Don't Let Reality Get in the Way of a Good Design

Don’t Let Reality Get in the Way of a Good Design

Recently, I summarized and reorganized my notes on composition and design. As I reviewed my notes from dozens of experts the dominant theme was the need to enhance, simplify and transform the scene before us so as to create a work of art. Since this is easier said than done, we attend workshops and diligently scrutinize the techniques demonstrated by these acknowledged masters.

There is much to learn by watching demos, but sometimes it is like watching a magician. While we’re looking for the trick, we miss the obvious.  I know that I have often been so amazed at what an artist painted, that I failed to notice what they didn’t paint. Or been so enthralled with their painting that I hardly noticed the vast differences between what was painted and the actual scene.

From the point of view of understanding the artist's design choices, the changes made by the artist are more important than any representation retained of reality. With that in mind, I thought I’d share a few photos of paintings that differ in interesting ways from the actual scene.

This is a tiny study by Vadim Zang from a photo I took in Paris. Vadim was my academic impressionist mentor for about two years. He’s obviously emphasizing both gray and optically connecting reds.

"Le Progres" 5"x7" study by Vadim Zang, with photo reference

Here’s is one of mine. I played beach volleyball for years so the scene is reminiscent of many a weekend at 22^nd Street in Hermosa.

"Between Games" by Keene Wilson, with photo reference

An examples from a painting by Terry Miura.

"Tractor 1" by Terry Miura, with photo of scene

Last year I took a workshop with Alvaro Castagnet. As I watched his demos, it seemed he was painting the scene we saw, but only in bits and pieces that he fit into a coherent whole. I think of it as using the scene for reference material to paint from imagination.

San Francisco Demo 1 by Alvaro Castagnet, with photo of scene

Union Square Demo by Alvaro Castagnet, with photo of scene

The photo of the scene below was taken from where Alvaro painted and is a pretty good indication of how small the portion of the scene he painted was compared to our field of view. The large sloping hill in the background of the painting was barely visible in the far distance, and virtually invisible in the center of the photo.

San Francisco Demo 2 by Alvaro Castagnet, with photo of scene

Lately, I’ve been studying with master watercolorist Fealing Lin. Though I’ve intermittently painted in watercolor for years, I’ve been focusing more on watercolor lately because I want to improve my design skills and think a good watercolor only works if the design works. I know all paintings require good design, but to me its analogous to the way drawing the figure exaggerates drawing mistakes. Similarly, painting in watercolor seems to exaggerate poor design. It also shows off good design, as below.

"Old Man Reading" by Fealing Lin, with photo reference

It’s easy to look at a finished painting like this one by Keiko Tanabe and think she painted just what she saw, but only if you don’t have a reference photo to compare.

"Procida I" by Keiko Tanabe, with photo of scene

Taiwanese artist Chien Chung-Wei is one of my favorite watercolorists. I love the way he creates a sense of reality based on a nearly abstract design – often from very mundane scenes.

Watercolor plein air study by Chien Chung-Wei, with photo of scene

And finally, another of my favorite watercolorists, Prafull Sawant, from India.

"Grand Bazaar at Bornova" by Prafull Sawant, with photo of scene

If you’re interested in design and composition, you might want to check out the notes that I just posted entitled “Composition and Design: Practical Advice for the Advanced Artist”. If you've already read my theoretical notes under the headings of "Artistic Composition" and "Design in Art", these are not the same but are collated and reorganized from my notes from individual artists.

Keene