Do any of you ever get the picture in your mind, say of your own children, for instance? Then paint from that?
Painting by using our mind's eye is fun. That way we can change the direction of light and the shadows.
For instance, right now I can see (picture in my mind) a baby. Can't remember whose it was, and she has a blue gingham dress and she's playing with a ball on an auburn wood floor. The view is floor level and she is leaning over with one arm outstretched toward the red and white sailor ball. She's very cute. And this may be rather uncomfortable for some artists to understand, but I can move around her with the camera in my head and see her from every direction. She's very animated and moving about and looking up and smiling and then looking at the ball and then she's concentrating on getting the ball.
Am I the only one that does this? Surely not.
This is really important for me when painting florals, fruit etc. It forces me to use my imagination and my life experiences with light and shadows. I never use photographs when painting these. Just my mind's pictures. That way I can twist a leaf the way that I want it to, so that it can point to something else or back up to the focal area.
The best way to get a likeness in portrait painting is to see it in reality without a photograph and then paint it right then and there as we all know, of course. But using the pictures in your mind are also fun.
I once painted a cardinal (priest dressed in red) with the hood over his face almost to the bottom of his nose, and he was playing a clarinet and he was walking down a brownish green architectural hallway. I loved it. His hands were beautiful. Don't know where it came from as I'd never seen it before, but it was vivid enough to paint it.
And no, I don't do drugs, or alcohol, and I'm not mentally impaired.
Just so you know. I just consider it a gift from God.
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