Painting Is Seeing in Shapes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2024
- In the introduction to my book Mastering Composition I said the title of this book could have been "Shapes, Shapes, Shapes". So much of the shift from painting things, objects, subject matter rests in seeing shapes.
If you can see shapes you can paint shapes. And in the end that is all a painting is, some shapes on a 2D surface.
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Hi Ian ..
I have just purchased a copy of your book MASTERING COMPOSITION .. this is a MUST HAVE reference book for artists of ALL LEVELS.
This book is an extremely valuable resource to help solve issues that have really started in the very beginning of the composition .. what a huge difference this has made to how I am viewing composition and my work.
Thank you for a wonderful book and also your videos ..
Margaret. 🙏
I think I found your channel about two weeks ago, as the algorithmic wave began coruscating - after many years of scouring the internet for anything art related. There are many great channels, but yours is excellent because you focus on principles, which in my opinion is pivotal to acquiring a process that increases the likelihood of a successful painting.
So glad you found it and like it Ken. Have to look up coruscated. All the best.
Ian . . . after 30-some years of painting and studying with other painters as well as buying and viewing many educational videos, I want you to know your approach ranks high with "how it really is." Your clarity of thought and the way you organize and put together what you are teaching is spot on. I wish I had run into you three decades ago. Thanks.
Hi Dick so happy to hear you are getting a lot out of the videos. Makes me happy to hear. Thanks for letting me know. I really appreciate it.
Same! So happy I too found Ian!
Same to me. Jan helped me to understand the most important things in the painting technique. Thank you, Ian!
I have owned your book for years, and I used it to teach composition in a women’s prison, We all love your book because you break things down into parts that are easier to understand. You are a great teacher.
Thanks so much Dianne. That actually is a lovely thought your class in the prison. Rough as it must be in so many ways it must be nice to have a creative focus.
Seeing shapes first in an image (before considering value, hue, chroma, etc.) is paramount and a core principle toward mastering structure and composition in drawing or painting. And while focusing on the essential shapes, make sure major and minor shapes are not duplicated (same length, width, form, direction) - unless there is a good reason for doing so >> Ian's drawings are excellent abstract examples of this restraint. This video should be studied at least once in every fundamental art and photography class. Thanks for another superb lesson, Ian.
HI Christina, well that is a clear and complete assessment I gotta say. Thank you for your praise of the content. I really appreciate it. Best wishes.
I love how you edit photos to compose something that works. Generally, I look at the photo I've taken and feel like it is a rigid guide to my work. I HAVE to paint what is in the photo. Your editing and composing of your painting points towards the freedom I can allow myself to delete or minimize elements that don't work. Thank you!!
Tuesdays have become my favourite day of the week. Thanks, Ian!
Nice Patricia. Glad you enjoy the videos. All the best.
Ian, this video provides a thoughtful look at process and composition. The still shots where you explain what you are thinking and the process of bringing in overlapping shapes, colour intensity, value … this reinforces all the elements one needs to be thinking about and need to be hearing over and over and over for it all to sink in.(and that does not even take in the need to be doing, doing, doing to learn)
I am a ceramic tile maker , leaning more and more to art work and using plein air sketching and watercolour to inform my ceramics work.
Everything you talk about is useful to not just oil painters! Many thanks and please make more videos with this approach.
There are many great artists out there. However, you make a difference by being a great teacher as well. I learned so much from you. Thank you Ian!
Very happy you found the video helpful. You are welcome Loran.
By the end of 2021 you may well have over 100,000 subscribers. As someone who has taken up painting late in life I find your tutorials essential. A few years ago I found one of your DVDs at the local library and watched it several times. I am delighted with these TH-cam videos! Thank you so very much.
Michael, that would be something, a 100,000. But thank you for that prediction. Happy you are finding the weekly videos helpful.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition What I enjoy most is your refreshing objectivity as you demonstrate the process of creating. Thank you.
Last May I returned to the US after 8 years living and working in Europe. I took LITERALLY thousands of photos of anything/everything I encountered both to capture memories as well as a “rogues gallery” of material to call upon when I restart my on again - off again love of drawing and painting. I’m not sure how the algorithm turned up your page in my feed, but I am very glad it has. Subbed along with so many others in the past few weeks. Looking forward to viewing your “back catalogue”.
Glad you found it Cherryll.
Maybe the “algorithm “ is that you are an amazing teacher.
Best teacher on TH-cam! Thanks so much :-)
You're very welcome Karen.
Abbreviating those two trees on the right opened up the painting. Terrific video. Thank you.
I am an absolute beginner (I just started a few weeks ago) but I find your lessons very useful. I already made many photos and realized that it those I already focussed on shapes / light & dark / composition. Simplifying my surroundings by careful looking, simplification and then painting it is a fun process.
I was so excited to be home again......having spent the last weeks hospitalized......to catch up on these last two weeks of Tuesday lectures🥰.....I really missed your Tuesday tips.....you have no idea how much your audience appreciates and looks forward to these Tuesday info sessions! I’m happy to learn that your followers continue to increase......they have found, in my opinion, the perfect place for instruction! Also, I have ordered your book, once again (never received my first order), and I am looking forward to receiving it!
Seeing the composition as a series of shapes sounds so easy, and is in some ways, not difficult to achieve. However, I continue to struggle with how to detail those shapes once they are blocked in, so that they look like more than just large masses. I think part of my difficulty stems from expectations I have set for myself.
I am not content with the simplification of those objects in my composition, and feel that they need more detail than is necessary. Having the mantra of simplification repeated, and reinforced, hopefully, will give me the permission I need to keep my paintings more simple. As I progress, I will be able to introduce more details in accordance with my skill level. While having goals and expectations for oneself is good, they do have to be realistic and attainable.......improvement will occur, all in good time!
Looking forward to your April 20th e-mail!😊
Glad you are better and enjoying the videos.
Hi Ian - Your subscriber count just points out the obvious: you are so good at breaking down elements and teaching. Thank you! And when life is back to normal, I would love to take an in-person class.
Hi Ann thank you so much. Glad you are finding the videos helpful.
Thank you Ian, I am one of the newbies to your channel, but you an excellent painter and teacher! I am so grateful for these videos as a free resource, its truly amazing!
You are very welcome. Delighted you found my channel.
I am one of the noobz, but I watch a lot of watercolour painting channels, so as you say the algorithm sent me one of your vids. I watched a few and then subscribed, you certainly have a knack of explaining concepts very simply and clearly. Excellent content for any budding artists or painting hobbyist.
Really happy to hear it Mark. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you Ian for showing how and why it is so important to establish our focus first and then, "see" the big shapes and SIMPLIFY!
Hi Marie, more on simplification next week. Glad you found this one helpful.
Another great real-life example/demonstration.
So glad your subscriber numbers are starting to blow up. You/your channel deserve it.
Thank you. You've been watching for ages I know but it is interesting to watch the algorithms all of a sudden kick in. With best wishes.
I am from Tokyo Japan, and enjoying your true painting aspects. I used to live in Santa Barbara. I studied at UCSB.
Excellent. Love your nuggets of info. I'm a watercolor painter and your info crosses all art barriers for painting in 2d. Thanks, Ian!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you Ian for your generous sharing. As a teacher I am so grateful to find something of this quality online. You are a teacher's teacher of painting and a beautiful artist to boot. Thank you a thousand times.
This painting reminds me of a Morandi painting. Wonderful painting and explanation of the process.
Like many others I have only just discovered these short films over the last two weeks. The content and the clarity of explanation and execution of compositions deserve a 5* rating. The analysis of photographs or potential sites for painting is masterly. Where and how to crop photographs to improve and simplify a view is very useful - all too often we are enslaved to our reference photos. We are being shown how to think things out before we start ..... In lock down I have time on my hands to watch the films in order. This will be a good investment!
Hi Ian, I'm delighted you are enjoying the videos and finding them helpful. Appreciate your critique. Thank you.
Hi Ian, I’m one of your new subscribers. I struggled with composition on a sketch for a painting. 5 versions later, I still couldn’t get it right. Took a break & watched a review of a video game. Yes. There in the margin was your video on composition. Exactly what I needed. I was pretty sure the algorithm angels put your video there just for me. Just at the perfect time. Thank you!
Hi Kate, happy for the timing of those algorithm angles. Good luck.
So great! So helpful, thank you Ian. Really appreciate how you're able to show us how you simplify, so we can cut through the clutter and don't get overwhelmed.
Hi Ian, this was helpful, because when one is drawn to objects/places that eventually become compositions, you really don’t know exactly why that works or doesn’t work as a composition until one dissects the structure. It’s kind of magical how it all comes together. Lately, i have been taken by compositions that involve the up close view of objects like flowers, rocks, water, etc.... working with lights/shadows and shapes in this realm creates interesting compositions.
I"m delighted you are enjoying the videos. My wife, also a painter, does a lot of paintings out in the back yard up close of flowers. You gotta find what feeds you. With best wishes. Ian
I’m not surprised that 18,000 people are viewing your videos. You are an excellent teacher. Actually, I would think your audience will continue to grow exponentially.
these videos are the best art tutorials on youtube imo
This was so helpful because I do find it bewildering many times to find a good motif and composition
So this instruction was great.Thank you
I once lived in SoCal. In fact I’ve been on that path in Santa Barbara. What a beautiful area! But, I can honestly say, I’m glad you painted out the palm tree. I was surprised what a difference removing it and squaring out that cypress made to your painting. Better painting through pruning. :-)
I’m glad I found your channel !! Thanks for posting they are so helpful
Hello I've enjoyed many of your videos on TH-cam. Thank you for explaining abstraction in a simple way that I can relate to my own painting. In one of your videos you mentioned a mixture of colors that make black, and for the life of me I can't find it again. Please tell me the paint combo again. Thank you for this info as well as your concise, informational and no nonsense method of teaching painting. Patti
Thank you Ian. I really love how you think and that you can make it so clear in your videos! I am also a newbie and am very glad that I found you!
Well glad you are here. And that the videos are helpful.
Thank you so much for all you teach me !
Great tip about composition! Thank you 🙏
Glad you enjoyed it Bella.
Thanks a lot, Ian! loving your videos. Yours teaching approach is very calm and strictly to the point. It would be incredible if you make a video about your authors and favorite books about composition. Congrats from Brazil.
Thanks Alessandro.
I discovered you a couple of weeks ago and subscribed. I’m a watercolor artist. I find your teaching style focused, structured and well presented. I find your videos useful in simplifying the shapes and how to use photos to do so. Thank you so much.
You are welcome Terry.
Absolute quality. Supremely helpful. Many thanks 🙌
You're very welcome!
Never studied art at school, really happy I found somewhere that helps me think of how to approach my painting before I start. Thank you!
You are welcome. Glad you like the videos. Best wishes.
Such useful information. Thanks and also for your demo!
I'm glad you liked it.
Thank you so much for so generously sharing your knowledge and insights. Being able to analyze and communicate concepts clearly is a rare and valuable talent regardless of the subject matter.
You are so welcome Chris. And thank you.
Just found your channel last week, enjoying your demonstrations & insight
Thanks Kim. Glad you found it. All the best.
Yes I watch lots of art videos and you just now showed up on my feed, now I follow your excellent videos. No idea why I hadn’t seen you before because I’m always searching for new artists.
Glad you found me Glenda. All the best.
Not only vibrant, but by consequence natural, having those tinted and broken colors (the real meaning , before Impressionist reinvented the "broken colors") coalesce, having the simultaneous contrast appear everywhere in the composition. Although, I think, seeing the painting in person by the light intended, we would see many-many more colors (in reality not present) we cannot on the screen. I also like the hidden few accents executed in a more higher chroma.
Thanks so much Bobby. With best wishes, Ian.
Well I'm so glad to have known you simply as Ian Roberts and not Sir Ian Roberts as you'll likely be dubbed--if you're into that sort of thing. Kidding aside, the focus on big shapes carrying the painting and your cropping and editing to improve the structure are such important learning points for me. Please keep nailing those home. Thank you!
Glad you are enjoying the videos Karen.
Thank you 🙏🏾 Ian Roberts, I am happy to see your painting and the process explained clearly.It may take long time to do in this way , it will really help , and especially the sketching process.
You are most welcome Usha.
I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of your Mastering Composition book and in the meantime have been looking at my photos in a new way - shape, value, structure. Thank you for doing this and doing it so well and so generously!
You are welcome Maureen. Glad you are finding them helpful. Enjoy the book too. Best wishes.
Superb Ian, I am beginning to understand why I photograph things the way I do lol.
Just discovered your channel Ian Roberts. THANK YOU for your videos; they're inspiring me out of a slump.
That's what we want Jennifer - out of the slump. All the best.
I am happy to discover your channel, there are many foundations of starting an artwork from you that amazed me. Hope I am motivated and thank you so much for sharing. Regards from Ssingapore.
Hi Nor, I'm happy you discovered the channel as well. Delighted you are enjoying the content.
Ian, thank u very much. Very helpful. Will practice that way. Waiting for next lesson. Best regards
My pleasure Mohammad. Best wishes.
I am truly happy to have found you through all the weeds!
Thank you, thank you for all the work you put into sharing your expertise in these videos. They are so helpful!! And, I'm with Ann. Please let me know when you offer an in-person class. In the meantime, stay well.
I'm glad you are enjoying the videos Jan. Best wishes.
That was extremely helpful. Thankyou
Your site has blown up because you are GOOD! I tell two people and they tell two people and so on and so on.. ( hmmm sounds like an old tv commercial from childhood...🤣🤣) and it works when there is excellent content and a fabulous teacher. I hope it continues to grow. You deserve it. This week’s content really clear and really helpful. Love how you isolated each of the shapes. My brain is starting to think this way, but Carnegie hall still in the distance... practice practice practice..
Thanks so much Alison. And good luck with the practice!
Ian......you are tremendous help in explaining your step by step process of your plan. It is so helpful. I want to purchase Mastering Composition and I imagine it is on Amazon. thanks so much Ian
HI Louise, Mastering Composition is again available on Amazon. It was literally on a slow boat back from China. Glad you are enjoying the channel With best wishes.
Another great post, Ian. Am trying to embed your concepts in the painterly part of my brain.
Another great video
Another excellent video, and delighted to hear that your subs are going up. It's a great channel and thoroughly deserves the recognition.
Thanks so much. The numbers sure did jump this week.
amazing contents
Awesome composition. And a good idea to open up the middle ground trees to the distant hills. When you chopped the left-hand tree, should you have chopped the reflection of it, too?
If you look at the original photo the reflection does not go all the way down to the foreground bank. I extended it to create a better vertical. So when I cut off the top of the tree I just left the reflection as it was for that vertical. Technically you would be right of course. Artistically I chose to go for design over accuracy.
I'm learning a LOT from your videos. Maybe you could show how you position your photos to paint from at some point. I've painted from life, still lifes, for so long that I forgot how to paint from a photo in order to get the size, values, not too much detail etc, correct on the canvas. Thanks.
Glad you are learning a lot from the videos. That's great. I have one of those sculpture stands that I can raise up so it is eye level and it wheels so I bring it close to the easel and put my computer on it. Have to say I sometimes get paint on the computer with big canvases.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Thank you much. I'll give it a go. Love the pre-painting drawing study also.
Hi Ian, thank you again for another great instructional video. 18K wow! I'm trying to start with shapes and progress to details but its hard to visualize the finished painting when my shapes just look like blobs of paint but I'll keep trying, its fun. Thanks, Tom.
Hi Thomas, glad you liked it. One thing is putting shapes next to one another as you develop the painting so you start to feel the shapes falling into the illusion. Rather than putting them all over the painting just as separate unconnected shapes. You can do that but it is harder to get a sense of how it is progressing at first.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Ok Thanks, I'm going to keep that idea in mind as I do my next one, see you Tuesday for Abstract
I painted that same spot a few years ago...with Marcia ... in Acrylic .. LOL
I'm going to paint another scene further down, which I'm sure you've also painted, and I think sort of that it's Marcia's, like she owns it.
Ian, I just found your site and absolutely am intrigued. I am in my 60's and am just beginning. While learning much, have you considered doing a full drawing or painting for this channel? I seem to grasp more while seeing motion. Thanks so much for all this content; it's terrific. God bless
Hi Kathleen, glad you have found the channel. I decided right from the start that I would keep my videos to 6-8 minutes. Light pieces of content. There are lots of demonstration videos on the internet that are 45 minutes or so. If you go to artsnetwork.com and type in my name I have three videos there of me painting paintings of photographs. And you see a lot of the process. But honestly I think the thinking behind the brushwork is more important. I almost feel that trying to learn to paint by watching someone else paint is a bit like learning to play piano by watching someone play. There's more stuff behind the scenes. I'm exaggerating to make the point. But you see what I mean I think.
I found your channel about a week👍
Welcome aboard!
❤❤
I actually like the second to last
There was an article in the New York Times this weekend about a painting by Patricia Neal of two young boys. The comment she had made at some point in her life about the painting is that it never worked until she added the column (vertical) in between and behind the two boys sitting together on a bench (horizontal). Here is the article: www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/nyregion/alice-neel-boys-painting-nyc-toby-neal.html. The story was a human interest story about one of the brothers living to see the long lost painting at the Met but I was struck by that comment.
Lynn Huntington, thank you so much for adding this article.
Beautiful article! Made me tear up actually. What a gift to him to finally see the painting after all those years of wondering. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing that link Lynn. I like Alice Neel's work. Not overskilled. Or over rendered. Kind of simple and direct. And felt.
785 likes to zero dislikes says it all. Great videos thanks.
Thanks so much. Glad you found it helpful. All the best.
Can you please demo this same in water color, Sir~
I think you would find joy by branching out to something beyond realiism
Your subscription rate has gone up b/c more people, like me, are home trying to learn to paint. Thank you pandemic!
And is it OK that your values in your painting are not the same as your reference as long as there is harmony in your painting?
That again gets to the point above. With in a range. You can push things in a representational painting.
I think your channel is getting popular because you are unselfishly sharing your knowledge with others. Several years ago Google prioritized websites that have a genuinely good content that add something to society. Maybe TH-cam is doing that too.
Well Tweety Kid thank you for that take on the increasing numbers. I appreciate it and I'm glad you are enjoying the content. WIth best wishes.
How strict to the reference do we really need to be? Maybe this could be answered in a different video I’m getting off track but when you said your painting was more vibrant it kind a let me down this trail
Hi Allen, that's a big question about how strict to the reference. If you aren't at all strict the colors, the drawing, the values will all be off and the painting won't work. Probably. So there is leeway within a range. When I said the final painting was more vibrant I meant the image you could see at the end, the final painting, was more vibrant than the paintings I took while I was painting just because I didn't have control of the light out in the field but had better light in the studio for the final photo. I think the final painting and the scene itself was pretty close.
انا مهتم جدا بما تقدمه من معلومات قيمة فإذا أمكن إضافة الترجمة باللغة العربية
I'm assuming your comment is positive so thank you. Best wishes.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Yes thank you I mean.. .I am very interested in what have to offer,Is it possible to add translation in Arabic?
I don't know Amjed. It would have to be something TH-cam does with closed captioning. I don't know how to do it myself. Sorry.
Hi... I found your channel a month ago... and I really want to say how grateful I am for what you've been teaching.... This is by far the most helpful stuff I have come across.... I can see how my perspective of seeing things has been changing... Thank you so much for these videos and your patience ... sending tons of love and respect 🤍
Why can't I grasp this concept? Even your lines in the beginning confused me. My brain was not processing what you were seeing. I've watched dozens of videos and still can't grasp this concept.
I'm now starting to call it "hunting" myself too
Love your emphasis persistently on composition - it's SO important
Your way of teaching just resonates with me. It all makes more sense. Thankyou so much. I think your followers may have increased because many of us must be spreading the word.😁
Hi Ian. This was a very informative video. Congrats on the increase in viewers!! You have so much knowledge and you can see the appreciate surfacing. I really like that painting. Stay well. Gayle
HI Gayle, glad you liked it. Nice to hear from you. See you the 17th.
It’s not some type of algorithm. It’s the high quality of your instruction, and given that we are all home looking to become better painters. I have taken composition courses, but none as explicatory and crystallizing in our psyches as yours.
Hi Josephine, thank you so much for comment on the quality or clarity of my videos. I really appreciate it. Best wishes.
4/11/2021 USA Grandpa Bill: Ian, you are the kindest, gentle art teacher I have ever seen or heard. Your information, style of presentation, caringly assembled and presented lessons-within-lessons, are the finest I've found on TH-cam. So many presenters are technically good and possess good knowledge. But sharing that knowledge is difficult for them; the messenger gets in the way of the message. You have become the true artist...where the artist is one with the art like the pianist becomes one with the piano. The mechanics are transcended. Your transcendence brings to us the viewers learning that is easily understood, accepted, assimilated. We join in an intimate mental harmony dreamed of by many teachers. Diane Mize is my "Mother Color" and you have become my "Father Fundamental." And this can amuse you: I'm 73 years old chronologically. I've seen sooo many videos these last five years. I'm watching all of yours now. If I could subscribe for each video then I would. Thank you for being on TH-cam. Thank you for your composition book. Thank you for being you.
Well grandpa Bill I have to say that is the nicest comment and I really appreciate your sharing it with me. I love that Father Fundamental. My very best wishes to you, Ian.
In 2024 it is almost 10 times more people following you! Congratulation!🎉😊🎉🎉
Thanks
Amazing. Inspiring. Useful. Easy to understand and digest.
Thank you.
So helpful to see your process for looking for something to paint and to have it so well explained. Also, reducing view to a series of shapes and “humps”. For a beginner - pure gold. Many thanks.
marvelous way of teaching.
Heartiest Congratulations for 18000 subscribers. You are a the best teacher.The way you take efforts to teach us and simplify the process of painting is very rare . Thank you Ian Sir!
You are most welcome Meena. Thank you.
Please do more demos, I loved this one!
I've been in that exact spot. I love Santa Barbara and it's my favorite place in the whole world (next to Ojai). It's an artists town for sure, as evidenced by the art at the beach every weekend.
It's funny you say that Tricia because my wife and I normally go to Ojai but every place we normally stay was fully booked because of spring break. So that's why we were in SB. My wife loves painting the mustard this time of year in Ojai.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition add to that the smells of the orange blossoms and the taste of Bocalli's strawberry shortcake and you've entered heaven. I need to make a trip there soon. I have many things in my head I want to paint. Like my old elementary school. Check it out next time. Looks like a Dutch house out of a storybook. On Carne road (on your way to Bocalli's, haha). I'm glad I snapped a pic of the Full o Beans before they tore it down for a Starbucks. The back (which is now a drive-thru) was the cutest patio/garden setting under a giant oak.
Ian such a great teacher.
Hello from Europe, I also found it funny how YT never showed me your channel until 2 days ago even though I've been intensely searching for serious art education here for at least a year now. Btw one day after you posted this video and it's already over 20k! Great quality content, I'm definitely subscribing:)
Kat, it's a mystery to me too why all of a sudden the number jump. Glad you are enjoying the content. All the best.
Thanks so much. A kind of scientific/rigorous approach to design? Whatever it was, I sure learned from your video.
That's great Jim. Glad you liked it.
Very helpful video. I do watercolors but the oil painting videos in youtube help me more to improve my painting organization and thinking process.
Hi David, glad you found it helpful. I think watercolor even more than oils needs that thinking process in place before you start because depending on the color you can get really locked in early if you are thinking large shapes.
Thanks Ian.Good one. Waiting for abstract paintings when you are ready 👍
Hi Any, glad you liked it. I think I've got abstraction organized for next week.
Great teaching episode! Really drives home the idea of shapes. More like this with just photos please.
Hi Jim. Glad you found it helpful. Interesting your requesting just the photos. I'll have to think about that and stop and take photos more often.