{"id":2008,"date":"2021-08-07T15:20:05","date_gmt":"2021-08-07T15:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sabrinagill.in\/index.php\/2021\/08\/07\/if-you-cant-paint-plein-air-dont-despair\/"},"modified":"2021-08-07T15:20:05","modified_gmt":"2021-08-07T15:20:05","slug":"if-you-cant-paint-plein-air-dont-despair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sabrinagill.in\/index.php\/2021\/08\/07\/if-you-cant-paint-plein-air-dont-despair\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Can\u2019t Paint Plein-Air, Don\u2019t Despair\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

En plein air<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is a French term that means, \u201cin the open air.\u201d A \u201cplein-air painting,\u201d is a painting that is completed on location. Most schools of thought recommend painting on location as much as possible – be it a still-life, a landscape or figurative forms, based on the study of live models.<\/span><\/p>\n

When impressionist French masters like Claude Monet and Pissarro began painting outdoors, it was considered revolutionary. Today, working on location is a routine practice for many landscape and cityscape artists. Plein-air artists maintain that the essence and soul of the subject get lost when a painting originates from a photograph as the sole reference material – an artwork reflects the joy the artist experienced while painting on location.<\/span><\/p>\n

We may ask why that is so? What are the differences between painting from life and painting from a photograph?<\/span><\/p>\n

A photograph very often does not show the world as the eyes see it.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is that? The image captured by a camera is in many ways different from the real thing our eyes see.<\/span><\/p>\n

To paint from a photo and render the subject as the eye would see it, you need to learn about the possible distortions and limitations of a photograph and how to correct them.<\/span><\/p>\n

In photos, shadows are darker and less detailed<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

Shadows and dark areas don\u2019t print well. Dark values get darker and lose detail.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we view our subject with the naked eye, shadow areas hold a lot of details, and in most cases a wide range of tonal variations. When we take a photo, the camera distorts the contrast and colours making them flat – we lose a lot of elements and interesting details. The variation of colour in the lighter are get washed out as well – at times overexposed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Apart from this, perspective can get skewed if the position and angle of the camera are not correct.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Having said this, plein-air painting has its challenges and it is not always possible to work on location. A crowded street in India is not the most conducive environment for an artist to work on a cityscape project – getting a model to pose nude for a charcoal project can prove to be a tall order – painting a landscape plein-air, in the scorching Indian summer can take the joy out of art – the rain can dampen your enthusiasm. So despite your best attempts to paint plein-air, sometimes a photo reference is the most workable option.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    I will share a few valuable tips you need to keep in mind when using photo references for paintings and some techniques you could employ when photo shooting the subject of your art project, to create great paintings.<\/span><\/p>\n