– First part of the story is here… –
In many of my more recent works I used a “combined” approach: I started painting from life a thing that grabbed my attention, created a general and quick outline of the composition and colors, and then completed the details by memory (or by intuition..) later at home.
Like these paintings – I call them both “study of the prospective” – since this was the initial idea. Both are views of Florence from its uphill spots and both were made last spring (spring 2019).
Sometimes between the step one and step two a year or even more passes.
This was the case for some of my earlier quick “from life” watercolors that I took out of my drawer after a year of them sitting there and decided that they deserve to be “completed” – that is, elaborated and refined.
In this two-step process photos sometimes help.
I took photos of specific details of my landscapes several times when I intended to complete my painting later. The idea was to use them as some kind of a “cheatsheet” for colors and forms when I don’t have them any more in front of my eyes. And sometimes I did use them (not every time though).
Like for this mountain countryside view of Pinarbaşi (‘Pinarbashi’), Turkey (started at spot in summer 2019) and completed a couple of months later). Photos appeared really helpful to finish the leaves in front.
Personally, I find that photos help me more with recalling shapes and lights-and-shadows distribution. A little less helpful with the colors that still look different on a photograph, even a good one!
Next time I will tell about what I am doing now at school (Accademia di belle arti di Firenze) and what I am learning there, which I value a lot as very interesting and useful experience.
And what is your favorite approach(s) to painting or drawing?
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