Don't Paint What You See!

4wdesign
Nov 7, 2015
3 min read

Realistic Art Vs. Everyone Else

People with a talent for art are told early on to “Paint what you see.” In other words, don’t draw a stick figure, but draw the whole body, just as you see it. This is to get the artist to practice their craft and become better at it.

I believe this to be a good practice that helps one develop their talent, however there comes a point when you need to adjust what you see to make it better for the art piece.

Now some people have such a great talent in art that they can actually paint what they see.

This portrait is a drawing that is so detailed, most might think it was a photograph. It is unbelievable that this is accually done in charcoal!

Most artists either don’t have the talent or the patience to produce something so realistic. But what we do have are other learned techniques in our pocket.

No doubt the painting above took a lot of time and effort, however we know right away looking at this, that this is a painting.

We know this because real life has a billion colors and shades; this painting does not. I would doubt that those flowers would look so vivid red in real life. If this were a photograph, we might find the scenery very dull. One other technique this painting has is a beautiful composition that shows good use of the technique called rule of thirds. It also shows the use of depth through the use of warm and cool colors.

Now when we look at the photo below, we see the wonderful colors of autumn.

As an artist, we may take such a photo and tell ourselves “I’m going to paint that.” But when we do it comes out looking like mud.

Now if we were able to paint like this (yes this is a painting), then we could go ahead and paint that photo of autumn trees with no problem. But for the rest of us, we need to consider how we can alter the photo to make it work better as a painting.

Now to make this photo a good painting without realistic art talent, one might soften the background and make the orange leaves more vivid, such as the one below it.

Altering photographs for a better composition was done again and again by Norman Rockwell.

Though Rockwell might have been able to paint realistically, he choses to change things around to make it (in my opinion) more interesting. Notice below how he simplifies thing by removing the bowtie and hat. He also converts the photos background to have more negative space.

No matter how much talent (or lack of) you have, you can create something magnificent. It doesn’t have to look real; it just has to look good. All you need is the right inspiration and the ability to alter things in the way that makes it look good. You don’t have to paint what you see!

This painting of rocks in the river is also very realistic. It shows a great talent, but when I look at art, I enjoy seeing brushstrokes and know that it is indeed a painting, such as the one below.

This one is mine, by the way. KeithWidmann.com

But I am not saying that those who can paint something so real should change. Those people who have such a great talent should continue the practice of it. But for the rest of us, DON’T PAINT WHAT YOU SEE!