ramonn90

Practice 8/9 - Texture and Movement

Added 2025-03-07 16:30:03 +0000 UTC

Hey everyone, here are some insights into my process during these practices.

1. What I loved the most in this picture was the reflection of the light on the horse’s fur. The gesture, of course, was very peculiar and presented a good opportunity for me to push the anatomy a bit further. Choosing a watercolor texture was very unexpected—I guess I was trying to emulate the look traditional practices had from old masters.

2. The second reference caught my attention because of the contrast inside what looks like a church. I figured I could use hard-edged brushes to match not only this contrast but also some patterns in the building, like bricks—or what seem to be bricks. Additionally, I really liked the simple blue sky, which created some sort of balance in relation to the messy look of the building.

3. For the third practice, I sometimes like to choose very simple references so I don't feel the pressure of overperforming in every single practice. I know I can get joy out of simple subjects that allow me to add that extra touch with textures or colours not present in the original reference. Yet I seem to avoid easy challenges because, in my mind, I think they are "easy."

4. The lady on the beach was my attempt to create a Sorolla-like painting, where details like eyes are not even necessary, but the mood is created by lighting and colours—an image where shapes look sublime, a feeling more than anything else.

5. The fifth practice was a way for me to warm up for the next set of practices, as I remember painting that one early in the morning. I did not know what kind of drawing or practice I should start with, so I picked this landscape, which I found very rare but beautiful. I'm still not sure where it comes from. I focused on making shapes distinctive from a distance. This is not a straightforward process. Often, I start by making intricate brush strokes to understand the reference, and after I’ve done plenty, I try again with a big brush and a small canvas. Why? After figuring out how to do it the wrong way, I can come up with more optimal ways to capture reality with a few strokes.

6. The dog portrait was my attempt to create some sort of movement with strokes. At first, I really wanted to capture that gesture with lines only, but it felt wrong, boring—I don’t know how to explain it. So then I used textured brushes to push that gesture to some degree. I was not very sure what I was doing, as you can see in the process, but eventually, by softening some spots of the painting, I believe I found a nice balance between texture and three-dimensional rendering that pleased me enough.

7. I wanted to try a portrait again. This time, it was supposed to be lines only, but it was not quite there after I finished it. So one thing led to another—I started by adding very dark shadows where they were clear in the reference, and little by little, I ended up adding mid-tones and highlights. As a last touch, I deformed the overall shape of the body to push that stylised movement some of my practices have had lately.

8. The reflection of the light in the fish bag was what mostly caught my attention in that reference. I figured I would be able to finish that one quickly, but honestly, it took a bit longer—not because I didn’t know how to approach this practice, but because the more I looked at the reference, the more colours and details I found. Details in colours, values, and their shapes. I recognise I had some fun adding more and more details—this magic of light, I suppose.