Clear you know how much difficulty students experience when they are trying to avoid getting into too much detail. I find your videos very encouraging. Thank you..
There’s a photograph I took of a sunset a while back that I’m dying to paint. It has the most beautiful colours and value ranges. This video has given me the guts to give it a go. I only took up painting 5 months ago and so I’m still nervous of trying stuff. Thanks 🥂
I know it's three years later, but I had to say that I understand the terror of the blank canvas, and also the blank page. I know it is easier said, but go crazy! Sometimes I set out to deliberately RUIN a piece, and sometimes it turns out to be some of my best work!
I always start off wanting to do an abstracted landscape but nearly every time i add more value shapes, then more and more until im using a tiny brush, being overly detailed. Thank you for all you do for us. One day when im out of financial stress i want to donate to your channel or buy your courses. Feel so guilty getting quality demonstations and instruction for free on YT. Id be happy to watch ads for now if you had them. I think most of us would be happy to give back that way.
I am just starting out learning how to do Abstract Painting with Watercolours. Not that the Medium is important, but I thought I would mention it because I am 80 years old and these days do an A4 painting each day from my armchair. In this situation I find Watercolour easier to handle and clean up. I have been an amateur Realist artist in for approx.' 30 years using Acrylics, Gouache, Watercolour, Pen & Wash, Charcoal, and Graphite. Never to late to learn , I was recommended by a fellow online artist to watch your video "Pushing Towards Abstraction in Your Paintings". Thank you, as you have clearly answered so many questions for me on on Abstract Art.
Thank you! Your images really made it clear. Seeing each painting move a little further away from the last in how you represented the landscape really brought that clarity. Again, thank you.
Hi Amre, so much of getting bogged down in detail is not thinking in terms of the big value masses and using those to make the painting work. Otherwise you are sort of adding details in the hopes they all add up to a painting and usually about half way through you start to realize something is wrong. Not quite going to plan. Glad you found it helpful
Good one! PLEASE do more showing the progression of abstraction in several paintings and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE allow more time with each image in the ending slide show. Thank you.
This was a very helpful video illustrating the degree of abstraction and it’s effects, especially how abstraction affects the dynamic of the intention of the artist for the scene and the perception of the scene by the viewer. Very interesting.
Appreciate how you rationalize so we're all forced to think (!) what we do and why we do it. To learn to make well founded choices and to peel off the superfluous. Thanks once again for your weekly perseverance to keep bringing us your knowledge.
Thanks so much Patricia. That is a good way to express what I am doing. I hadn't thought of it that way exactly but it is accurate I think. Best wishes.
I really liked this, you explain beautifully something I've been thinking of playing with as I try to understand and find my way with abstracting. Thank you.
LOVE THIS!!! Really shows how some many different approaches CAN be highly successful and pleasing when starting with an solid composition! Thanks very much.
Thank you Ian. It was spell-binding to watch you move from one painting to the other, all similar and yet each so unique. You have opened up so many avenues by which to paint a subject. I am curious as to which one was your favourite.
Hi Javanthi. I am glad you found that interesting. It did open a lot of avenues of expression. I am not really sure yet which one I like the most. Maybe #1 and #5. The first detailed one because of the color and #5 because it seemed the most colorful and expressive.
This was amazingly helpful! I would love to see you do the church building done in a series of abstractions too. (the pict that you showed at the start)
I have been enjoying your videos for several days now, and I must say how impressed I am with the diversity of ideas and inspiration. Like most of the viewers of your lessons, I am trying to wrap my painting brain around your ideas and I do not claim to understand it all, I am glad you are trying to help plant the seeds of our future images. From this will come many ideas, and I thank you for the effort it takes for you to do these videos. I also appreciate the length of your videos as there is so much solid information to soak up, more then what they are could be too much in a great way of course.
It strikes me that this would be a great way to plan a larger painting: doing a series of small abstracted and increasingly free paintings, pushing shapes and colours to see what works. Then put that experience into a larger piece. As always I enjoy your videos, thank you so much for the work you put into them.
Hi Caroline, I think you are absolutely right. Sort of clarifying the big shapes really well before going bigger. Glad you are enjoying the videos. Best wishes.
I prefer the first version, because of the composition, fine balance of shapes, perspective, values, colors... last but not least expressiveness compared to the photograph! and to be summed up in one word : creativeness. Thank you so much Ian for this original spectrum of paintings.
Hi Francoise, I think I may like the first one the most too but because of the nuanced color. It made me think if I could do another and make it increasingly abstract but get more layers of nuanced color in it. But also I think I'm ready to move on. Best wishes to you.
Yes, but I think his point was that even very abstract, to get the right proportions and vanishing points for all those elements, it would be a huge task. So it didn't lend itself to his treatment, but maybe it would have in a Cubist style!
Wow! That looked like a very brave thing to do. 👏🏼 Thank you, as ever, for your genuinely generous sharing of knowledge . I picked up on you during Lockdown and you were the catalyst I needed to get going again with my art. You were such a friendly face that I looked forward to hearing from every week. I have since joined an art class and your videos often pop up there! My best wishes to you for your new explorations and continued successes. Looking forward to the new-style videos next month, all the best 😁
Hi Jonah, that just became more and more evident as I did each one. Once those big shapes are in place there is a lot of room for expression and experimentation. Glad you liked it.
Very impressive and enjoyable demonstration, thanks for sharing! Like others have said: seeing the brushes/brushwork was of great value in this video. I noticed in the slideshow how much the mood changes over the individual paintings. I got more or less the same atmosphere from Richter's 4, perhaps just a growing sense of unease/chaos over the progression, but I felt with yours the mood varied, and since it can't be the abstraction, it must be your experimentation with the color scheme! Also instructive.
I love abstracting but I never tried it multiple times like that. Definitely going to give it a shot and even in multiple media, oil, acrylic, gouache and watercolor. Thanks!
I like very much your way of showing the movement toward more and more abstraction - I believe that the more we plY with using all our senses the more we can move freely from realistic into total abstraction - and back again . I am inspired from the Danish philosopher who has written a book call " beauty happens" ( only in Danish) and He uses the concept synkinaesthetic - the feeling of movement together with all the other senses vision, hearing, smell, touch etc
I love them all, but Numbers 5 and 9 are my favourites, because of the deep blue sky and the salmon Pink clouds. Great ! Thank you so much for sharing your efforts to abstraction, Ian. This inspires me to also work more often in series to make all the nuances visible. You're my composition teacher since 15 years or so. Own your books and DVDs and love your work ! And foremost I love to have found you here on TH-cam. Thanks for sharing all your invaluable knowledge ! Have a nice week !
ian, thank you for that exploration into abstraction! Fun to see how the gesture and energy of painting changes with the abstraction process. Always looking forward to the next video.
I'm delighted you are enjoying them Jay. It was an interesting exercise. Enjoyable. Once I had the big basic shapes in place it allowed for more and more freedom. Best wishes.
Very, very nice class. As always, you give us some new perspectives. By the way, fimished your book Mastering Composition. Nice exercices. Learning not to rush to start painting and planing carefuly before take the brush. Now, Im commited with a composition a day, right? Became a daily routine. Tks. Also read Creative Autenticity,. Complex themes. Touch in deep subjects. Sudenly I stop searching MY STYLE and painting became much fun. Learning, learning. It never stops. Have a nice week.
This video helps a lot in my art journey in terms of abstraction. Im a noob and still feeling my way out. The last image is Rothko-like which is my favourite. I like the middle ones and quite doable for beginners like me. Thank You Ian for your masterclass sharing and more power!
Brilliant lesson and demo, Ian! Different sized brushes, different tonal palettes- great exercises. I especially enjoyed hearing you use the term, 'moishing paint' or mwooshing, not sure how one would spell it. I used that same word once in front of an English friend who asked me if that was a Canadian expression. Ha. If not, it should be!
Hi Lyn, glad you liked it. I would have thought I used "smushing", it is in the Canadian dictionary and not used much down here. Say hi to Chip and all the best to you.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition You're quite right! As memory clarifies, belatedly, I the word was indeed, 'smushing', and it was new to my British friend. It's an excellent and very expressive word.
Well done Ian! I have recently stumbled across your teaching on the web and really appreciate your clear and well delivered presentations. I never went to art school but can imagine me at school when I listen to your presentations!
This is so helpful. I am trying this today: to paint many of the same image. Also, will start off by making a cardboard frame and cutting the brushes on my 1 to 1-1/2” commercial brushes so that they are shorter and angled like yours. Thank you so much!
Hi Lyne, good luck with that. Those brushes that I use are just cheap bristle brushes (the cost $2) from the hardware store. I don't trim them. If you buy regular house painting brushes and trim them you'll probably find they are too dense. Have fund and all the best.
Thank you. I'm trying to force myself to simplify landscapes. One California watercolor artist who does this well is Dale Laitinen. But so often mess it up by convincing myself that looser means painting faster. I am delighted each Tuesday for another nugget! :-)
Ralph, that is such a good observation that looser means faster. And as you point out, it doesn't. It reminds me of that adage, measure twice, cut once. It really applies to painting, particularly watercolor. Think about it carefully, then do it.
You are a natural teacher!
I find every lesson helpful!
Very helpful! Not every artist can teach. You are definitely a good teacher AND artist. So thank you.
You did exactly what I wanted to see - a series of sketches of the same landscape. This is immensely helpful, many thanks.
I'm glad you found it helpful!
You make All of our challenges....simple.
Thank You.
Amazing how you address the essentials in less than 10 minutes.
Thank you for explaining how you painted that series by repainting the same inspiration. This will add value to my practice of art.
Glad it was helpful!
I love it , specially the large fields of colours in a more abstract way ! Thank you for sharing !
Great Christine. Glad you liked it. It was a fun exercise.
Yes, thank you!
This is one of my favorite videos; I'm going to try this exercise this weekend! Thanks again, Ian!
Clear you know how much difficulty students experience when they are trying to avoid getting into too much detail. I find your videos very encouraging. Thank you..
There’s a photograph I took of a sunset a while back that I’m dying to paint. It has the most beautiful colours and value ranges. This video has given me the guts to give it a go. I only took up painting 5 months ago and so I’m still nervous of trying stuff. Thanks 🥂
I know it's three years later, but I had to say that I understand the terror of the blank canvas, and also the blank page. I know it is easier said, but go crazy! Sometimes I set out to deliberately RUIN a piece, and sometimes it turns out to be some of my best work!
@ I gave it a go. It wasn’t terrible.
@@Nienpet Good!
This was very helpful, especially the brushwork demonstration. I'd like to see how you would simplify that Victorian house. :)
Yeah, really. I'd just block in a friggin' square and call it a day! BAHAHAHAHA.
I always start off wanting to do an abstracted landscape but nearly every time i add more value shapes, then more and more until im using a tiny brush, being overly detailed.
Thank you for all you do for us. One day when im out of financial stress i want to donate to your channel or buy your courses. Feel so guilty getting quality demonstations and instruction for free on YT. Id be happy to watch ads for now if you had them. I think most of us would be happy to give back that way.
I am just starting out learning how to do Abstract Painting with Watercolours. Not that the Medium is important, but I thought I would mention it because I am 80 years old and these days do an A4 painting each day from my armchair. In this situation I find Watercolour easier to handle and clean up. I have been an amateur Realist artist in for approx.' 30 years using Acrylics, Gouache, Watercolour, Pen & Wash, Charcoal, and Graphite. Never to late to learn , I was recommended by a fellow online artist to watch your video "Pushing Towards Abstraction in Your Paintings". Thank you, as you have clearly answered so many questions for me on on Abstract Art.
Ian, your demonstrations are such a gift. I think about them when I'm painting. Thanks so very much.
That's great Jane. Glad you are enjoying them And painting too. All the very best.
It is so useful and inspiring to see the whole range of approaches to one subject. The progression is a great teaching tool!
helpful..awesome name dropping someone mentioned Ivon Hitchens ...ty sir
Thank you! Your images really made it clear. Seeing each painting move a little further away from the last in how you represented the landscape really brought that clarity. Again, thank you.
So glad you found it helpful.
This was so helpful for someone like me who often has a tendency to get bogged down with detail. Appreciated!
Hi Amre, so much of getting bogged down in detail is not thinking in terms of the big value masses and using those to make the painting work. Otherwise you are sort of adding details in the hopes they all add up to a painting and usually about half way through you start to realize something is wrong. Not quite going to plan. Glad you found it helpful
Love this lesson. All of them were so beautiful in their own way. Created very different response from me.
I discovered your channel yesterday and I just cannot stop watching! I'll eventually watch them all. Thank you so much!
Good one! PLEASE do more showing the progression of abstraction in several paintings and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE allow more time with each image in the ending slide show. Thank you.
Great stuff. You are able and willing to take on something most of us don't really understand. I'm a learner.
Gifted painter and teacher
Lovely personality
Thanks for sharing your knowledge! Excellent insights.
Thank you, Ian! Very helpful to see every scene as an abstraction of forms and values!❤❤❤
Delighted that you found it helpful.
I love every one of them !
I love this and thank you for showing it. I'm a fan of the more abstract and that's what I hope to accomplish in my own work.
This was a very helpful video illustrating the degree of abstraction and it’s effects, especially how abstraction affects the dynamic of the intention of the artist for the scene and the perception of the scene by the viewer. Very interesting.
I have your book and have been teaching from it for years! This is a fabulous find....I'll get my students to subscribe...thanks.
Appreciate how you rationalize so we're all forced to think (!) what we do and why we do it. To learn to make well founded choices and to peel off the superfluous. Thanks once again for your weekly perseverance to keep bringing us your knowledge.
Thanks so much Patricia. That is a good way to express what I am doing. I hadn't thought of it that way exactly but it is accurate I think. Best wishes.
I really liked this, you explain beautifully something I've been thinking of playing with as I try to understand and find my way with abstracting. Thank you.
Very clear explanation,Grea.
Thanks
LOVE THIS!!! Really shows how some many different approaches CAN be highly successful and pleasing when starting with an solid composition! Thanks very much.
This is so eye-opening..just WOW! Your teaching style is amazing.
Really excellent explanation and demo of how abstraction works! Thanks for another highly informative video 👏🏽😍👍🏼
Amazing. As an abstract loving painter, I REALLY enjoyed this sequence! Thank you Ian.
Fantastic 🎉
excellent...been wanting to use oils...again... now I will 👍
Thank you Ian. It was spell-binding to watch you move from one painting to the other, all similar and yet each so unique. You have opened up so many avenues by which to paint a subject. I am curious as to which one was your favourite.
Hi Javanthi. I am glad you found that interesting. It did open a lot of avenues of expression. I am not really sure yet which one I like the most. Maybe #1 and #5. The first detailed one because of the color and #5 because it seemed the most colorful and expressive.
Really liked this one, with all of those examples of abstraction...Very nice! Thank you..
I love this one!! Inspiring lesson. Thank you!
Taught me the value of multiple painting attempts of the same scene. Thank you for your skill and teaching ability, Ian.
I used this image to paint with pastels. It was very difficult for me to abstract the photo. I kept trying to put details in. I loved your process.
They all are so beautiful yet every has its character😉🙌👍 and emotions they caused differ too! Amazing 🤩
Hi Katerina, I found the same thing. Each had it's own quality.
Really love your approach to teaching the basics of painting.
Thank you for sharing
This was amazingly helpful! I would love to see you do the church building done in a series of abstractions too. (the pict that you showed at the start)
I have been enjoying your videos for several days now, and I must say how impressed I am with the diversity of ideas and inspiration. Like most of the viewers of your lessons, I am trying to wrap my painting brain around your ideas and I do not claim to understand it all, I am glad you are trying to help plant the seeds of our future images. From this will come many ideas, and I thank you for the effort it takes for you to do these videos. I also appreciate the length of your videos as there is so much solid information to soak up, more then what they are could be too much in a great way of course.
I definitely enjoyed the different feelings evoked by each painting and preferred the last two shown abstracted to fields of heightened color.
Thank you for telling me your preferences Anna. As it happened I sold #5 and #9 so I don't think you were alone in preferring that end of the series.
Fabulous video. Thank you🌹
So glad you enjoyed it
It strikes me that this would be a great way to plan a larger painting: doing a series of small abstracted and increasingly free paintings, pushing shapes and colours to see what works. Then put that experience into a larger piece. As always I enjoy your videos, thank you so much for the work you put into them.
Hi Caroline, I think you are absolutely right. Sort of clarifying the big shapes really well before going bigger. Glad you are enjoying the videos. Best wishes.
Thank you for helping me to understand abstract painting today. Your message and the demonstrations of each paintings made it very clear.
Fascinating.
Thank you.
I prefer the first version, because of the composition, fine balance of shapes, perspective, values, colors... last but not least expressiveness compared to the photograph! and to be summed up in one word : creativeness. Thank you so much Ian for this original spectrum of paintings.
Hi Francoise, I think I may like the first one the most too but because of the nuanced color. It made me think if I could do another and make it increasingly abstract but get more layers of nuanced color in it. But also I think I'm ready to move on. Best wishes to you.
Fantastic!
I would love to have seen an attempt at abstracting the glorious home at the start of the video.
Yes, but I think his point was that even very abstract, to get the right proportions and vanishing points for all those elements, it would be a huge task. So it didn't lend itself to his treatment, but maybe it would have in a Cubist style!
Wow! That looked like a very brave thing to do. 👏🏼 Thank you, as ever, for your genuinely generous sharing of knowledge . I picked up on you during Lockdown and you were the catalyst I needed to get going again with my art. You were such a friendly face that I looked forward to hearing from every week. I have since joined an art class and your videos often pop up there!
My best wishes to you for your new explorations and continued successes.
Looking forward to the new-style videos next month, all the best 😁
Great video Ian- these simple paintings really show how much of the work is done by composition!
Hi Jonah, that just became more and more evident as I did each one. Once those big shapes are in place there is a lot of room for expression and experimentation. Glad you liked it.
Very impressive and enjoyable demonstration, thanks for sharing! Like others have said: seeing the brushes/brushwork was of great value in this video. I noticed in the slideshow how much the mood changes over the individual paintings. I got more or less the same atmosphere from Richter's 4, perhaps just a growing sense of unease/chaos over the progression, but I felt with yours the mood varied, and since it can't be the abstraction, it must be your experimentation with the color scheme! Also instructive.
I love abstracting but I never tried it multiple times like that. Definitely going to give it a shot and even in multiple media, oil, acrylic, gouache and watercolor. Thanks!
The right image really opens up a big arena of possibilities. Like you say, with different media as well.
Your videos are so helpful!
I like very much your way of showing the movement toward more and more abstraction - I believe that the more we plY with using all our senses the more we can move freely from realistic into total abstraction - and back again . I am inspired from the Danish philosopher who has written a book call " beauty happens" ( only in Danish) and He uses the concept synkinaesthetic - the feeling of movement together with all the other senses vision, hearing, smell, touch etc
Ian thank you so much for your generosity in sharing all of your knowledge, skill and talent.
This is fabulous-clear and interesting. I love you art as well, thank you.
Excellent.
Glad you liked it.
Great lesson, thanks
I love them all, but Numbers 5 and 9 are my favourites, because of the deep blue sky and the salmon Pink clouds. Great ! Thank you so much for sharing your efforts to abstraction, Ian. This inspires me to also work more often in series to make all the nuances visible. You're my composition teacher since 15 years or so. Own your books and DVDs and love your work ! And foremost I love to have found you here on TH-cam. Thanks for sharing all your invaluable knowledge ! Have a nice week !
Hi Susanne, delighted you've found the youtube channel. All the best.
Thanks again.
This was so inspiring! Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it!
ian, thank you for that exploration into abstraction! Fun to see how the gesture and energy of painting changes with the abstraction process. Always looking forward to the next video.
I'm delighted you are enjoying them Jay. It was an interesting exercise. Enjoyable. Once I had the big basic shapes in place it allowed for more and more freedom. Best wishes.
Very, very nice class. As always, you give us some new perspectives. By the way, fimished your book Mastering Composition. Nice exercices. Learning not to rush to start painting and planing carefuly before take the brush. Now, Im commited with a composition a day, right? Became a daily routine. Tks. Also read Creative Autenticity,. Complex themes. Touch in deep subjects. Sudenly I stop searching MY STYLE and painting became much fun. Learning, learning. It never stops. Have a nice week.
That's great. Delighted you are enjoying the videos and books. Best wishes
👍 great! Yes, there is this interplay some i find more towards realistic and some towards more abstraction!
I'm going to do another on abstraction again. Lots of interest on this topic I think.
Excellent. I suffer with fussing with the paint and overworking it. I really like 1 5 and 8 best. Many thanks for the upload.
Thank you so much
Glad you found it helpful.
Thank you sir !!
This video helps a lot in my art journey in terms of abstraction. Im a noob and still feeling my way out. The last image is Rothko-like which is my favourite. I like the middle ones and quite doable for beginners like me. Thank You Ian for your masterclass sharing and more power!
That was a revelation to me and has given me much to think about, as you often do.
Ahhh, revelations are good! Glad you liked it. All the best Eddie.
Many thanks for your teachings. I have learned a lot and I did improve my skills and compositions
Brilliant lesson and demo, Ian! Different sized brushes, different tonal palettes- great exercises. I especially enjoyed hearing you use the term, 'moishing paint' or mwooshing, not sure how one would spell it. I used that same word once in front of an English friend who asked me if that was a Canadian expression. Ha. If not, it should be!
Hi Lyn, glad you liked it. I would have thought I used "smushing", it is in the Canadian dictionary and not used much down here. Say hi to Chip and all the best to you.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition You're quite right! As memory clarifies, belatedly, I the word was indeed, 'smushing', and it was new to my British friend. It's an excellent and very expressive word.
Well done Ian! I have recently stumbled across your teaching on the web and really appreciate your clear and well delivered presentations. I never went to art school but can imagine me at school when I listen to your presentations!
Glad you found the videos. WIth best wishes.
Superb, enjoying your vlogs.
Thank you so much 🙂
This is so helpful. I am trying this today: to paint many of the same image. Also, will start off by making a cardboard frame and cutting the brushes on my 1 to 1-1/2” commercial brushes so that they are shorter and angled like yours. Thank you so much!
Hi Lyne, good luck with that. Those brushes that I use are just cheap bristle brushes (the cost $2) from the hardware store. I don't trim them. If you buy regular house painting brushes and trim them you'll probably find they are too dense. Have fund and all the best.
Very helpful and enlightening!!! Thanks!
Again and again, you address the specific painting issues on my mind... spooky!!! Thank you Ian!
You better put on the aluminum foil hat. I got your number! Best wishes.
Very helpful
Great fun and some of the images remind me of work by Ivon Hitchens who created wonderful early morning landscapes where detail is unnecessary!
That victorian house is in Redlands California.
Thank you. I'm trying to force myself to simplify landscapes. One California watercolor artist who does this well is Dale Laitinen. But so often mess it up by convincing myself that looser means painting faster. I am delighted each Tuesday for another nugget! :-)
Ralph, that is such a good observation that looser means faster. And as you point out, it doesn't. It reminds me of that adage, measure twice, cut once. It really applies to painting, particularly watercolor. Think about it carefully, then do it.
great instruction. and nice pictures!
Thought provoking as always Ian and a useful exercise to add to the to do list! Thanks!
Hi Julie, thanks and yes another exercise to try some time. Best wishes.
I voted for number 2, ha. Thank you, loved this idea.
Delighted you found it engaging
so good ! thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
I thoroughly enjoyed this segment! Thank you Ian!
Hi Celeste, I'm glad you enjoyed it. All the best.
That was great. Good points and love to see you paint too!
Hello Ian! I love your videos. They are short, but very effective! That's why I subscribed to your channel.
This was exciting watching you push the concept. Thank you for this, Ian. I am going to try it! Be safe.
Hi Gayle and good luck and have fun with it. All the best.
Excellent. One of your best.
Thanks Greg.
Excellent. Love your material and teaching style!