This weekend, I'm attending a workshop and an event at a local park. The workshop teaches techniques for plein air painting (painting on site - not from pictures) on Friday, and on Saturday, local artists will be painting various scenes in the park. On Sunday, the paintings will be on display and for sale. I'm hoping to meet a lot of good artists and to sell some of my artwork. Anyone have experience at this type of painting? It sounds like the way artists used to paint, before the time when photographs were readily available.
I've had a little experience with this, back when I was actually in art school. Not really my kind of thing. Altho I have and greatly enjoy painting out doors in the sunshine.
Plein air is the way you should do it. I'm too lazy to carry everything everywhere and its fucking hard to get a perfect representation(I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I've only got a few pieces of work that I'm really happy with), but a once you can get everything in proportion etc. it is x10 better when you compare the finished work to one done from a photo. The problem with a photo is that a camera only has 1 lens so it has only a suggestion of depth in the picture, and you'll add the lack of depth in to your own picture when you copy the photo. Having 2 eyes though, means you get a better interpretation of depth, and it will translate onto your paper/canvas. You pay closer attention to the surface planes and stuff like that. Real life is also as detailed as it gets, and you don't need to worry about shit like resolution. Plein air's also a lot more relaxing if you're in the middle of nowhere with the soundtrack of nature in the background - personally. Spark a doob and get painting!
^for sure my main gripe with plein air is that i take a while to set something in a painting before i like it - and i can't capture candid scenes - so i have to stick to landscape, which is intimidating because of the size of the horizon :O
Yeah, I can never get the hang of not drawing the whole horizon. Never thought of making a frame to look through either the last time I did. Without one it takes me like 30minutes to get the basics laid out because I keep changing everything until it looks about right. Pain in the ass!
