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Menampilkan postingan yang diurutkan menurut relevansi untuk kueri photography. Urutkan menurut tanggal Tampilkan semua postingan

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/01/2011

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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The Oil Painting of My White Pet Looks like a Snowball

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Painting white fur may compel an almost knee-jerk reaction of titanium white overkill on a portrait of a dog, cat or horse. The result may turn out to be a two dimensional cut out impression of the animal. How can the pet portrait artist paint white fur.

Problems with Painting White Animal Hair

  
Painting Horses with White Fur
Rachel Shirley
The idea of using dark pigments or those of a definite hue goes against what the brain knows about the fur, which is white. This may lead the artist into faulty practices, which could be any of the following:
  • Exclusively using white paint or very pale colour mixes to illustrate pale fur, resulting in a washed-out pet painting.
  • Using poor photographic reference of the pet, particularly flash photography that results in a bleached-out image.
  • Darkening pale fur with black oil paint for shadows, resulting in dirty dead greys.
  • Illustrating contours as dark lines, creating an illustrated effect that does not convey the true softness or texture of the animal.
  • Illustrating each hair as a white linear brush mark of equal thickness and tone, resulting in a uniform and artificial appearance to the fur.
Tips on Animal Photography

Good photographic reference is crucial (for pets have a habit of moving about unless asleep). This is especially important for a pet of one colour, such as black or white. Natural daylight is best. Only use flash photography as a fill-in to soften harsh shadows. Avoid taking the photo into the light. I find side-lit effective at capturing the contours of a dog’s face, for example, which will reveal its character. Get as close up as possible and take several photos to increase the chances of obtaining one that really captures the essence of the pet.

What Pigments Should I Use for White Fur?

The artist must override the fact that a pet is white before trying to paint white fur. The following tips may help achieve a convincing portrayal of a fluffy white pet.

Depending upon the light conditions white fur can harbour many hues such as cream, eggshell, china blue, violet beige, mauve, smoky grey, indigo and blue. Just a few oil pigments are required for white fur, which are:
  • Titanium white
  • Burnt sienna
  • Burnt umber
  • Permanent rose
  • French ultramarine
  • Pthalo blue
I ban black for it deadens neutral colours, but delicate tints can be achieved with the addition of the following colours with white.

White and burnt sienna creates rich creams for warm highlights; white with a dab of pthalo blue produces arctic white; white with ultramarine and a little burnt umber creates dark indigos for cool shadows; white with a dash of pthalo blue and permanent rose creates delicate mauves, and with a little burnt umber creates rich neutrals.

Tips on Painting White Fur

Never paint a white object onto a white painting surface or its tones will be difficult to judge. Apply a mid-toned imprimatura onto the painting surface first. I would recommend a thin wash of neutral-coloured acrylic paint. This could be a mixture of blue and brown or grey. Once dry, I transfer the drawing onto the surface using a chalk pencil.

Begin with the mid tones and work outwards to the darks and pales. Take care not to contaminate pales from a neighbouring dark colour. View the areas of light and dark as abstract shapes rather than part of an animal. Turn the photo upside down to retain the abstract appearance.

Techniques for Painting Soft Fur

Glazing is a great painting technique for emulating rich soft fur. Glazing entails applying oil paint in translucent layers. Soft sables are essential; Kolinsky sable size 1 for detail, 3 for blending and 6 for smoothing larger areas. Block in large areas of tone and colour first. Don’t worry about detail at this point for the next glaze can be used to smooth imperfections.

Soft Blending for Detail on Fur

The other secret to painting soft white fur is blending. With a soft clean brush, knit together harsh colour divisions. Keep wiping the brush on a rag to avoid the paint from building up (avoid swilling it in spirits or the paint will be too runny). Using paint neat can be controlled more easily and when dragged over the painting surface with a thin brush, will appear almost like a pastel pencil, great for soft effects such as fur. Remember to move the brush in the direction of the fur’s growth.

Painting Realistic Fur

Da Vinci Black Sable Oil Brush Round 1
click to buy from Amazon
It is not necessary to apply equal detail all over the fur or it will look flat. Apply detail to focal points only, such as the highlights, the nose or fur around the eyes. Suggesting flyaway fur will create more realism. Dragging thin paint as described earlier to suggest hair around the ears or tail will make the pet look more stroke-able. Finally, not all fur has the same appearance. Some will look finer than others, and again, will follow different growth patterns.

External Links Relating to Painting Animals

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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/02/2012

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Reinforcing Photography and Unifying Africa

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Continuing our focus on clusters and ecosystems we take a look at their importance in photography.Tam Fiofori writes in 234Next:

Photo courtesy of Uche James Iroha
One of the most gratifying manifestations in the growth and professionalism of photography in Nigeria is how the present ‘young' generation of photographers have embraced the ideals of working together in collectives, networking and their staunch refusal to be drawn into the simplistic frame of mind that they are in competition with one another as photographers.
They have, by adopting these positive ideals, been able to achieve as a group, a remarkable level of social responsibility in generating a huge body of authentic documentary images of ourselves as a people in all spheres of life. Our eminent historians and literary people have always advocated that we are, and remain, the best positioned people to write our history and tell our stories. Our photographers have now followed suit.
Commending James Iroha for his role in fostering this emergent community
A lot of praise must go to Uche James Iroha, an accomplished international-award winner, for his brave and unselfish decision to invite other equally talented, aspiring and inspired photographers to collectively contribute towards the production of Unifying Africa; a book of huge relevance, captivating images and in-depth documentary strength.
More here

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CameraSim

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The website I'm reviewing today targets a very unique audience. I probably won't be using this site in my classroom, but I could see it being wonderful for yearbook or photography classrooms.

The technology I'd like to share today is a website called CameraSim, and it's main feature is an interactive SLR camera simulator.



The simulator features a moving subject for the photographer to work with. The subject is a little girl, standing outside in front of a playground, and she's holding a pinwheel that is spinning crazily in the wind.

This website allows the user to play with the "camera functions" (that simulate a real SLR camera) and try to get the best shot possible.

CameraSim allows users to adjust 7 functions of a usual SLR camera: lighting, distance, focal length, mode, ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. It also gives a short definition/description of these terms underneath the background image and sample shot.

I'm honestly disappointed that I can't think of any reason to use this in my own classroom; students usually love (and benefit from) simulations like this so much! In any case, I'll be passing the link to CameraSim onto all the yearbook/journalism/photography teachers I know!

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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 12/25/2011

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Daily Education & Technology News for Schools 04/18/2011

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Digital Voices

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From the Advocacy Project's blogging and photography initiative:

The workshops began with an introduction to blogging and photography, going over the basics of what makes a good blog and photo. Then we went out to take photos as a group and uploaded them from the camera to the computer and put them on a flash drive. Meanwhile, the students were writing, editing and sharing their first blogs on their own and in class. Once the pictures and first blogs were complete, we ventured to the Internet café to type the blogs, create email accounts, blogging accounts and Flickr accounts. Once the accounts were created, they posted their material online on their own pages...[continue reading]

via Kenyan Pundit

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Daily Education & Technology News for Schools 01/16/2011

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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My Landscape Paintings Lack Drama or Depth

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The landscape artist may feel in awe of a particular landscape scene, but the drama fails to convey to the oil painting; mountains look flat, waterfalls resemble a trickle and mighty firs look more like Bonsai trees. How can the artist produce a landscape painting with depth and drama?

Problems with Dramatic Landscape Art

Dramatic Landscape Art
Rachel Shirley
The following culprits are often to blame for a landscape painting that looks rather pedestrian rather than wild or dramatic:

Painting from memory elements that are missing from visual resources. This temptation may be borne from using mountains as a backdrop or a tree to conceal a mistake. Working from memory is the enemy of realism and may rob all drama from the painting.

Sitting too close to a painting, misleading the artist on the importance of each brush mark as it is viewed close up. Fine detail may not be so visible from ten feet away, resulting in a painting filled with insipid brush marks that lack punch or expression.

Painting onto a white canvas which may also mislead the artist to the true tonal value of each colour mixture, as even pale ones will appear dark. The result is a landscape painting that looks washed out.

Over-mixing the paint and applying it onto the artwork rather like one would to emulsion a wall. Similarly, anguishing over every brushstroke and smoothing over imperfections. The result is a painting that looks overworked and lifeless.

How to Paint a Dramatic Landscape

Adding a sense of depth and drama to a landscape painting is mostly dependent upon the visual resources at hand, whether this is photos or sketches. Painting from memory must be avoided, or it will spoil the effect. The following tips will help create a landscape that has depth and drama.

Fine Art Photography

If panorama is desired, select an image that contains distant objects and near objects. The contrast in proximity will enhance the sense of distance, whether the scene depicts a Scottish Highland or Yellowstone Park. Using wide angled photography provides further opportunities for exploring big skies and vistas adding a real sense of space. Be aware of the horizon line. A high horizon will enhance the land; a low horizon will enhance the sky.

Furthermore, don’t clutter the landscape with lots of elements. Less can often be more when it comes to creating a grand scale.

Look for and create contrasts within the landscape scene: Big and small; sunlight and shadow or near and far. A small cottage will make a thundering waterfall appear more impressive. A lone poplar set against distant mountains will create a chasm effect. A streak of sunlight hitting a snow cap against a sombre scene will create a tonal focal point.

Painting Dramatic Skies

Landscape Perspective
Rachel Shirley
Beware of empty skies that exhibit a lacklustre blue or grey. If a photograph features such a sky, another sky can be substituted so long as the lighting, angle and the time of day are consistent. Great skies to use might be altocumulus, anvil clouds or frontal cirrus. Further drama can be added if clouds are obliquely lit by a low sun, bringing bizarre colours and textures.
An ordinary landscape can be transformed by different weather conditions. Castlerigg Stone Circle in Cumbria, for instance has twice the drama when snow-caps festoon the surrounding mountains. Consider returning to the same setting another day or time of year.

How to Create a Spacious Landscape

Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color
Tips for Landscape Art
click to buy from Amazon
A landscape even when empty adheres to the rules of perspective which can be used to add depth to a painting. Imagine for instance, that the landscape is the floor and the sky is the ceiling to a huge room. If both exhibited a grid, the squares would appear to flatten and get smaller with distance until the grid converges to a vanishing point. Clouds and grass echo this pattern, in that each formation would appear to flatten and get smaller.

This sense of distance can be further enhanced with tonal recession. Generally speaking, objects will appear more muted and faint with distance, particularly during misty weather. Look out for unlikely colours. Even a murky day may contain specks of crimsons and violets.
 
Painting Techniques for Dramatic Art

Stand back from the painting to prevent working too close up. Working on a toned ground as opposed to a white surface will help the artist judge tones more accurately. I endeavour to use all tonal values from pale to very dark within my landscapes. Don’t be afraid to use paint neat from the tube and to contrast art techniques, from impasto skies to blending mists. Palette knives, old combs or sponges are great for creating a diversity of marks for a dramatic landscape. Lastly, don’t fret over every imperfection. Allow streaks of colour and brush marks to remain. Doing so will retain freshness, vibrancy and energy to the painting.

Links on Landscape Painting

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My Dog Portraits Look Childish

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The artist wishing to tackle dog portraiture for the first time may encounter problems with making the dog look convincing. The fur looks too neat or uniform, the eyes almost human, the muzzle area a little cartoonish, culminating in an amateurish dog portrait. What art techniques can the artist use to achieve effective dog oil paintings?

How Not to Paint a Dog’s Head

Painting Dogs with Realism
Rachel Shirley
To make improvements to a dog oil painting, the artist must identify practices at fault which get in the way of achieving professional dog portrait. This might be:
  • Guess-working areas of the dog’s head due to poor photographic reference.
  • Subconsciously making connections between a dog’s features and human features causing human characteristics to leak into the dog portrait.
  • Portraying dog features in an idealised or generalised fashion, as opposed to what the eye actually sees. For example, all dogs’ upper mouths are posterior-shaped, all dogs’ noses look like black buttons and the muzzle area protrudes from the upper face, etc.
  • Using only white to illustrate the dog’s teeth and eyeballs around the irises.
  • Using lines to represent the edges to the dog’s features, such as the nose or ears, where no lines may actually be seen.
  • Using any brown, black beige or white to illustrate the dog’s fur.
  • Using any brown, blue or green to illustrate the dog’s irises and then punctuating each with a black dot for pupils and finishing off with a white highlight.
  • Forgetting to periodically look at the dog photograph when copying the dog portrait.
How to Photograph a Dog’s Face

Good photographic reference is essential to any dog portrait, for no dog will sit still for long (unless when asleep). If possible, take several photos of the dog, in order to select the best one. Natural daylight is always best. Side-lit will bring out contours of the dog’s face. Good lighting will also enable the photographer to use a high shutter speed with high resolution, which is essential for animal photography. Avoid flash photography, as this will make the subject matter appear flat.

Secrets to Painting a Great Dog Portrait

With good photographs, improvements to dog portraits are possible, but the following advice for pet artists will also create a more professional painting of a dog’s head.
  • Transpose the drawing of the dog as accurately as possible, for this will form the foundation of the painting. Use a lightbox or projector if necessary.
  • To prevent preconceptions about how a dog’s face should look like, turn the photograph and the dog painting upside down. This will cause the image to dissolve into unfamiliar shapes, forcing the brain to make sensitive observations about the dog.
  • Look out for subtle colour shifts and tones within the dog fur. Violets, crimsons, ochres and creams can be found in dog hair. Highlights often contain a little blue or mauve, blacks sometimes contain crimsons.
  • Dog’s teeth and eyeballs often contain darks which give them form. Look out for blues, violets and browns as wells as white. Dog’s gums and tongues can be black, brown, mauve or maroon as well as red or pink.
  • Not every division between features require outlines. The contours of a dog’s snout may not always be visible; other delineations may be pale in colour as well as dark.
Oil Painting Technique for Pet Portraits

Great techniques for a dog portrait can be found in glazing and dry brushing. Applying two or three layers of thinned oil paint can be used to improve upon the last layer and to create rich colours, often seen in dog’s fur. The following are also worth consideration.
  • It is easy to edit the background to a dog painting. Using a contrasting colour will make the dog appear more striking. A warm ochre for a dog exhibiting cool colours, such as blue-black or snow-white. Or how about a dark blue background for a toffee-coloured dog? Avoid garish colours that could rob the focal point from the dog.
  • Smooth backgrounds can be achieved by gently stroking a clean soft cloth over the paint layer to rid of unwanted brushmarks. Repeat with the next layer once dry to achieve a high finish.
  • Look out for different-coloured highlights on the dog’s fur such as in the eyeballs, the rims, around the snout, the ears and the lips, which might be eggshell blue, pastel pink or cream.
  • Similarly look out for various darks: blue-blacks, crimson-blacks and violet-blacks, which could be found beneath the chin, ears or in the mouth.
  • Highlights from moisture around the tongue, snout and lips can be suggested by dragging neat white onto selected areas from a fine sable.
Art Materials for Dog Portraiture

Dog Painting--The European Breeds
click to buy from Amazon
Sable brushes are vital for detail such as around the eyes and the hair. Large areas and glazes can be applied with fan brushes or wide hog brushes. Linseed oil can be added to the oil paint to add transparency and flow, ideal for glazing techniques. The artist who wishes to apply glazes quickly can use alkyd oil paints instead, for it dries quickly. I find the following oil colours ideal for dog portraits: titanium white, burnt sienna, burnt umber, French ultramarine, pthalo blue, permanent rose and cadmium red. Reserve black only for the pupils. And of course, look out for other colours in the dog, some of which could be bizarre.

Related Links on Oil Painting

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The Background to My Dog Portraits is Insipid

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A dog portrait otherwise beautifully painted could be ruined by a slapdash background consisting of dung brown or a cluttered backdrop full of unwanted focal points. What can the pet artist do about backgrounds to a dog painting?

The Worst Background for a Dog Painting

Backgrounds to Dog Portraiture
Rachel Shirley
The background to dog portraiture could be improved upon with a few adjustments to the colour used or the oil painting technique. But identifying the culprits to a poor background will enable the artist to make improvements, which could be any of the following:

Faithfully copying the dog painting from a photograph that features a cluttered background that draw the eye from the dog such as furniture or toys.

Using flash photography for the dog, resulting in a bleached-out version of the animal. Against a dark background, the dog’s face will appear cut out and two dimensional.

Applying paint over the background area as through glossing a skirting board, using one colour and uniform strokes.

Using a pigment that is similar in tone and hue to the colour of the dog such as a beige background for a greyhound, or a chocolate brown background for a Doberman, resulting in colours that sit uncomfortably against one another.

The Best Background for a Dog Portrait

There are several ways the pet portrait artist can paint a background that enhances the dog. The following tips might help.

If the photographic reference has lots of clutter in the background, edit ruthlessly. A small detail can be effective at creating a sense of space where the dog sits, such as the corner of a mirror on the wall or a chair. Less is often more when it comes to backgrounds.

Background Colours for a Pet Portrait

There is nothing wrong with using one colour in the background for a dog portrait, for this will add a classy touch to the painting that echoes of the old masters, but don’t use one colour for the whole area. Alter the tone or colour from one area to the other or leave expressive brush marks.

Using a contrasting tone to the pet will bring out the colour of the pet’s fur or eyes.

Dark forest green or rich browns will enhance a snowy poodle; pale smoky blues or eggshell will bring out a black Labrador. Similarly using a warm coloured background will bring out bluish highlights found in black fur, or using a midnight blue background will contrast nicely with the rustic colours of a Yorkshire terrier. A dog that has a variety of tones, such as a Dalmatian, would benefit from both approaches. I personally use a dark background to bring out the pales on the dog’s coat.

The Best Colours for a Dog Portrait

Rather than paint straight onto a white canvas, apply a thin wash of a neutral colour to gain a more accurate idea of the tonal values of the pet. This will prevent the dog portrait from looking washed out when the background is blocked in.

A lively impasto effect can be achieved if applying brush marks or broken glazes on the background to leave it looking unfinished. This will contrast with the high detail of the dog.

Oil Painting Glazes to a Dog Portrait

Drawing Realistic Pets from Photographs
click to buy from Amazon
Another approach is to apply paint in thin glazes to achieve a smooth finish to create contrast with the texture of the fur. Glazing entails mixing the oil pigment with a little linseed oil to make the paint translucent. Once dry, the next glaze works to improve upon or deepen the underlying hue. Rich browns, rusts and indigos can be achieved by glazing with oils and helps to create a professional finish to the dog portrait.

Tips for Great Backgrounds for Dog Portraits

Using a contrasting colour or tone to the dog’s fur and eyes will make the dog stand out in the painting. Cut the clutter from the background and avoid using a flash for pet photography. Impasto effects are great for creating contrast to a detailed dog painting, but a smooth glaze will create a high finish resonant of the old masters.

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