Sunday, November 01, 2009

Painting Fundamentals


This is an attempt to summarize the basics of painting in 10 minutes.

27 Comments:

Blogger Marcus said...

Wow. That was a really great explanation of your process. Thanks for taking the time to make this. Hope you will make more in the future!

10:45 AM  
Blogger Carl Knox said...

Hey Marco,

Good stuff mate. Very clear and informative delivery. You're a great teacher.

5:30 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

thanks so much for this!

7:58 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

what painters do you look up to out of interest :)

8:11 PM  
Blogger Amok said...

more awesome advice. thanks for this, the warms and cools are quite the challenge.

8:43 PM  
Blogger Tristan Zerafa said...

Hey, Marco

I did your exercise, check it out.

http://tristanzerafa.blogspot.com/2009/11/marco-bucci-exercise.html

Thanks for your advice bro. I found it very helpful.

Tristan Zerafa

10:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great video Marco, thanks so much! :)

10:56 PM  
Blogger Tooninator said...

always a pleasure to see artists work. Very informative

1:17 AM  
Blogger Matthew Scheuerman said...

There's a lot of information here that I was only slightly aware of. Can't wait to study some of these basic concepts more and apply it to my work. Thanks again for posting this.

Your delivery on the video was great. Easy to follow and understand.

2:43 PM  
Blogger Jeremy Thompson said...

That was great. Thanks.

3:26 PM  
Blogger RAWLS said...

Nice one bro! I figure, if I keep listening to you I might learn a thing or two!!

5:06 PM  
Blogger Marco Bucci said...

Hey Nori,
I look up to lots of painters. Too many to list. There are a few in particular who really helped cement some of these basics for me: Morgan Weistling, Richard Schmid, and Scott Christensen are all excellent painters as well as great teachers whom I have learned a great deal from.
My all time favourite painter has to be John Singer Sargent. If I ever have a question about how to solve a problem, chances are Sargent had solved it during his career. In my video annotations I also mention Zorn, who had incredible capacity to observe and paint light in a very simple way. See if you can find his pen sketches; they're incredible.
And, of course, many artists I admire are listed on my blog too.

8:06 PM  
Blogger Tristan Zerafa said...

Hey Marco!

Thanks for checking out my page. Who is this Zorn guy? can you post some links for moi? Cheers in advance if you get around to it... i know your busy.

Triz

12:20 AM  
Blogger Marco Bucci said...

Hey Tristan,
Anders Zorn was a Swedish painter, and undoubtedly one of the best of his time, along with Sargent. What stands out to me about Zorn is his ability to simplify the light he was seeing.
His pen etchings are a great example of this, and looking at them is like a direct pathway into his brain:
http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2002/Anders_Zorn/zorn1.asp
More of his paintings are here:
http://www.anderszorn.info/

9:51 AM  
Blogger J.Noiret said...

Excellent video! Very interesting.

11:49 AM  
Blogger Ken said...

Sweet! I look forward to getting a spare 10 minutes to watching it

3:43 AM  
Blogger Samuli S. said...

I absolutely love your videos and paintings, thanks for those.

But coming from film background, I have to say the warm light -> cool shadows and vice versa is a huge oversimplification. What we're dealing with are two lightsource: directional and ambient or reflected light. Outside, sun is warm and skylight is cool. The cool skylight simply fills in the shadows. If there is no ambient light, reflected light dominates the shadows. Reflected light takes on the characteristics of the reflective surface, ie colour and texture.

Of course, you know this, but the rule of thumb is jarring to me. Very usable but it's hard to get over sometimes.

Cheers!

6:02 PM  
Blogger Marco Bucci said...

Hey Samuli,
Good comments, and 100% accurate. It's obvious you have done lots of observing from life.
My little video is certainly not the final word. Any painters reading this should take Samuli's comment as incentive to go out and study from real life to observe how the rules can be flexible.
Simply put, my video is aimed at painters trying to grasp some fundamentals. Since a painter has a lot to think about, it's a requirement for most for things to be as simple as possible. Once these simple concepts are grasped, one will be in the position to discover the limitations of the rules, and will simultaneously have the foundation needed to push past them. That's how I learned, anyway. If I had included your (excellent) points in my video all at once, I would be worried that it may leave students scratching their heads.
But to all interested in the subject of light and all its subtleties, my advice remains the same: get out there and look at this stuff first hand!
Thanks for the discussion, Samuli.

6:47 PM  
Blogger Ze [Zuplemento.com] said...

Gracias from Caracas, Venezuela.

Ze

12:54 AM  
Blogger SEILER said...

Super cool Marco, you're a good teacher!

8:51 AM  
Blogger GekonPolak said...

I wish could paint so good and FAST. Right now I'm into pastarels. Maybe 1 week. I'm simply playing with light and shadows, ITS DEVESTETATENGLY HARD WORK.
Is it easy to simulate pasteles/aquareles on PC?
What software DO I need to start with?

1:11 PM  
Blogger Marco Bucci said...

Hey GekonPolak,

Light and shadow is a funny thing. So simple intellectually, but pretty tricky when it comes to painting it! I've never used pastels before, so I can't really comment on that.
But if you're looking to simulate pastels, I'd probably recommend getting a copy of Painter. Photoshop is great for digital painting (and is what I use), but not so good for simulating any specific natural media, whereas Painter is made for just that.
Good luck!

9:52 PM  
Blogger Antti Ruuhijärvi said...

this is a very informative video. I'm glad I found your site :)

5:18 AM  
Blogger greg oakes said...

greats lessons to be learned; thanks for sharing!! :)

1:53 PM  
Blogger Dirk van Dulmen said...

Hey Marco,
Great video, a very informative, clear and helpful video. It's easy to get lost in the world of color and value while painting. Your video puts things back in perspective for me. Great to get some inside in your thought proces. Thanks.

2:03 PM  
Blogger Leon Woon said...

Hey there Marco.

I really want to thank you for posting this video up and highlighting more on light and shadows than I currently understand.
I think everyone who watched this vid would have their eyes opened up to so much more now, and I'm surprised we could've missed out so much on just everyday lights and shadows.

Looking forward to more tutorials like this. Cheers!

1:34 PM  
Blogger academic said...

Excellent information provided by this blog.
oil painting on canvas

4:09 AM  

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