I usually start with a sketch of the object—what it looks like in my mind’s eye—but then I’ll get started with the painting a little later. Then I’ll try and recreate that with textures, with light, using light sources. It’s something I start with a painting that doesn’t look quite right, but then you begin to try and improve it. For some, some of that comes from playing with digital painting, and some of it comes from playing with painting with my hands. I do have a pretty good eye for that stuff, but I also have a pretty good eye when it comes to using light and textures.
How important to you are brushes, in the studio or on the model. Do you need to use them?
For my small scale, yes. For everything else, I think a lot of the time—and this goes back to my initial advice of not using lots of brushes—I think that there’s a bigger lesson about the value of a brush, and not only about painting in general, but the value of one’s brush. I always try to think about that.
There’s a pretty good book, by Robert Frank, called Painting Today and Tomorrow. He talks about how we’re living in a golden age of painting, and he says he’s thinking that artists are going to see fewer brushes as they have become more skilled. I think that what I’m seeing is that more and more people are just going to be making their painting with digital tools, and that’s great. That’s something I’m always doing in my studio, not to brag, but to try and understand that. I’m not going to sit down in my office, grab paint, make a painting in a few days, and call it finished. But I think that there’s a big value in learning how to make digital paintings, and using these tools, rather than having a paint brush just sitting on the edge of the canvas, trying to get it perfectly even in different layers and in different strokes. That’s just something I’ve noticed as I’ve been learning the ropes, in my studio.
What have you learned about yourself through digital painting that you’re using for modeling and for art? Is there any art that you’ve found inspiring?
I’ve found a lot of art inspiration through digital painting. I have a great feeling for a lot of the stuff in my head—I’ll look at it, I’ll think about it for a few minutes, and then
online acrylic art classes for beginners, online fine art courses free, online art courses for beginners, art classes for adults, online summer art courses for high school students