PAINTING IT WRONG TO MAKE IT LOOK RIGHT
Mike Barr's painting titled 'Picnic Tree’
Painting it wrong to make it look right (Blog by Mike Barr)
Over the last few years I have painted a series of works based on a group of three trees on the Fluerieu Peninsular in South Australia.
To me, these three interesting trees looked like something out of a fairy tale – like a story waiting to be told. So, I added some people having a winter picnic and added a red sports car to add to the intrigue.
I’ve had a reference photo of this little red sports car for quite a few years and spotted it in the main street in Goolwa. I knew that one day It would find a place in a painting. With the creation of the ‘Picnic Tree’ series it had found it’s place at last.
The car was the last thing I did on the painting and it just didn’t look right.
The problem is common among painters and I fell for it on this occasion. I had painted it with too much detail!
Firstly, I had tripped up on the reference photo being so big – A4 size and the actual painted version was only 5cm or so. The way I had painted it initially, was to get to involved in all the chrome bits, including the spoked wheels. It just didn’t look right!
As every painter knows, distance cuts down on detail – we just don’t see things as sharply.
Trying to paint things as we know they should look and not how they actually look is the issue. I get to see hundreds of paintings in open art competitions and exhibitions and this alone is one of the major factors holding many artists back from becoming better at what they do.
Not only does distance diminish detail but colour also. An acknowledgment of these two things alone will transform how our paintings look.
The depiction of flags really illustrates this issue. The other day I was looking at how a top water colour artist had painted a series of flags disappearing into the distance – it was masterful. Each successive flag had less detail and colour. In contrast many painters will painstakingly paint flags in clear detail, even if they are at a distance – it never looks right.
The same goes for figures, vehicles and birds in particular. Artists are still sucked into to painting detailed birds when it is quite unrealistic to do so.
In a few words, there are things that have to be painted wrong to make them look right.
What may be right close up is certainly incorrect the further away they become.
Oh, how did I fix up that red sport car with too much detail in it? I got a dry, soft brush and gently smudged it with one stroke – it may have been lucky but it worked!
Happy painting!'
- Mike Barr