Monday, May 9, 2011

Painting Pitfalls: Getting too Literal

It's hard not to get carried away rendering many many many details seperately instead of working the whole painting. The danger is overcomplicating values and edges trying to describe objects too literally. The balance is thrown out of whack, and any appeal the had painting gets lost. Really, an impression can give a more tangible feeling for an interoir.

Here's a quick hack Photoshop filter job to illustrate. The high contrast B&W has less detail, but so much more depth and feeling. The "too literal" original is below it.

2 comments:

Adam said...

Perhaps but both still look pretty damn cool to me!

Yi-Piao Yeoh said...

Woo thanks! There's always the chance I've gone a little mad.

Stuff like the bottom edge of the seating, and sides of the shelves felt obstructive. In the filtered version it feels like the eye goes down to the other end of the room nice and swooshily!