I've already talked a little bit about taking photography to use as source material for watercolor paintings and colored pencils, but there's more thought that goes into the process besides just 1) take picture and 2) create artwork, and today I'd like to focus on what goes on between those two steps.
First, I determine what sort of artwork a photograph would be best suited for - or, more likely, I'll start with a size and medium I feel like working in and go through my stock to see what photographs would work for the size and medium I'm considering.
For example, I've been doing a lot of 5"x7" colored pencil drawings, and so I went through my photographs and found several that I thought would work for that small size. Then I cropped the photographs to be the appropriate 5"x7" size, and printed them off from my computer so that I could look at them while creating the drawings.
Photographs that get up close and personal with the subject matter are great for small colored pencil drawings and watercolor paintings.
In the drawings below, you can see that there is less detail to the leaves and flower petals in the "Impatiens in Rochester, NY" drawing than there is in the other two, because there is more of the plant visible, and so less space to get in to show the detail. For this reason, I often crop in closely for my colored pencil drawings, sometimes focusing on only one flower.
Besides the amount of foliage depicted in the photograph, I also look at the composition. Often, I do this when I am taking the actual photograph, coming up closer to the plant and capturing two or three flowers at a time within the frame. Otherwise, I do it when I select an image, and I crop down until I get a composition I like.
In the drawings above, you can see three different types of composition. There's the dual design of "Impatiens in Rochester, NY," which has the purple impatiens on the left side of the drawing and another plant on the right side. The drawing is almost perfectly split down the middle, so that the two sides take up an equal amount of space.
There is also the triangulation design of the "Rest Stop Zinnia" drawing, which has three flowers. I use this design a lot, because it's an easy way to both create focus (by emphasizing one flower - perhaps the tallest flower, or the closest flower in the foreground) and create balance (by balancing out the largest flower with two other, smaller flowers).
In "Barcelona Roses," there are only two flowers instead of three, but it's a similar idea. The flowers relate to each other, balancing each other out so that neither gets complete focus. Like the "Impatiens" drawing, it's almost symmetrical, with each flower taking up more or less equal space.
Another composition I like to do is to zoom in so close that the flower takes up the entire 5"x7" space and there is no (or very little) background visible.
These designs are more "radial symmetry," since the flowers are centered on the page and the focus is on the petals radiating out from that center.
I do not typically use distance shots for creating my artwork. Even on larger paintings, I take the opportunity to blow up a single flower to several times its "real life size" so that I can focus on its details - and create "new" details for the flower, by imprinting patterns on the petals or otherwise "complicating" the simple image.
Each of the two (still in progress) patterned rose watercolor paintings above is 15"x22" in size - but still I chose to focus on only two roses per painting.
I do have a lot of "distance" shots that I love - especially of the places I've traveled to, where I take photos of landscapes and landmarks (like any good tourist) just as much as close-ups of flower gardens. And I do intend to use these someday and make more landscape work. It just hasn't been a priority lately.
Similarly, I made a few colored pencil drawings of still life displays when I was in high school, and intend to do more of those in the future. These types of drawings fit more objects onto a single sheet of paper, and were quite successful.
All that is just a taste of what goes into the process of selecting a photograph to use, cropping it to the right size (and an ideal composition), and transferring the design into the medium I want to use, whether it's watercolor or colored pencil.
For me, a lot of it is intuitive. Before I took art classes in high school and college and learned about the elements and principles of design, I understand that some images just "worked better" than others - I just lacked the vocabulary to explain why.
I remember painting flowers on a t-shirt for a crafts project with a group of girls from my church sometime in elementary school. I selected a stencil that six or seven flowers on it, and traced the flowers onto the shirt as they were on the stencil - in a grid. Then, when I added the puffy paint, I naturally colored the flowers so that three of them had red or nearly red hues (such as orange or pink). Those red flowers "triangulated" and created a triangle emphasis I hadn't consciously intended but had chosen because I sensed that it "looked nice." The mother who was leading the craft saw what I'd done and drew everyone's attention to it, praising it as a good composition.
So I don't often sit down and purposefully think about what kind of composition I'm creating, because I have a pretty good sense of what "works" and what "doesn't work" intuitively. But whether it takes a second of unconscious consideration or several minutes of deliberate thought to work out, it's still a part of the process in selecting a source image and creating a piece of art.
First, I determine what sort of artwork a photograph would be best suited for - or, more likely, I'll start with a size and medium I feel like working in and go through my stock to see what photographs would work for the size and medium I'm considering.
For example, I've been doing a lot of 5"x7" colored pencil drawings, and so I went through my photographs and found several that I thought would work for that small size. Then I cropped the photographs to be the appropriate 5"x7" size, and printed them off from my computer so that I could look at them while creating the drawings.
Photographs that get up close and personal with the subject matter are great for small colored pencil drawings and watercolor paintings.
 |
| "Radiant Dahlia" 5x7 Colored Pencil Drawing by Andrea Arbit |
 |
| "Impatiens in Rochester, NY" 5x7 Colored Pencil Drawing by Andrea Arbit |
 |
| "Rest Stop Zinnia" 5x7 Colored Pencil Drawing by Andrea Arbit |
 |
| "Barcelona Roses" 5x7 Colored Pencil Drawing by Andrea Arbit |
Besides the amount of foliage depicted in the photograph, I also look at the composition. Often, I do this when I am taking the actual photograph, coming up closer to the plant and capturing two or three flowers at a time within the frame. Otherwise, I do it when I select an image, and I crop down until I get a composition I like.
In the drawings above, you can see three different types of composition. There's the dual design of "Impatiens in Rochester, NY," which has the purple impatiens on the left side of the drawing and another plant on the right side. The drawing is almost perfectly split down the middle, so that the two sides take up an equal amount of space.
There is also the triangulation design of the "Rest Stop Zinnia" drawing, which has three flowers. I use this design a lot, because it's an easy way to both create focus (by emphasizing one flower - perhaps the tallest flower, or the closest flower in the foreground) and create balance (by balancing out the largest flower with two other, smaller flowers).
In "Barcelona Roses," there are only two flowers instead of three, but it's a similar idea. The flowers relate to each other, balancing each other out so that neither gets complete focus. Like the "Impatiens" drawing, it's almost symmetrical, with each flower taking up more or less equal space.
Another composition I like to do is to zoom in so close that the flower takes up the entire 5"x7" space and there is no (or very little) background visible.
 |
| "Rose with a Hint of Aqua" 5x7 Colored Pencil Drawing by Andrea Arbit |
 |
| "Rose with a Hint of Purple" 5x7 Colored Pencil Drawing by Andrea Arbit |
These designs are more "radial symmetry," since the flowers are centered on the page and the focus is on the petals radiating out from that center.
I do not typically use distance shots for creating my artwork. Even on larger paintings, I take the opportunity to blow up a single flower to several times its "real life size" so that I can focus on its details - and create "new" details for the flower, by imprinting patterns on the petals or otherwise "complicating" the simple image.
 |
| 2 Rose Watercolor Paintings (in progress) by Andrea Arbit |
Each of the two (still in progress) patterned rose watercolor paintings above is 15"x22" in size - but still I chose to focus on only two roses per painting.
I do have a lot of "distance" shots that I love - especially of the places I've traveled to, where I take photos of landscapes and landmarks (like any good tourist) just as much as close-ups of flower gardens. And I do intend to use these someday and make more landscape work. It just hasn't been a priority lately.
Similarly, I made a few colored pencil drawings of still life displays when I was in high school, and intend to do more of those in the future. These types of drawings fit more objects onto a single sheet of paper, and were quite successful.
 |
| "Still Life with Drum Set" - Colored Pencil Drawing on Black Mat Board by Andrea Arbit, 2005/2006 - A.P. Studio Art, Senior Year of High School |
All that is just a taste of what goes into the process of selecting a photograph to use, cropping it to the right size (and an ideal composition), and transferring the design into the medium I want to use, whether it's watercolor or colored pencil.
For me, a lot of it is intuitive. Before I took art classes in high school and college and learned about the elements and principles of design, I understand that some images just "worked better" than others - I just lacked the vocabulary to explain why.
I remember painting flowers on a t-shirt for a crafts project with a group of girls from my church sometime in elementary school. I selected a stencil that six or seven flowers on it, and traced the flowers onto the shirt as they were on the stencil - in a grid. Then, when I added the puffy paint, I naturally colored the flowers so that three of them had red or nearly red hues (such as orange or pink). Those red flowers "triangulated" and created a triangle emphasis I hadn't consciously intended but had chosen because I sensed that it "looked nice." The mother who was leading the craft saw what I'd done and drew everyone's attention to it, praising it as a good composition.
So I don't often sit down and purposefully think about what kind of composition I'm creating, because I have a pretty good sense of what "works" and what "doesn't work" intuitively. But whether it takes a second of unconscious consideration or several minutes of deliberate thought to work out, it's still a part of the process in selecting a source image and creating a piece of art.
No comments:
Post a Comment