercolor does its work for him especially in the background and the dirt. While it might not be very obvious, it shows movement very subtly!

These are just some ideas on how to create a moving painting. There are also other factors such as composition, gestures and more. We will go over those in the future.