Weeding

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weeding_1.jpg

I think many artists try to get too photorealistic. They put way too much detail in representational art. You’ll see every brick in a building, every leaf on a tree, and sometimes every hair on a person’s head. This really isn’t what we see when we’re looking at something. If you’re going to paint representationally, squint your eyes . . . only paint what you see.

This painting is my memory of my wife and kids weeding the garden. I have only painted shapes and values. You can tell my wife has eyes and a mouth, even though they aren’t painted in. You see the highlights and lowlights in the subjects’ hair without painting each strand. Look at the simple skin tones. I have painted simple corn plants  and have filled in the background with a basic green color. You can tell the sun is shining by looking at the values I have used.

Try my method.  Simplify.

Comments on Weeding Leave a Comment

August 11, 2008

Larraine @ 10:12 pm #

What an interesting painting! It’s very full of shapes with shadow and light. Neat!

August 12, 2008

Christine @ 4:49 am #

This is such a beautiful painting of such a simple subject.

Jennifer @ 8:45 am #

It is interesting that such simple shapes and colors can convey such a definite mood and time of day…

jared @ 7:55 pm #

Hallelujah! (I completely agree with your commentary, plus i feel famous being in that painting!)

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