Alla Prima challenge

[DarkOwnt]

Very nice pear Bertrude! I like the purposeful brushwork throughout, short strokes of similar size gives it a unique feel and texture. This combined with the color variation borders on optical blending (to my untrained eyes anyway). Nice work!

What was it about the oil brush that didn't look natural or loose? What kinds of things did you want the brush to do (or not do)?

[Bertrude]

That's a good question. Firstly, I have very little experience with real world oils so it's hard for me to be objective about it. I tried using them a teeny weeny bit many years ago but didn't really have a 'feel' for it and the drying time was a bit of a hindrance.

I think part of the issue why I feel it doesn't look natural or loose (or at the least the painting before I took the palette knife to it) is because to me it wasn't. It felt too self-conscious perhaps. I find it very difficult to work in a loose manner and I tend to overwork stuff or labour unnecessarily on things. I probably should have given myself a time limit of some sort to encourage an economy of brush strokes. The knife is great for that though - I love being able to blend and loosen up an image in this way. This was a great exercise to help with this though and is probably something I should try and do more regularly .

Some of the things I'd perhaps like the oils to do is kind of roll up at the edges of the strokes, like when a brush stroke flattens the paint more in the centre of the stroke leaving thicker rolls or clumps on the outside edges where the pressure would push it outwards. I think this would make the paint feel thicker and more natural at times. I'd also like something that simulates the ability to roll the brush head in the paint to form ridges etc. My tablet doesn't support tilt or roll but a way to mimmick it somehow would be pretty cool (working on underlayers with thick paint, tubes and glitter works well, but not in this case with a single layer painting).

Some way to alter how stokes trail off would be good too. I find the way they taper tends to look somewhat false.

Also, a clumpier brush and palette knife would be good too - I've read on here about folks wanting a Bob Ross style tool. I'd love one too! I'd adore a tool that did the sort of thing he did when he'd get a roll of paint on the edge of the knife and gently dragged it down to form these awesome, highlights and shadows of clumpy textured mountain sides with minimal work .

[pai]

I am definitely not a still life painter but it is so interesting to watch everyone's different way of painting this method. So I wanted to give it a try as a challenge too.
Here's my version. All oil and one layer followed the video. haha..not really alike though

[HwyStar]

Everyone has done an awesome job! This is fun and a great exercise for everyone to do. You can really learn a lot by watching Mark's videos. Do you know that he painted George W. Bush and his painting was hanging in the White House for a while?

[DarkOwnt]

Hey Pai nice pear!

It has that loose messy dark quality that always grabs my attention. Very painterly! I especially like the color and value variations throughout that hint at and build the total. Yours still dances from a distance (or in a squint) and that's very cool.

What did you think of the process? Any observations, comments, or takeaways?

[DarkOwnt]

Quick note to all:

Hey I'm loving this! Keep the pears (comments and discourse) coming!


I'm learning so much from your work and comments. Also, I'm starting to realize I actually prefer works with a loose messy look up close, but which look realistic from a distance. There really is something magical mysterious about that... So, I'm going to try to move away from "fussing" about the details (and I've abandoned thinking that near photographic reproduction is somehow ideal) and will be aiming at this "realistic from a distance" painterly approach, as my goal as a hobbyist painter.

PS: You've all inspired me to do-over the pear myself... !

[pai]

Hey Pai nice pear!

It has that loose messy dark quality that always grabs my attention. Very painterly! I especially like the color and value variations throughout that hint at and build the total. Yours still dances from a distance (or in a squint) and that's very cool.

What did you think of the process? Any observations, comments, or takeaways?

I enjoy the process a lot, that's why I painted again..haha. Observations and takeaways..mmmm.. I think I more focuse on seeing the shape and form is what I felt when I painted second time. Overall, it's fun to paint again. This time I used plain canvas with no texture.

[Enug]

Fun to see the different interpretations. Here's mine. I found it a difficult exercise as I find it difficult to paint loosely. I would love to and this is good practice. Towards the end I only had about 3% loading on the brush to soften the edges. Like Pai I enjoyed the excercise and might try again. Either that or set us a new challenge! Fun!

[HwyStar]

Spoiler Alert: * * * I Cheated * * *

Now that I have gotten that off my chest; I want to explain why, this time I cheated: Traditional painting and digital painting are miles apart in capability. We can do whatever we want with a click of the pen. We can paint as real or as fake as we want using any tool: Oil, Pallet Knife, Eraser, Blender, Tracing, Tracing Colors, References, Canvas settings/colors, yada, yada, yada. I exploited every one of these tools to come up with this image in 25 minutes with two layers.

My next painting, which should take "much" more time will be using the carder method which dictates that we should visualize a spot of the reference, select it's color using a "physical" color checker then paint even, smooth, small strokes of paint with as little blending on the canvas as is possible. When you see my next painting (which will be later on this weekend; I have some chores to do) you will laugh at my true abilities! ArtRage gives us super-human capabilities that only people that have years of training and abilities can make their paintings look like real pears in a painterly fashion!



PS: I know that I suck as a painter and I have many years of study ahead of me.

Now that you professionals have painted real paintings how about showing us your ArtRage version?

[DarkOwnt]

Pai, nice second pear! Dark and tasty!

Enug, very nice. What can I say, your work is always pleasing to the eye.