Thursday, October 2, 2014

Dissecting a Photo

My goal in the "Painting From Photos" class 
I'm teaching at NRAS this fall,  
is to show how to dissect a complicated photo 
into big shapes of light and dark.
The results are looser, more expressive paintings.  
 I introduced my favorite "limited stroke" exercise today
  
I did this demo in 21 strokes. 

From this image. 

The idea is to do a "map"
(Outlining only the big light and dark shapes)  
Count the spaces. 
Give yourself one stroke per space. 
If you lift your brush it's a stroke!  

Mitchell Johnson-ish?

From this photo. 

 Here are a few more done from 
images the students brought in. 
(or had on their I pads or phones) 
This is 16 x 20! 


Kate used a huge brush and lots of paint.  


Marsha's Mid Century interior


Dawn's red cup
Mary Jo's apples

This exercise supports the idea that
 if you have a strong composition with correct values,
you can then take a painting anywhere you want.
I find that so liberating. 









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