Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Lifelike, Believable, Interesting


My first effort at a sky for the pastel I've started points out my current issue regarding three concepts related to painting and sections of paintings. These concepts are; lifelike/realistic, believable, and interesting.
  • Lifelike / realistic - for me, this is the effort to make the painting look like life by matching form, color, value, perspective, etc. The result is as close as I can get to photographic realism. The truth is that I lack the skill or patience to accomplish this.

  • Believable - where lifelike requires exact representations of the subject, it is also possible to represent the subject in a way that may not be exact but that is recognizable and avoids being so extreme as to be "unbelievable." The result is a "believable" painting.

  • Interesting - an interesting painting is one that captures and holds the attention of the viewer. Unfortunately a painting can be exactly realistic or modified yet believable, but the result is not interesting. The goal I strive for is to make my paintings interesting. I want to capture and hold the interest of the viewer.

The result of the sky in this painting is believable, but is truly uninteresting.

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