Practice 6/7 – Following Intuition in Form and Light

For my first practice, Mary and Her Little Lamb by Professor Antonio Bortone, I went back to my old days of painting statues. From this particular reference, I was drawn to the silhouette of the cloth on the child, the folds, the values, and the little story captured in this moment. It makes me wonder—if I’m such a great admirer of sculpting, why have I not tried it yet? I don’t know; maybe I should.

The second practice was a forest. What struck me the most was the mood created by the combination of light and mist. It felt cold, nostalgic, and kind of mysterious, even though it was in broad daylight. I wanted to be there. I suppose that was my excuse this time.

The third practice was a man with a sword. I really liked how the shape of the muscles was defined by very dark shadows. I decided to capture this reality using a textured brush to offer a more traditional perspective of the real man. I like trying this approach when the challenge is not as demanding in terms of information, like a city landscape or a reference full of detail.

The fourth practice was supposed to be line art. I like to use only lines for architecture, mostly because it is already difficult to define shapes with lines, leaving me a bit too tired to play around with colors and shadows afterward. I suppose it is possible to suggest shapes a bit and move on with rendering, but I don't feel I’m that good at keeping shape structures solely through painting techniques. You can judge me—I should take on this challenge—but I have a sense I’ll get there soon.

The fifth practice was a portrait. Well, it's been a while since I last tried portraits, at least not as a dedicated practice. I can see how it feels different now, after so long. It’s simpler, and I feel comfortable using sharp-edged shadows where soft gradations would usually be. This flattens the volume a bit in places like the cheek, but I don't know why I’m okay with it. I think I no longer feel the pressure to create a close approximation to reality in my interpretations. It’s not that I’m right now and was wrong before—what has changed, I think, is my confidence.

The sixth practice was a plane. It reminded me of Ghibli movies, and I haven’t done this kind of painting theme before. That was one of the motivations behind other practices as well—have I painted this in the past? If the answer is no, well, why not try? So yeah, it was cool.

I really like painting and drawing animals. I saw a picture of an eagle, and the shape of its head and neck caught my attention. I saw it as an opportunity to push beyond, to exaggerate the curvature of the silhouette. Although the light was not present on the body of the animal but in the background, I could distinguish soft tones of blue and yellow on the eagle’s head—colors I could also saturate a bit more. I think I’ll paint more animals.

Lastly, the nun study was inspired by a movie shot—I’m not sure of the movie’s name, but I’ll pin it to our board for you to check later. I like dramatic themes, and I felt passion behind that picture. I’m also interested in religious themes, something I hope to share more of soon. And this one, although a bit sexual in my opinion, looked fascinating. I might be wrong.

I’d like to clarify that I’m writing the “why” after I painted these. Most of these practices were chosen randomly from the references I’ve saved on your Pinterest board and the ones I encountered while exploring the feed. This means I’m not really following a thoughtful process or pursuing specific skills—just following my intuition.

Here’s the video process, as well as the references used for these practices.

Process video: https://youtu.be/oePau83nArg

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369365606964304535/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369365606966353939/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369365606966353959/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369365606966353963/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369365606966276358/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369365606965826870/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369365606966288216/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/369365606966313358/

Thank you so much for your support!