http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8ZeSdC5xcs
An exercise I teach, promote...that will help wean the artist from the linear and the literal...to more painterly suggestive realism, can be seen in this video I made...counting brushstrokes. I may refer to it...show a part of it in the next two sessions coming up...but is relevant especially in the session going from literal to the suggestive.
The counting...and the purpose, is to put greater emphasis on the value of a brushstroke, as though the stroke (with its proper color and value pigment) is in and of itself the
art... to understand that scumbling, when necessary to blend is at that point and time intended, but too many artists when watched dab meaninglessly with the brush as though waiting for something to happen.
When especially pressed for time, and quite often if you paint outdoors, developing a commanding mastery of the brush leads to a profound efficiency. To anyone watching...it is something akin to magic. We have a number of fine painters here at Wetcanvas that possess this magic, and produce work where it is most evident. I think of David Simons as one, in the Landscape forum...
Emile Gruppe cautioned against counting brushstrokes, and I agree were it done on your bread and butter work, your commissions, painting outdoors, etc., Just as there is the regular game of basketball with its rules, its coache's box, its referees and officiating, there are scratch games like Horse, Twenty-One, Around the World...that are not full fledged court games. Thus as an exercise...like lifting weights to enhance your sport's performance...it will increase your confidence and manner of applying paint. In short...make you efficient, make your attack direct, intentional, in control....
Linear Mode
