Paint Shapes, Not Things — Demonstration Video

Hi - so this week I wanted to add an additional  video that just showed the blocking in of an image   and here's the thing to remember that  sure you can just block in the shapes   but it's the design the structure the composition  that is actually holding all these shapes together   so you can block them in very simply if you've got  a good structure underneath it so i'll show you   the block in and then i'll show you some of the  areas where i articulate the things a little bit   more so you get a sense of how the whole painting  unfolded i'm not sure i'm going to be able to keep   a running commentary going here for the first  you know for the full 15-20 minutes but i really   wanted you just to see that i'm painting shapes  one after another they've been laid out obviously   and where i'm painting around these yellow ochre  spaces but that green i just paint put in was a   little bit more green than the almost black that  i'm using here for that real dark background there   and i'm pretty careful about how i go around the  figure you'll see that right there around the hat   and the shoulders is in the and the flowers is  really the most important part and towards the   end you'll see that i actually spend quite a bit  of time on that even in the block in you'll see   that green's a little different a little bit of  phthalo in it so it's different than the hedge but there's nothing fancy about the actual  blocking in you may have to find the right color   i'm painting all the shadows in not necessarily  low intensity but sort of keeping all those value   masses thinking about them in terms of the shadows  all together and then if you get them all in   you'll see as it sort of comes together then all  the whites kind of play the role of the sunshine   and then by adding the color temperature you  pop it because obviously if you're putting a   color in it goes darker than the white canvas so  you lose some of that beautiful contrast of the   light hitting it but by using color temperature  then you start to pull back and and re-establish   that beautiful contrast of the sense of light  there i think i just put in this because that   other one just seemed a little bit too sort of  relentless in its color and i sort of softened it   a little bit just there i like that color i think  better than the one i'd had before and put that in   and now i'm taking that color and sort of brushing  it into the two forms in order to kind of soften   the bottom edge and there's the building up there  which i'll sort of put more information into later but you see i'm sort of playing one shape into  another it's like there i'm sort of getting   the lich you know the building shape and the tree  shape i'm kind of fashioning them one against the   other it's not that i'm just drawing up to the  edge of the yellow ochre one the yellow ochre   is really giving me the masses of the major shapes  and where to paint them and then this is a shadow   color of the gravel back there and then there's  a couple of hits of sunlight that hit it and then this whole section you'll see  i just block it in here very loosely   but this section here is an area where that  actually i had some trouble with because i put in   this dark color and then i put in some lights and  i left some sky holes and i want us to come down   to the figure and it was just getting too busy so  you'll see after the block in or actually towards   the end of the whole video how i've just been  working on it even more and then i'll just point   out at the end even the changes i made from the  end to the actual finished painting where i kind   of crafted it a little bit more because by putting  the lit side the dark side and the sky holes in it   it just became too busy for a place i  didn't really particularly want us to look   um but you can just see that i just have maybe  three or four values of green warm and cool and   i'm just softening edges and pushing shapes and  then here just pushing those shapes i don't want   it to get too complicated but i want it to look  like something too i want to structure some form   and you know you can be softening edges and things  before you know it you don't have any form but at   a certain point i put in the sky holes and then  i'm getting the sense oh i see the sky back there   but then it gets a little busy kind of that's  where i'm actually starting to look so you   know i leave it for now don't worry about  it but it's definitely going to take work and then i did feel even though i really like  that dark that i needed to get a little bit   of color into that big shape i think i mentioned  that in the video but you'll see that right there   i've lightened it right around the head and later  on i go back and darken it because the contrast   around the hat against that black is really what's  going to cement us in these are three you can only   see one really but these are three sort of sail  cloths we've got over that area at the back it's   a little room we created the back of our garden  with a little l-shaped couch or whatever you   call it it's california you stay out there it's  beautiful little quiet spot surrounded by green   but you know i mean some parts this angle for  instance this sort of sweep it's got to be pretty   accurate otherwise it's going to look funny so  you can see i'm taking attention this place is   even in the blocking you've got to be careful  but then you come to a big shape like this   you'll see that this has a bunch of slats on  it and later on i paint those slats in but   first off it's just a big shape that's the big  thing it's doing the slats are sort of secondary   to it and you know you can see the how intense the  big value shift here but you can see how intense   the temperature shift is there's a warm  yellow green against the blue green i'm really   exaggerating it and you can see the gradation  i'm creating down in the bottom left to push   this up you know i do more of that as the painting  goes on you can see how different this green is   to the grass screen i mean the one below has way  more yellow in it this one would have a little   bit this one probably that one probably  has had yellow lemon and the one in the   grass probably has had yellow medium and this  is a lavender that sort of gray color it's quite   a different green than the lemon tree and then  i'm getting the shadow side underneath of that   to sort of get the sense of shadow at the  bottom structure the light hitting the top   and you know there i'm just  starting to get some darks into the into the lemon tree so here  i just start with this big   well actually no i don't that's the  shadow now what's interesting later   see this is the other side of the hedge and  later you'll see i kind of craft it and form it   so that we start to see oh i see that  same thing is continuing on the other side you know just a pale sort  of dull blue for the dress but there's just a single line for  the sunlight hitting the edge of   that thing which is too wide and i have to narrow  it later but now i'm starting to get the sunlight   hitting that tree and you'll the the lemon tree  and you'll see in just a moment i'll put a few   more marks in there hardly anything really  in terms of detail just a few shapes and you   if you just sort of look at it you realize oh yeah  the sun's coming over the top of the studio on the   left and just hitting the tops of the tree and you  realize already that's exactly what it looks like   and it's just a few simple shapes and then there's  the warm color sort of a oakery color to the blue   purple of the shadow and that's the gravel  that's uh back there in that little room   i like the way landscape  architects that's a beautiful rich   shadow color it's quite dark but a lot of  intense well reasonable amount of intensity   but i like the way landscape architects talk  about rooms in a garden these sort of spaces   and then you look here that all this all the  flesh you know the legs the feet the hands   the face um all just one value although i do go in  and make it a little darker and then see how cool   the hat color is like the dress and then how  light and it's just a little bit of yellow   in there and then i'd have to fill in  the holes there for the little bits   that i missed with the bigger brush make  sure we get the legs looking like legs   and you know right in here because this  is where i want you to look i have quite   a small brush and i'm really starting to  form carve back into the bigger shapes i wouldn't call the detail just the  specific shapes i need for this to be   you see i'm putting a dark in behind her there  to pop that edge and little darks under the feet   sort of the shadow under the feet so she kind  of sits on the ground a little bit better and   then i think i'd mess with the hat  for a bit because the hat's too big   too tall or something let me see there's a  little bit of form in the dress but not much a little bit just around there but then here you  see i'm getting the lit side and then i realized   on top of the hat bang mark for the lit side of  the hat and then i'm sort of trying to carve the   shapes again but then i realized oh the hat's like  a top hat it's way too tall but you see how dark   i'm making it there i cut the hat down but you see  how dark i've gone back into that green which i   had structured to kind of lighten that big dark  shape up but i've actually gone back in with the   darks and then i'm making all the flesh a little  darker it's a little too light but i'm going back   in with the darks around her just to really pop  the figure because that's where i want you to   look so then there's a little bit of light on the  flowers and then we have the finished block in and   you know already we can see everything  that's going to be there the values are   about right the colors are about right there's  no detail but every single shape is blocked in   we know exactly what's going to happen and some  painters you know somebody like fairfield porter   he's worth looking at actually somebody  like fairfield porter he's finished he   moves on to the next painting but i didn't  i thought i would just keep working here   and that color up there i just thought was kind  of too dark and i needed to sort of get a color   that's a bit more interesting there and extend it  beyond didn't want it to line up too much with the   the fence with the slats in it and then this as  i say this section here i you know you say oh i   make it look so easy but this section here i was  really uh having to work with creating structure   but not getting it busy so i sort of left it  for now and you can see i'm getting really dark   there around the hat to make sure that that's  where we're going to look the real contrast is   and i'm starting to get some more sunlight  coming around because it's hitting there   like directly the sunlight's up there and then  i'm pulling the thing over so it overlaps the   red building better or that purple building better  so it doesn't sort of line up and we're not sure   where things are by overlapping we've clearly  brought it now in front of that other building   and i start to soften the edges and i'm  going to start getting rid of those or   adjusting the sky holes so they don't hold so  much attention because they're pretty light and then i'm putting in i'm just because this is a  building and with perspective and bits and pieces   i have to actually go in there so i make careful  consideration of where that line is coming down to   and where the shapes are relative to the  see there's the building down at the bottom   so i'm sort of treating the building but it's  quite darker then i've got a mall sticky gang   just to put a little bit of uh you  know the joists or whatever they are   just along there because those things have to be  fairly exact if i'm going to put the mine at all   they can't be sort of one this distance and one  then there's a little bit of shadow under each one   so that we kind of see it not too much  i mean be very easy to overdo that   and then look at this because now i'm defining  really clearly see that where that line of the   bushes go and all of a sudden that bush oh  i see what that bush is it's a continuation   a gap a little you know door into that room  and then i've carved the shape back into the   lavender so that that whole thing kind of makes  more sense now i've gone to the other photograph   so you can see because i'm now delineating all  that stuff that we're going to call the leaves   i don't change the shape i add a color as it  turns so that it's not quite so dark not quite   so warm so there's a color there then i'm going  and i'm just carving the edge where the light   actually hits and a few little spots down into  see that none of the spots in the shadow shape   get light enough to ever be confused with the lit  side and then really establish a good strong dark   underneath so we're really clear that there's no  light getting in there and just softening that   edge as it sort of draw it up into the and you  see so much of this is drawing right you're just   drawing with a brush just getting things to look  right with a brush so even though i've articulated   much more information on that hedge you can still  see it is just a lit shape and a dark shape and   i've adjusted the edges and there i'm sort of  tying in that dark underneath so that that hedge   automatically continues now you'll see  me working on this and you saw it in the   other other video working that flat value that  i've got for the lemon tree now i'm starting   to put some darks in there you see there's  quite a bit of contrast in that lemon tree   and you can see the lemons themselves for a guy  that grew up in ontario a lemon tree in your   backyard is a miracle so i wanted to get the  lemons in and but they couldn't be too bright   otherwise you know they look like the sun was  hitting it way down obviously in the shadow   so you can see i'm just working the ideas  of where the darks are and leaving where   the lights are and then i find a color that's a  little lighter and i start building up the lights   with the shapes you know they're all working  off that ground color there won't be a lot of   ground color left by the time i'm done but i'm  using it so i don't have to keep fiddling with   filling in little white spaces but you see  now i'm sort of drawing in here the darks   and reestablishing where the bottom of the tree  actually exists and you just see it's like i   go in there dark and carving back into it and  starting to get the leaves to pop and all gets in   there with some dark things that are even darker  that's still that's the building now that's sort   of quite dark down and there's no light getting  on it and there's the thing that goes around the the bed i think i don't think i got  the perspective right now i got it   and then here's where i'm working just with  thin little lines for those little wisps of   uh the lavender see there i've got a thin  brush just dragging a few just on top of   the ground color ground color you can still see  just a couple of darks few lights and there i'm   going for a few more lights in those things  just know you say oh i make it look so easy   it's i'm having to go back and forth and back and  forth pulling this together now i'm going in with   some that are really quite a bit darker i didn't  want to commit too quickly to those darks because   it'll be in the sort of in the middle of a a  medium dark that i'll put an even darker piece   and it'll start to get the sense of several  values that'll articulate all that stuff but   you'll see i'm just putting pushing the darks  and then i pull the lights push the darks   pull the lights and the thing starts  the sort of structure as a tree i mean is every single one of those marks  necessary i don't know it just that's how   many it took me to do it i mean sometimes i  might make it simpler but here i'm pushing some   softening the bottom edge of the the lip because  it you know just says it gradates down into it   and still darkening even more  to get some of these darks in   make sure there's good sense of shadow down at  the bottom but there you see i've i've put some   more of the leaves in and here are the lemons  and the lemons you have to be really careful   because if you they're light they're as light as  the sunlit thing but they have to be a cool yellow   i was determined to get those in and then here  you just see i'm putting in a few marks not very   many that establish the sense of oh there's  leaves individual leaves that are catching a   little bit of light but you see now you get quite  a sense of volume of light hitting the sunlit part   and i'm softening some of those edges so that  they don't jump too much because i don't want   you to look up there i want you to look at  the figure but you're still getting this   nice sense of the sunlight coming around there  and then down in the shadow side of the tree   all these lights and darks but everything in the  darks are cool greens and everything up there in   the sunshine is lit green now there's sort of a  face i've created there with a face and two eyes   which i didn't notice when i painted it but i  got rid of at the end you know how faces appear   out of nowhere sometimes um but you know you say  i make it look squeezy there's sometimes there's   a lot of little marks that go into making  this thing and this here i still feel that   those shot those sky holes are too busy there's  too much stuff going on up there and you'll see   in just a moment you'll see the finished painting  and just take a moment to look at it when i'm   just before i finish here and then what i do  because i just bring some little tiny marks   that just sort of indicate a few branches in  sunlight that just kind of articulates that   space because it looks too simple now compared  to the rest of the painting right so i just   put a few simple marks there you'll see in the  finished painting that just articulate that and   just sort of softening that edge but basically  there's the finished painting and well here   actually is the finished painting and you see  what i mean just a few marks up in that top bush   doesn't make it too busy but allows us to sort of  see a complete thing as much as everything else   and of course i've put in the slats to just  drag them one in one after the other like that   so as always i hope you found that helpful  i will see you next tuesday bye for now

Channel: Ian Roberts

Views: 163,596

Rating: 4.971786 out of 5

Keywords: ian roberts, ian roberts artist, mastering composition, plein air painting, compositional structure, warm and cool shadows, shadows, color palette, creative authenticity, drawing, sketch, paint, painter, artist, abstract painting, how to paint abstract art, paint brushes, painting process, plein air, plein air tutorial, plein air how-to, painting shapes, demonstration, art demo

Id: _uM1i80vcEA

Length: 21min 26sec (1286 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 29 2021