#porticos

“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.” ~ Vladimir Nabokov

Under the Porticos, Spring 2024, Padua, Italy

Dear @porticos

I felt a bit overwhelmed by your question firstly because I always think my detail blog isn’t particularly special compared to other blogs of similar theme. Secondly, because I really don’t have special techniques to focus on paintings, and I am afraid this topic is so subjective that in the end there are not any standardised methods at all.

When it comes to making details, I am mostly just intuition, not brain. Though I could perhaps share one or two basic things here that I guess could be copied by anyone else.

1) Makes sure to look for a painting that has certain aesthetic appeal to you, and of course big enough resolution which you can find from simple internet search. The lovelier the painting looks to you, the more eager you are to appreciate it, and the bigger resolution, the better the projection of what details it could produce. Bigger resolution also allows you to look for a better gaze.

2) Always look for a “symmetry”. It may surprise you that if I tell you I use only simple photo editing software(s) from Microsoft.

Now, imagine you’ve got a painting you like already, and trying to find “that Aesthetic part” of the painting. For example: you can start from making details out of portraits first. I have created many details from portraits so do many art bloggers here because they are easier to focus on. You can focus on the lavish clothes and/or accessories the subjects wearing (since many paintings from the past are all about status signalling). Once you find that certain “part” you like, try to frame it within a square aspect ratio or 4:3.

Later, try to put that aesthetic part within the frame to see whether your gaze is balanced or not. What “balance” means here is when that cropped part within the frame looks comprehensible that it retains its original meaning. For example: You want to make a detail in which you highlight the pink pretty dress from a painting, yet you cannot represent it as a mere zoomed pink coloured shades: It has to retain its meaning, *a dress*.

If it turns out that that cropped part of yours doesn’t look comprehensible enough, try to zoom it out until it looks right like a concrete object. Later, try to check whether the angles are symmetrical or balanced. Your detail not only should look comprehensible as an object, but but also look fair from every angle.

Later, for the editing , it’s fully up to your personal consideration. I mostly edit the painting first before I try any attempt of “detailing”.

I know I didn’t always do what I am preaching here as you can judge from my collection that not all of them are perfect. But I am glad that some people still can appreciate them, whether to use them as an avatar, background, or mere embellishment to their blogs :)

“Where are the beginnings, the endings, and most important, the middles?” ~Julio Cortazar