This post will be different from the ones I have posted before.. This is going to be a bit of a ramble.. but stick with me.. It might be interesting.
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Painting what you see sounds simple enough.. Yet everyone sees the world in its own unique way.
So how do we judge if someone made a good representation of reality?
Take these paintings below.. They don't look photo realistic at all..
Even worse.. when we look closer they are clearly just crappy photoshopbrushes smashed over one another and a lasso here and there to cut things away.. This is in no way a realistic representation of reality..
But if an artist took a few weeks he/she could perhaps really paint every single detail; all the leaves, every piece of grass, rocks, flowers, the grains of sands and clouds just as they looked in real-life..
It would take blood, sweat and tears and still not achieve an accurate representation of reality..
There is a thin balance between making something look realistic and making something look believable.
We as artists should try to go for the 'believable' option.
Our brains/eyes can only focus on something the size of a penny and we can use that to our advantage!
If we make something look believable enough we can manipulate the eye of the beholder to only see what we want them to see.. we leave the rest to suggestion/imagination and that is the closest to reality we can get..
Finding the right balance between 'suggesting something is there' to details and points of focus is a skill on it is own.
But when it is done right we can even make scenes that are not grounded in reality feel believable.
To find that balance and learn how to use it in our work will for most of us be a lifetime of studying and practice.
When we master that we can maybe say that we really do paint what we see.. Whether it is in front of us or in our minds! :)
Do you know which of these paintings is from a photo and which one is from mind? Why? :)
And if you try to squeeze your eyes.. do they look like photos?
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Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!
Cheers
-Rogier