Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's all subjective in that most people who want to draw or paint, likely have completely different ideas of what being good at that is. "Drawing from the right side of the brain" is basically just a brain hack to allow a person to essentially trace what is in front of them. To some people that might be the goal. To make a reasonably accurate copy of what is in front of them. For others they may want to be able to dr…
What book would be a better choice?
Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
151–160 of 166 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
#152Full time coder here, who started to draw/paint 2-3 years back. (You can see my journey so far here: https://www.instagram.com/aqeelvn/)
Haven't read all the response here, so I probably might be repeating, but the basic idea is to spend some quality time actually doing it.
Like other arts this is also something one could learn. Take the time to educate yourself with the concepts in visual art. There is a lot you can learn on your own from resources out there. That was the option available to me mostly.
A solid grasp in drawing is required for making any serious work in representational painting.
Andrew Loomis has written a bunch of books that are now mostly available freely on the web. Its really old but its very good.
For painting, I recommend "Alla Prima" by Richard Schmid. This is not a casual read(even though anyone could enjoy the great paintings). Its full of solid technical concepts and advice. You learn more and more from it as you develop yourselves.
Draw from life as much as possible. Don't depend on photographs during your learning phase(although that is never really over) If you don't understand why that matters, don't bother and just stick to it. Soon you will see the difference :)
Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
#153I have some tips for you, coming from an illustration background. You can see some of my work here:
https://shirajg.wordpress.com
Try charcoal and a white pencil on toned paper at first. Work from dark to light, applying large areas of tone with the charcoal, then picking out light shapes with a kneaded eraser, and finally adding highlights with white. This is a lot like what you eventually do with paint.
When starting to paint, use oil paint, or acrylic with a retarder in it to slow drying time. This will give you a lot of freedom to fix mistakes.
Work in layers when painting. This can let you tackle different aspects of the painting independently. You can start by toning your painting surface to a base color, then doing a sketch on top of that to establish the big shapes and edges. Once that's dry, you will always have the underdrawing to help you along as you paint. If you screw up the painting, you can scrape off the paint and start from the drawing again.
Learn to see values. The best way to do this is to squint. You'll see obvious contrasts in the light and dark, these are the values. All the detail within those values needs to sit very close to the value it's within. It will seem like there's a lot more contrast when your eyes are wide open and you're focused on one area, but you'll lose the gestalt effect of the light if you do that.
Work your paint from thin to think. You can be more sketchy and loose with thin, flowing paint. Save the thick stuff for the end, when you're sure everything is in the right place, looking how you'd like.
Learn to mix colors to a target value. Pick a random color and paint a swatch of that somewhere, then take another color and lighten or darken it until it's the same value as the first swatch. You can test how close you got by dabbing a bit of the new mix into the swatch you painted before. If the value matches it should fade into the swatch pretty seamlessly. If there's contrast between the dab and the swatch, the values is too light or dark. Do this enough and you'll be able to eye it.
If you want to paint figurative works, learn to draw.
Learning the 3D form of objects is of great help and should work in tandem with the visual stimulii you are observing.
Hope this helps, questions welcome.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
#154I know a lot of people who have just painted along with Bob Ross. Maybe that's an option?
Ross's approach is probably closest to instant gratification: the scenes are intentionally designed to be easy, quick, and striking. Water color can also be instant gratification, but you can't really paint over mistakes, unlike oils (if you wait for them to dry). Looking online, people's early Ross-clone works are not so hot, but practice makes perfect. I would suggest picking one segment of a scene, such as part of…
> Staring at the same thing too long in one sitting can dampen one's objectivity, I've found. This applies to writing also.
This definitely applies to photography. I'll spend two hours processing a photo, think it looks great, leave it and come back the next day. I'm invariably horrified at how overdone it looks and turn everything down to 50%. Then it's ready.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Surely there has to be some aesthetic guidance along the way? It's generally better to run the feedback through the same unconscious mental pathways you use to do the activity, rather than the verbal storytelling loop that can think thoughts like "I don't like how I did this". Use the parts of the brain that are good at painting, not the parts that are good about telling stories about your painting. I highly recomme…
Interesting, this idea has a well known countervailing theory -- "deliberate practice". The idea goes that practicing with the intent of (and focus on) improvement is more effective. Perhaps "quantity over quality" is better for beginners because they're learning different kinds of things, or because their judgement itself isn't great, or perhaps it's just psychologically easier and less likely to lead to burnout.
The Inner Game of Tennis etc isn't mutually exclusive with "deliberate practice". You're still telling yourself what you want to do, but doing this in the language your unconscious mind understands - that is, images and felt emotions, not words.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
#156My previous startup that I worked on was to solve the problem of "I want to paint, but I don't know where to start". We used the deep learning style transfer to stylize pictures/drawings with Van Gogh Style. Here's the best one that turned out great (out of 10,000 pictures we styled, this is what everyone loves unanimously) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07831NQJ7 Then we turn them into paint by numbers kit. https://www.…
I think you think too much about this. From my experience: I took an art class for about a year. It improved my drawing and painting skills a lot. Sure, the problem is that your first pictures are kind of ugly. But you can compensate this by just painting the next one and not thinking too much about the outcome. Furthermore, I realized at some point, that it really doesn’t matter what you paint. An apple and an orang…
wow thanks for the perspective.
have you tried paint by numbers? are those less exhausting for you?
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
#157Bob Ross: “All you need to paint is a few tools, a little instruction, and a vision in your mind.”
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd have been very surprised not to see a comment from you in this thread. Could you link to some of your work?
Sure, here are four: https://idlewords.com/images/ogold.jpg https://idlewords.com/images/csink.jpg https://idlewords.com/images/ralcove.jpg https://idlewords.com/images/qbridge.jpg Happy to give practical advice to anyone interested in this kind of painting.
Thanks for that. I really like these.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
#159Learn, by doing.
Re: Ask HN: How can I learn how to paint?
#160Practice is the first thing. But you should know what to practice. The art of painting is basically divided in a few fundamentals: materials and tools, drawing, composition, tonality, color theory, brushwork and of course awareness of the message you want to convey. It takes time to master each of this aspects and to integrate them as in a unified painting. Don't be discouraged however! Start today and do not procrastinate!
Don't ask yourself if you have talent. Motivation is the real talent. And you must give it a try to test how much determination you have. You also need help, for both knowing where to start from and to verify how determined you are. Information are now available across the planet like never before. But let me point you some pros and cons of online resources:
Pros
you can easily find teachers, schools and workshops you can be inspired by tons of artworks by old and new masters you can search and filter your favorite style, genre and medium you can view video tutorials, read articles and blogs you can join communities, social media and connect with other artists Cons
Starting from books and videos as a complete beginner can be misleading and give you bad habits, hard to correct later Copying the masters without a clear and specific study purpose (on color, or values, composition, etc.) will most likely lead you to frustration Using only bi-dimensional reference images, will never give you the life feel you expect In other words you need to have a more than basic skill level do understand if what you find online can contribute to your learning or pass you a false skills and poor concepts. That’s what I’d recommend you to do:
Start with a teacher in person, who’s art you like and who’s generosity and ability to teach can be verified through other students in the first place. Try a new one after a while if you think he/her is not the right one for you Before you drop them, be honest and question yourself: about your motivation, your dedication and focus. Learn from your fellow painters by joining a class, group or society or travel workshop. Don’t stay barricaded in your studio Paint from life, both in studio (still, life, figure) and en plein air (nature, city scape, marines). Avoid shortcuts and do not believe abstract painting is easier. It’s not As you seriously practiced the above, you can use online resource to integrate, compare and develop what you have learnt with a teacher, with judgment. Do not stop to confront with the guidance of a real person. At least taking a workshop once or twice a year. Embrace the fact that learning is a never ending journey! Even when you become and advanced painter it might be wonderful to have a mentor to help you find your unique voice and develop your full potential as an artist