#picture study

(the postcard:)

Original image:

hi darling! here’s a video of my usual process:

this is very simple and i am by no absolute means a professional (in fact very much a beginner when it comes to perspective and backgrounds) but what helps me the most to figure picture studies out is the following:

a) figure out colors and how they work in context to the picture BEFORE you start. make a palette, and the background color (in this example, the sky)is crucial to understand the value/hue of the other colors since it is the background that essentially dictates it. I usually start with value (is the color dark or light?) then hue (what color is it?) and lastly saturation. Picking in this order helps me find the colors of the picture without color dropping which i think is really important to understand how to color. Pick the colors for the main objects of the picture and not necesarilly every detail, also pick colors of the high lights and shadows!

b) divide everything into shapes as much as you can, and do it with as few brush strokes as you can. This is smth i very much still need to practice since i tend to fixate on details when i paint, but the point of picture studies is to mimic an environment/picture and interpret it in our own way. Find geometrical shapes for trees, mountains (in this painting i chose grass to be rectangular while the mountain follows rounder shapes only) so as to help the viewer understand what you’re mimicking without actually copying the exact shape you see in the picture. this is by far the trickiest step for me but once you master shapes and how to apply them to your study, i think picture studies will become playground material to you.