Find Your Inner Artist

I am a landscape painter and my work usually is very close to the reference photo. I get a lot of comments like “wow, looks like a photo”, but with a closer look it’s not so close to the reference after all. My goal is not to recreate the photo in all the details. An exception is if a customer specifically wants the painting very close to the photograph taken.

Many times, when we want to create a painting from photos, we have to do something to make the painting more interesting than the photo. I spend a lot of time studying my photos looking for something that attracts me and fascinates me. It can be just a small element like the way shadows fall or colour of the background, too much to mention here, but for me this is very important.

If we look at the works of some of the great masters there is always something that makes them stand out. Of course, they usually are technically well painted (not always), but often it is elements like light, composition, scene and often a combination of these elements. To make great art to be remembered by is for the very few, I’m thinking about Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, Munch’s “The Scream” and Monet’s waterlilies among many others. They have all used their experience, perception of the world/motif, state of mind etc. I have great pleasure in studying other artists and their work, something I truly recommend. We can’t all become artists in that league but why not try? By good composition and use of light, colours, values and different techniques we are on our way.

I have painted many photorealistic paintings and that’s fine, but I find that digging inside for the artist in me makes painting more enjoyable and interesting to do. As a bonus the result often gets better too. I always use photos when I paint my pictures because it is so easy. The picture is then already manipulated because we know that the camera doesn’t repeat colours, values and perspective very well. Often the picture can be enhanced by adding or removing elements. Removing elements is more usual than adding them. This is done for making a better composition but can also be done for simplifying both technically and aesthetically.

Little bit more advanced thing is to add elements, like a bird or figure. The picture can also be made more interesting by doing something with the colours. We can use a limited palette to make a more uniform look or enhance the colours and use colour harmony, complimentary colours, just think of Monet’s waterlilies. There are lots of possibilities to explore and Unison Colour soft pastels are so good for this.

Another effective way to enhance a picture is by altering the atmospheric perspective. Soft Pastels are so great for this as it is relatively easy to correct, we can try out new colours, use different techniques like blending and hatching. Underpainting with alcohol and water on surfaces that can take it also makes up a lot of possibilities. A technique that I have tried that is very interesting is to use Pastelground or clear gesso to make an impasto effect.

I am not going into detail about the specific techniques I have used here, if you want to know more about them Unison Colour’s Pastel Academy may have some tutorials and you can also contact me directly and I will try to help.

On the following pictures I will give some examples of my approach to achieve more interesting paintings.

On this picture I was fascinated by the wet and hazy mood, it has a lot of branches and trees so I had to simplify it. The layer of snow was so thin that the ground was visible and that’s not so straight forward to achieve.

Find Your Inner Artist 1
Wet Forest original

To achieve the mood of this scene I made some small sketches where I tried out different techniques.

Wet Forest nr. 1 is done on Canson Mi teintes with a limited palette of blue-grey colours.

Wet Forest nr. 2 is done on Fisher 400 with a red underpainting with alcohol creating a more red or violet impression.

Wet Forest nr. 3 is also done on Fisher 400, here I decided for a green underpainting with alcohol. This to try to recreate the ground shining thru the snow.

Wet Forest nr. 4 was actually made a bit later and was done very quickly. It was my wife that wanted a little painting of this scene so I just tried to make another one. It is done on matboard grounded with very intense green acrylic underpainting and then I applied thinned Pastelground over it.

I hope that these sketches show that the different methods and techniques have an impact on the result. It also steers your mind when painting, affecting your choice of colour and stroke handling etc.

The photo is in this case just a guide for painting. There is no need here to achieve likeness at all but it certainly sets a mood. I actually think I’m going to paint this scene more simply because I like the mood and the feeling of silence in the forest.

In the next I have painted a sunset painting with a challenge, the whirlpool of the propeller of the ferry.

I studied the photo quite thoroughly and wanted to enhance and add some more colours to the painting with Monet’s sunsets in back of my head.

Find Your Inner Artist 6
Till we Meet Again, orginal Arild Frisnes
Find Your Inner Artist 7
Till We Meet Again by Arild Frisnes

The painting was done on Sennelier pastel card and using the wonderful Unison Colour soft pastels was a joy on this one. When studying the photo most of the colours of the sea are there but much more toned down. As I progressed in the painting the colours almost found their own way to the paper. It is very satisfying when your colours start to harmonize and in your search of finding the right colour you find some that work so well together.

“By The Sea” is a painting where I am pretty close to the photo but here, I tried to achieve some impasto and structure to the painting. The photo is taken this Easter and is of my wife and youngest daughter on a walk we had by the sea. I changed the format because I didn’t want so much of the sky to show and also, I got the horizon line a bit higher. It was an experiment trying this technique for the first time. The Pastelground was applied straight from the box, thinned with very little water where I wanted less effect. Nothing in the sky and sand and foreground. It is far from perfect but it was very fun and I will try it more in the future.

Find Your Inner Artist 8
By The Sea, orginal Arild Frisnes
Find Your Inner Artist 9
By The Sea, by Arild Frisnes

I continuously try to make my art better and trying new approaches to express myself in my paintings. To have a kind of relationship with the scene helps a lot. Sometimes I discover new ways of painting. Studying other artists is also useful.

I also like to listen to music, it can put me in a state where I can see where I want to take my painting. My point that I try to tell in this article is that it’s important to use your brain and imagination and let some feelings in. Try new techniques and play around.

And paint a lot, as often as possible and a little bit more. Don’t be afraid of using your pastels and paper.

Happy pastelling!!

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14 Responses

  1. Thank you for this interesting blog, I particularly enjoyed seeing the four different versions of the snow scene and learning how you achieved them.

  2. I enjoyed reading your blog post. I am new to painting and am awed by the artists that contribute to the Academy. I am trying to find the artist in me and reading about your process is inspiring. Your work is truly remarkable. Have you considered doing a demo for the Academy. I know I would be interested to see how you paint. I look forward to hearing more.

  3. Such a treat Arild to see the your paintings. Iove how you push the envelope and try different underpaintings and methods to the same picture so you are able to measure the differences. I loved seeing the four paintings of the wood scene each with its own attributes because of the surfaces and the and choices of underpainting colors. Thank you

  4. Thank you Arild. Very interesting how you used different techniques. There was parts in all the thumb nails that I liked. I loved the first painting water behind the boat. All good.

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