Another Pear - A Test for my SquareMess custom brushes

[DarkOwnt]

Interesting. This is really quite helpful and has made me think.

I have been interested in using broken or sloppy looking strokes because I want to both be able to suggest texture and get some liveliness from optical blending. Over the years I've been drawn to and also repelled by the oil brush: it has strengths and shortcomings. I also don't want to manually construct a dummy impasto layer although it is trivial to do (set top layer to multiply and go at it with white paint). So I'm exploring the custom brushes as of late because I feel the blending works. My method of adding depth relies on existing local variations in lightness and saturation to generate a texture I apply to the canvas in ArtRage. I also use that texture as a mask in 3rd party software to let the default canvas show through.

The issue you identify is that stroke depth can assist with interest and suggesting texture but it can also be inappropriate. "Bold Strokes" my Mark Weber is an excellent book BTW. Strokes which provide interest and optical blending but not meant to suggest texture likely should not have extreme depth effects while strokes more for suggesting texture can include them. In my final stage of balancing the amount of depth with a plain canvas I could suppress the stroke depth in areas where it would be inappropriate and punch it where it would be good.

Thank you very much, this could prove very useful.

[HwyStar]

Hey... Don’t listen to me! You are much more versed on these subjects than I am.

I don’t know where my painting head is at right now. I’m happy with my latest results, but I know there is something missing. I need to get back to painting landscapes instead of portraits. Portraits, IMO, require to much realism otherwise the person you are painting thinks your images aren’t real enough. But I love those wild and crazy brush strokes that don’t make sense but when viewed again make perfect sense. It brings the eye back to the painting instead of looking at a bad iPhone image.

Who do you admire the most that was one of the masters? Spend a few days copying one of their images and learn from the best. Don’t share it with anyone. Just make it a personal journey that you can learn with and what you want to be like when “you” are a master!

I still need to find my mentor. I have not decided yet. Once I find those paintings and “their style” I need to spend months painting like they did. Then I will get it. It may even be a modern day painter. There are so many good artists these days.

[HwyStar]

Here is a painting I just painted using the Square Canvas 2 (34% grain) and Oil brushes. This is from a tulip farm in the state of Washington. It does not have the texture; I think, that you are looking for DO, but it does have the grain of the canvas in it like I want :



* The forum does compress the image down quite a bit. This is a 16x20, 300ppi painting. The original png file does display some oil texture, but not over the top in thickness or texture. My next painting I will up the "Loading" of the oil brush to see if it can give it the depth we are looking for.

[DarkOwnt]

I like this one very much. the top portion most of all.

BTW: I can see the loading on the oil brush if I click fully into the pic (although there is some compression it does not completely obliterate it).


One of the issues I have with the oil brush of ArtRage is that the strokes are predictably similar even though the artist may use subtle variations with brush pressure, variation, and orientation. (Also, I dislike the oil brush blending... saturation color artifacting is simply too extreme)


Can I ask about your choice of strokes for the tulip field? Is this merely evocative of the field orientation and perhaps eye movement or is it simulating motion (as in driving along the field)? In either case, I suspect if you used real world brushes (with naturally resulting less homogeneity of strokes) I would likely find that area slightly more appealing.

Wish I could share my brushes with you, I would be very curious what you thought of them!

EDIT: OK, I've done the tedious and created 8 separate arpacks, 1 for each of my brushes. I've posted them to the art supplies threads. I'd love your feedback.

[HwyStar]

I like this one very much. the top portion most of all.

Thanks!

BTW: I can see the loading on the oil brush if I click fully into the pic (although there is some compression it does not completely obliterate it).

Uncompressed it's there, barely. I am painting with a fairly dry oil brush.

One of the issues I have with the oil brush of ArtRage is that the strokes are predictably similar even though the artist may use subtle variations with brush pressure, variation, and orientation. (Also, I dislike the oil brush blending... saturation color artifacting is simply too extreme).

Agreed. But it may not be Artrages fault and it may be the computer's input device. If there was a way that real brushes could be sensed by computers... You may want to fiddle with the oil brush at an extremely low setting on the loading option. Two to five percent loading. This setting can give good results.

Can I ask about your choice of strokes for the tulip field? Is this merely evocative of the field orientation and perhaps eye movement or is it simulating motion (as in driving along the field)? In either case, I suspect if you used real world brushes (with naturally resulting less homogeneity of strokes) I would likely find that area slightly more appealing.

LOL! That's a very nice way of saying: "Why the heck did you paint it like that for!". No worries Mate. It was a very windy day there and yes, the tulips were falling over because of the wind.

Wish I could share my brushes with you, I would be very curious what you thought of them!
EDIT: OK, I've done the tedious and created 8 separate arpacks, 1 for each of my brushes. I've posted them to the art supplies threads. I'd love your feedback.

I will try and grab them and try them today. I was busy all day yesterday. I did try and create a Round Canvas 2 brush, but I am not good at creating the grains of the brushes. I hope you have been able to accomplish something wonderful!

Thanks DO! I will give them a test drive.

[DarkOwnt]

Thank you for the conversation I find it quite useful.

I did not see that the tulips were bending in the wind... probably because I've not personally seen a whole field of tulips on a windy day. Hmm, if you showed some trees or branches in the background bending in the wind... (or shingles coming off the roof) I would have got it!


Looking forward to hearing what you think about the brushes!

[HwyStar]

Daniel just posted this video yesterday. Great timing! Have not watched it yet but thought of our posts here.

[DarkOwnt]

Cant use the link... can you repost?

[HwyStar]

3 Step paint process by Daniel Ibanez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYbsEpNEM5g

[D Akey]

Very nice demo video. It's nice to see how other people paint on the computer.

"There are no mistakes in painting" (because you can paint over or undo and all that). That's probably the best boon to painters ever. I learned painting in the real world where there in fact were mistakes that could ruin a painting for any number of reasons. As a result of this sort of limitless editability, the process of painting has become very different from the way I used to do it, especially when copying a photo.

Also I was wondering whether he was going to use layers. That's the other thing I have come to depend on and exploit in order to have it fully adjustable. It's a luxury and I have to be careful I don't get caught up in that. Was great seeing someone who was more about direct painting. Also appreciated him saying a few words about the range of brushes available.

So all very cool and thanks for posting it. I can tweak my painting process to make it more direct in a way that exploits the digital medium. Can't wait to mess with all those brushes.

Also I can really appreciate your paintings. So the wind knocked over all the flowers? Heh. Reminds me of shots I saw of the forest around Mount St Helens eruption laying down all the trees in the direction of the blast. I look at your painting and think of painters slightly after the Post Impressionists where they straddled a sort of pointilism and impressionism. Well done. And thanks again. Been following your guys' discussion with interest.