In most kitchens there lives an array of pots and pans. Seldom will someone who's cooking use them all at once. Sometimes more than one might be used to prepare a single dish, but rarely if ever all of them. Add to that, this collection includes specialty cookery: boilers for boiling, skillets for frying, pans for baking. But sometimes frying something in cookware intended for boiling works better than a skillet. (Hold onto that thought for a moment.)
Some folks would say this scene is not worth painting. If considering the whole collection of composition principles, the more academic minds might think that, but what if we take just one--what if we pull from the principle of aerial perspective the three planes idea and put it to work on this scene?
For those of you who've not yet studied the video lesson 2 from the Creating Aerial Perspective series, one way to create distance is to mentally divide a scene into three planear areas: Frontal or all that is nearby, in-between and farthest away, then treat them with gradating contrasts. Traditionally, these areas are called foreground, middleground and background (a rather tired, worn out and staid labeling, for my part). So what if we use THIS workhorse in this scene. Could we find a composition worth painting?
I put this photo on my Wacom tablet and played with it a bit, using the concept of three planes.
I pulled from my workhorse toolbox (AKA compositional principles) the concept that says "atmospheric particles cause distant stuff to take on the color of the sky." After doing that, I can see other possibilities if, in a painting, I were to put to work a few more composing principles--working with variations and contrasts of hues, intensities and values and especially using shadowed areas to create harmony--this might make a credible subject for a painting.
TIP: Composition principles provide the same benefit to creating art that cookware contributes to the culinary endeavors. They are our workhorses, not our commanders. When we begin to put them to work rather than be ruled by them, many times we can discover exhilerating ideas for surprising results.
Happy painting,
Dianne
NEWS & UPDATES
___If you haven't already caught on, I'm doing these video lessons with one intention: to make composing visual art come alive. Every series focuses on one composing concept, and each lesson explores that concept in-depth. There are plenty of technique videos elsewhere, but ours are what I consider a fresh and new approach to composing.
___ In our video school , we have launched Series Six: Decoding Harmony. Lesson One, Harmonizing with Shadows, now in the eStore, takes a scene mostly in shadow, intentionally throws it out of harmony, the brings it back.
One word to Forum users--To keep up with what's going on daily, click on the forum title--Composing and Drawing Tips--in your Groups list on the left of your Facebook page.
___Those of you doing the video lessons can get a personal critique on your work by going to my website and sending me a message from there.
