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Tracing.
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Message
Posted
Yes, I do agree with you Robert, Alan and Marjorie. Technical details do have to be spot on and tracing is totally understandable when there is a need for such accuracy. Alan that is interesting, I do use a ruler to calculate the outside space on the paper or canvas with regards to the width and length a head should be enlarged, if I am doing it from a photo, after I've drawn some lines of where I think the eyes may be. I don't do it when I am just sketching but when I am painting and I want to try and get things right so it's about the outside space and how that head fits right, into it. It might be a pigs ear way but they say there's a method in the madness. So I think I can see why your tutor might use a protractor but also agree, it is very extreme.
Posted
Extreme in the extreme I’d say… to use a protractor in the hope of achieving any degree of accuracy in a portrait is ludicrous - it’s a new one on me!
You’d likely end up with a static, maybe accurate (but that’s debatable) and lifeless representation!
I absolutely agree that tracing can be of great benefit for certain styles of painting, but definitely not for portrait painting - but in general, I have to concur with Robert, in that tracing does perhaps suggest a certain lack of confidence in your ability!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
I have watched the same portrait artist programme Denise but didn’t notice the tracing. While technology in the form of photo , iPad etc is used frequently I can’t help feel it’s rather insulting to the sitter to take their photo and then totally ignore them for four hours especially when they are sitting a few yards in front of you. I realise that for those who do this, it probably ensures a more accurate painting but wouldn’t it be more fun and challenging to paint without!
Most of us would kill for someone willing to sit for a few hours for us to paint them. Any offers!?
PS also a fan of Tim Benson and his portrait work.
Edited
by Tessa Gwynne
Posted
I think the problem might be that the sitter is too far away. He/she needs to be near enough to see facial features clearly. But to have a “ real” sitter in front of you is like en plein air. You can take in the atmosphere in a way you can’t with a photo. However, we don’t really know all this. Personally, a sitter in front of you is miles better than a photo.
Posted
I enjoy what I do, I sit in front of something and draw/ paint it. For me creating a piece of work is to just look at it make my eyes go all squinty and put onto paper what I see.
Sadly it’s not always possible to work that way so I use my own photographs ,occasionally I get excited with other peoples photographs so will ask permission to use them. But I use them my way .
If using a grid , tracing paper ,a light box ,whatever, is your thing then do it.
Posted
Anthony I know a few people who don’t or won’t draw but love painting . I suppose it depends on what you perceive as drawing , on of them actually does great detailing work , using only his paint brushes . I have watched him several times and he actually draws with the paint and brushes. He will not use a pen or pencil as he sees that as wrong when painting , each to there own methods . Yours work brilliantly for you do don’t change what ain’t broke as they say , it’s a bit like chefs one day it wrong thus way and the other say it no , but if it’s a good meal who cares . Just to say that I like your work and admire your skill I don’t care how it’s done it looks absolutely brilliant.
Posted
Yes it's possible !
Whatever serves your purpose, but I do think that drawing is the basic requirement for painters, and invaluable as a means of making progress - and you CAN do it: don't be afraid of it. If you can form letters with a pen, if you can map out broad shapes with a pencil, you can draw. Every time you apply a shape with a brush, you're drawing. Don't let yourself be intimidated by a conviction that you can't draw - oh yes, you can. One way or another, you've been doing it all your life - every time you've shaped a letter, written out a shopping list, drawn a square on an examination paper, you've drawn. Drawing is the fundamental basis of all painting - don't be afraid of it.
If in doubt, scribble away on any bit of paper that comes to hand - make your signature more 'artistic' - draw anything and everything in your house, your waste-bin, cooker, bath, breakfast table, potted plants: absolutely anything.
Drawing is the basis of all painting, even abstract painting - you don't have be a brilliant draughstman/person, but you mustn't let drawing intimidate you: of course you can do it! You did it as an infant with its first set of crayons, and frankly you don't need much more ability than that.
Posted
We will all use different strategies to reach our end goal. If we are happy with the result, that's the focus, no matter how we go about achieving it and no matter what tools we decide to use. I started of just painting, I didn't know how to draw anything. Then I joined in on the sketching post and now sketching and drawing has become an integrated part of painting. Well, some people might not think so but I definitely saw an improvement in my paintings and composition. Now I sketch and draw all the time, especially ideas for paintings. I think if you have the confidence to paint without drawing, that's totally great. I'm not a confident painter and drawing is certainly helping me to gain that confidence.
Posted
Drawing is an important discipline and is certainly a useful asset to have, but it’s often overlooked or swept aside as irrelevant or too boring by many newcomers to painting - (Denise definitely being the exception here).
There’s an impatience in wanting to dive straight in using colour, and I totally understand this… but it’s a good idea to combine the two if you can.