Tuesday, April 9, 2013

A little Morning Zen does it.

I was on the NOW and Zen charter boat while photographing and painting this scene.  Our project together is to capture the zen magic of the scenes we have seen together while sailing around north Florida waterways.
I have used this painting many times in my lessons in both watercolor and oils.  It makes a great reference for use of color without getting too distracted by the details.  Details are not what makes a great painting, it's feelings you get from the painting that remind you of an event or theme in an intimate way.  I see a lot of colors in my reference photo I use for this , that my students often do not see.  This is because with experience I have come to realize that photos are not by themselves a true depiction of any reality.  You have to enhance and bring back to life what the camera can't see.  The human eye and brain form a complex relationship of focus and selectivity.  You have to add that back in a painting.
To do this I concentrated on the value scales of colors warms of the sun, and cools in purples,  greens and blues, then contrasted them against each other to recreate the enchantment that I felt at the moment the sun was peaking over the trees flooding atmospherically the dark trees with golden glow.
Below you can see both attempts to capture the scene in oil and then watercolor

Morning Zen Oil 16" X 20"

the watercolor Zen Sunrise 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Todays Wednesday Custom Art Lessons

 Here are some students engaged each on their own paintings, I help each one at their unique level. Each of my students are amazing creative...