A believable painting comes from an understanding artist

 One of the biggest issues I see in student's painting is not understanding the subject they are painting. Instead, they try to simply paint what they see in their reference. It's understandable that we want to jump right into the painting and enjoy the process. However, to paint a believable watercolor painting requires a good amount of thinking. I made that mistake sometimes as well. I try to just blatantly copy what I see instead of taking a brief moment analyze and understanding what I am looking at. I'm convinced that a good painting demonstrates and show the artists' understanding of the subject matter. How does the object sitting ina 3d space? How does the lighting work with the scenery? What's the surface material of the object you are painting? These are all very important questions you should be asking yourself before and during the painting.

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Your painting looks more alive when you paint what you understand

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 Imagine you are trying to retell and explain a story you've just heard. However, you didn't really get the story yourself. It could be due to you missed part of the story, or you weren't really paying attention. It will be a struggle to retell the story to someone else because you cannot retell something you haven't heard!(unless you make things up). That is what happens when you try to second guess in your paint. An experienced painter might be able to make things up, spice the story up a bit and tell a different story. But the things they make up are still based on their understanding of the real world. They have a rich visual library to pull from. 

 Only through understanding can you paint a believable painting. And only through understanding can you produce a painting that looks alive. All the painting techniques and skills are very important, but your understanding of the subject will make your painting stand out and gives it characters.

Picking the right subject

 Your painting doesn't start when you put down your first brush stroke. It starts when you choose your subject. I live in Pacific Northwest, and it offers some of the most beautiful autumn sceneries in the US. It is very tempting wanting to own the beautiful sceneries for your painting. However, beautiful sceneries are often not the best subject for painting. 

 I had talked about the suitable subject for watercolor a long time ago. Watercolor is a very different wet medium compares to oil and acrylic, and we need to play on its strength. However, besides picking the subject that's suitable for watercolor, you should also consider a subject that you can make it look more interesting in your painting than a photograph. I made that mistake recently. I took a photo of a beautiful tree filled with yellow leaves and light bleed through. It was a really beautiful scenery, so I attempt to paint it. And as you probably can guess, I wasn't satisfied with the outcome. I do believe it is largely due to my lack of skill to pull the subject off, or my unfamiliarity of this type of subject. However, if I picked a subject that was more suitable for my painting (like the one above), I might have more luck. 

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 Instead of looking for an already beautiful subject and trying to re-capture it into your painting,
look for opportunities.

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 When choosing a subject to paint, you should look more for potential than how pretty it is. The more beautiful a subject is, the harder it is to do it justice in your painting. A sunlit forest with light and shadows everywhere, a beautiful sunset with the dramatic clouds, or an epic highland scenery. They are all very beautiful sceneries when seeing them in person that will be difficult to capture into painting. Even if the person who sees your painting appreciates it, you might still constantly compare your painting with the original reference and feel the failure.  

 Look for potential in a reference. I often capture a typical street scenery and interpret it my own way. I do so by rearranging the image, adding elements to it, and recompose the picture. This way, I improve the everyday scenery into something interesting and exciting to look at. 

 It seems counter-intuitive to pick a seemly boring scenery as your subject and not go for the obvious beauty. However, I think it is artists' responsibility to bring out the beauty from ordinary instead of presenting to people what's already been shown and appreciated. 

Getting inspiration outside the watercolor

 I wasn't always a watercolor artist. It is my biggest passion, but I also enjoy photography, movie, and video games. When I was working on video game art, we often told to research for visual inspiration through many different sources. I was told that if I only referencing from other video games, I am getting a distill downed source. Venture outside the medium you are working with is often a good thing to do.

 Last week I watched Bladerunner 2049, and was blown away by the beautiful cinematography by the legendary Roger Deakins. It gave me so much inspiration for composition and imagery. I also learned a lot about lighting and scale by study and looking at many photographers' work. There are so many things out there that we can study and learn from, but the biggest inspiration that's available for all of us is the nature! 

 We are in autumn now. It is my favorite season in the pacific north west. Mostly because of the beautiful colors and the misty atmosphere that's perfect for watercolor. Just a few days ago I spent some time around the city just to enjoy all the beautiful autumn scenery that the city has to offer. I was inspired and my visual library was stimulated. I took several photos for reference. While most of them won't make into a painting, all the visual elements in the photos will triggers my memory. These visual memories will find their way into my paintings. 

 One thing about being an artist is that we don't have to limit our self to the medium and the subject of our choice. If you only look at other watercolor artists work, you are only drawing inspiration from others vision. While it is improtant to learn from other artists, inspiration can come from anywhere. They can often come from your everyday life if you look carefully. A good painter takes needs to develop skill, but a good artist needs to enrich their visual library. So if you are not painting or busy working, go out side and look around, really look and soak it in. You might be surprise how much you can learn and receive outside of other watercolor paintings.

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Live demo via internet

 We are fortunate to live in the generation with advance technology. As mentioned from my last blog post, I have set up my computer capable for live streaming. So far I had 2 live demo. One private session for my workshop students from my course, and one public session for everyone. It was a wonderful, yet stressful experience. Even though I don't physically see the people around me, I know they are watching. The pressure was real, I had to explain what I am doing as well as pulling off a decent painting. However, I had a great time interacting with people in real time. Although I prefer to paint at home alone and completely focus on my painting, hearing people telling me how much they've learned and enjoy is very rewarding.

 Giving out small tips on painting with blog post is nice, but live demo capable of so much more. I can show you things visually and in context! Quite often when we learn something new, we are not sure how to apply it in our own way. The live demo fill that gap wonderfully. My last live painting demo took about 90 minutes. With that 90 minutes I was able to share things before, during and after the painting. I was able to touch on the subject such as creating atmosphere, working on layers, and some visual language. The best thing about live demo is I can answer your question in real time! That makes it more than a demo, but also a Q&A session. 

 I encourage you to join my next live demo. I am planning to do it once every other week. Most likely Wednesday evening. I know it will be too late for some people in different timezone, so let me know what time is ideal for you? I will plan for a better time after I gather people's preference.