Hey there, here's tonight's update!

This post was quite a few hours in the making, I think you'll be able to see why upon looking below. Here's today's reference image.

Claude Monet - "Landscape near Montecarlo"

I chose this one to be the last painting for this week because of its stunning color. I know I'd need all I've learned from the other paintings this week to finish this piece. If the Renoir yesterday took the cake as far as color goes, I feel like this one bought the bakery. There's an amazing amount of movement in the image, brush strokes vary in angle to aid that illusion, and do so perfectly. There are vibrant reds in the background, beautiful touches of indigo in the foreground, and a lovely soft sky in the back. So, this was a daunting task, how do you think I did?

I think this one's my new favorite. I'm gonna admit to going a bit overboard here with most of these paintings this week. They were just supposed to be simple color studies. The idea was that I have one image to work from, so that I can train my eye to spot the color without using the color picker, but I went and did full on reproductions. I guess I got carried away? Oh well, I'm super happy that happened because this has been enormously fun, challenging, and rewarding. I know everything isn't quite where it should be, and the edge of the land in the background is much darker than in the reference image, but I can't help but love this piece.

Instead of painting this piece on one layer in Photoshop, I did it on a few separate ones to show how the process of painting something like this goes (it was implemented first because I was kinda terrified I'd mess it all up and have to paint over everything, but good save, right?). I made a little gif here for you to check out so you could see how this progressed, check it out. Oh, and be warned, it's kind of a big file, so it might take a second to load.

Neat, right? That's all for tonight. Expect more color and composition studies for the rest of the month. I'm gonna try to look up some new painters tomorrow and see if I can find some different and exciting art! Don't forget to check back again for something new!

Hey everyone, here's your update for Friday night!

This is the painting I worked from today.

Pierre Auguste Renoir - "Summer Landscape"

This painting is fantastically gorgeous, and it was really hard to reproduce. I thought yesterday's piece had a lot of color, this one takes the cake.There's an interesting use of texture to imply detail too. The brush strokes in the background on the left are a bit softer, and blend a bit better, where as the brush strokes in the foreground on the right are quite defined, creating the suggestion of detail. The only thing that looks slightly funny to my eye is how the right side of the image is more detailed than the left. I only think it strange because with photography, you wouldn't be able to achieve this kind of depth of field, or softness, on one side of the image. You'd only have one select area in focus normally, so everything slightly in front, and slightly behind the figure (this depth of field depends on the lens aperture) in focus. Everything outside of that range would be soft. I guess that's just a modern day nitpick from someone who also dabbles in photography. Moving on, let's see how I did!

 I'm actually exceedingly impressed with the way this turned out, truthfully it was a bit rushed so I was worried I would drop the ball on this one. I must admit that due to a time crunch I did use the color picker in Photoshop to get some of those shades in there to save me some time, but once I had a few colors on there I could pick from my own document to finish the rest of the image. I guess that's why it's not quite perfect! I won't say it looks super exact, but I feel like it's a really nice interpretation of the piece. This week has been a crazy stylistic journey for me, there are definitely bits of every artist I've studied this week in this painting, and I think that's why it looks so cool!

To finish this week off for tomorrow's post I've picked an incredible piece of impressionistic art by Monet, I wonder if you'll be able to guess what it is.

Check back tomorrow to find out!

Hey everyone, here's tonight's update!

This is the piece I worked from today.

Paul Cézanne - "Mont Sainte Victoire Seen from the Bibemus Quarry"

This piece looks pretty simple, but it's not, it's so totally not. There's almost every color you can imagine in this painting, and different shades of that color too. I don't think the composition is any real marvel, but the most marvelous thing about this painting is most definitely the color. Each color, and each color adjacent to that color, are related. Their proximity to each other, and the differences in their hue, help to describe the image the artist rendered. It's not a particularly detailed painting in any traditional sense, but the relationships of the colors are incredibly complex. This one was pretty tough, it took a lot of time to complete, and wasn't something I could do in one sitting. Check out how I did below.

I'm happy with it. it's got its problems, but it's pretty okay. I couldn't quite capture the tree in the upper right corner, how those colors were layered escapes me (for now). The crevice on the side of the quarry is a bit too wide, and too dark. I like my use of color here, I think I really nailed the reds, yellows, and blues in the rock. The foliage could use a bit of work though, there's not quite enough color in there. Looking at a painting like this is like taking a photo, opening it up in Photoshop, and cranking up the saturation to +100. When you do something like this you really appreciate all of the color that's found in the world around you. Tree bark isn't just brown, there's green, yellow, red, even purple in there. It's these tiny extra bits of color in things that tells us they're different from one another, yet they barely even register in our minds when we see an object. I think that's my biggest take-away from this piece, not to simply look, but to see.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. What I've got in store for tomorrow and Saturday will be pretty intense, if I can pull them off that is. Guess you'll find out tomorrow!

Hey everyone, time for another update!

Here's the piece I worked from today.

Vincent Van Gogh - "Wheat Field with Cypress"

I absolutely loved working from this image, it was really challenging, and super fun to do. Even to people that aren't very informed when it comes to art and artists, Van Gogh's work is easily recognizable. His style is extremely distinct, and really quite beautiful. Working from this image really gave me a deeper appreciation for his art. I really think the exposure to these different artists and their different styles has been one of the most interesting things I've ever done. When you work from a master painting you're not just copying for the sake of replicating the image and saying "I can do that too," it's really something you learn from. You sort of see through their eyes when you do studies like these, and you learn the reason why they paint the way they did. It's really just fascinating! Let's see how I did.

I really like this one, a lot, a whole lot! This is definitely my favorite piece for this month (at least as of right now). It's not exactly the same as the original, but I'm very happy with my interpretation. Painting the clouds was really fun, they've got these wonderful shades of blue and green in them, even the dark parts of the trees aren't absolutely black. Everything in this image is about color. My favorite parts are the wheat in the foreground, the bush on the left, and the sky. I really wondered how that bush was going to turn out, but after working through the rest of the image I had the information about how to paint it. It was as simple as laying down a couple of colors on top of each other, then making some quick brush strokes to illustrate the branches. If I could put a gold star sticker on this one, I would. I really love it.

Alright, that's all for tonight! Check back again tomorrow for another update!

Hey everyone, have a look at today's post!

This was the piece I worked from today.

Henri Matisse - "Luxembourg Gardens"

This one's a bit different from the others in that it's less about detailed and intricate pattern and more about the way the objects are grouped. I guess this one's a little more about the composition than the others, oh well. They're both intertwined so I'm not mad about it, a fresh pair of eyes really does give you new insight. There's an interesting use of atmospheric perspective here. Our eyes see cool colors and immediately perceive that those objects are far away, yet there's a real back and forth between cool and warm tones. This has this sort of jarring effect that kind of pushes you forward and pulls you back. It's really pretty neat. Anyway, let's see how I did.

I like it, there are some flaws, but it's pretty good. My interpretation of the egg shaped trees in the background aren't quite in the right spot, the one in the absolute background's also a little misshapen. I also had a bit of trouble getting getting the color of the foliage on the right correct. I think there's a little more blue in there with the teal, and I didn't add it cause I don't think I could quite see it at the time. Other than all of that I think this one's okay.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for something new! Till then, have a good night!

Hey everyone, here's today's update!

This is what I worked from today.

Pierre Bonnard - "In Summer"

This one's really interesting, the colors are absolutely brilliant, and immensely varied. There's also a very unusual use of perspective here, it's almost like this scene is composed of may different images all stitched together. It reminds me a lot of a picture taken with a super-wide lens, you can take a lot in, but there's a ton of distortion that occurs because of this. I think it was used to a really neat effect in this painting, though it added a bit of extra difficulty for me when reproducing it! Alright, let's see how I did.

I'm not super happy with it, but I think it's okay. There were a few things that tripped me up in the image, and I think that was rooted in the strange perspective, but let's go over it.  Right away I can see the grouping of trees next to the woman in the very dark colored dress is a little too wide, and a little too short. That red strip in the middle looks like some kind of walkway through what I assume is a garden, but the way I rendered it is too fat to look like it actually extends into the back of the picture. When I do these posts the images are quite small, and seeing them that way helps me to get a better look at the overall composition. I know I said this week would be all about color, but composition can't be forgotten about completely otherwise what I'm doing won't look anything like what I'm working from. I think I'm going to take the time on my next piece to look at the reference image as a small thumbnail, that way I can pick out the important parts of the composition and get those right. Well that was a rather long digression, anyway, almost everything else looks alright. The mountains on the horizon are a bit low, and there really isn't enough color in the middle ground, but I wouldn't say this one's a complete failure. There really is a lot of learning that can be done from your mistakes, and I think I learned a lot doing this piece!

That's all for today. Check back tomorrow for another update!

Hey everyone, here's tonight's update!

Last week was all about composition, this time that's taking a back seat, this week's all about color. I was speaking to my professor Lisa about what I'd be doing, and she recommended some artists for me to check out whose work included vibrant color. Today's piece is something done by one of those artists.

Have a look!

Edouard Vuillard - "Two Seamstresses in the Workroom"

This was exactly what I was looking for, it's vibrant, a little abstract, and all about the color. There's a nice contrast here between the blue of the seamstresses and the gold tones in the background. You can see the fabric they're handling piled in the background and the sewing machine in the front. It's really a wonderful painting. This was an absolute blast to work on. Let's see how I did!

I'm very pleased with the way this turned out, it's not perfect, but it was a lot of fun. It was also a wonderful learning experience. The weakest points in the image are definitely the sewing machine (because I honestly didn't know what it is when I was painting it), and the hair color of the woman in the foreground. There was no color picking done in this image, I didn't simply use the eyedropper tool in Photoshop to figure out what was what then transfer it to my version, this was all done by eye. I took this test a little while back to see if I was colorblind (I know I'm not but I wanted to see where my deficiencies were), I've got to go back and take it again to see if I'm weak in recognizing colors in the red-brown range. That might help me to know considering this weeks' subject matter, and for all other art I produce ever too!

Well, that's all for today, check back tomorrow for another update!