My first painting!! i have one question about painting backgrounds and the figur

Position:Home>Visual Arts> My first painting!! i have one question about painting backgrounds and the figur

Question:

so i finally got myself to work on my first SERIOUS painting! i usually get frustrated, screw them up, then throw away the canvas!

so this time i'm working really slow and trying to do it properly and really well!.

so i started with getting the majority of it drawn in with charcoal!. today i added the colors for the background, and all other objects!. i added some basic shading for now as well!. i was wondering, should i wait until the background and objects are COMPLETE before i proceed to painting the figures!? i want to make sure the figures ar done real well and detailed really well, but i still need to detail the background!. i'm also working with oil paint, so i guess i have to wait for it to dry as well!?

what approach do you normally use when drawing background, objects, and then detailed figures!

thanks :)Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

In most classes they would teach you to go back and forth between the background and the foreground!. That way you more easily end up with a unified picture, rather than have it feel like the background is separate from the things in front of it!. You're not just copying a scene; you're making an image and in the abstract sense, you want it to hold together!.

I find is really is much easier to keep the unity if I force myself to move around the image a lot and not even think so much about what's in the background and what's not, but rather about connection between the two and the space between objects!.

I work with oils too!. Often, with quick one session paintings, I can't wait for the paint to dry!. so I either paint thinly, or wet into wet, or just try to put one color next another so there's not a lot of mixing!.

It's not easy!. Painting is like juggling many balls at once!. But I think that if you separate the background from the foreground, that exactly how it's going to look -- like you painted one first and the other second!. It won't feel integrated!.

Hope this helps!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I would semi finish the background and objects, let dry and then do the figures and finish the background simultaneously!.

I suppose it depends on what you want to stand out more, the background or figures, to figure out what apporach to take!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think you should complete the background first!. For me, backgrounds are really boring and I have to get them done first!. Otherwise, I work the whole time on the subject of the painting, and when that is done I just call the painting finished!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

When I am doing a drawing or a sketch I usually draw the subject or focal point first!. !. !. !.

But when I am painting (any media from watercolor to pastels) I tend to work the whole painting in a circular fashion!. I block in value and color shapes, from the focal point outward to the surrounding background images/shapes !. !. !. working the painting in a clockwise and then counter-clockwise direction, until I have basically gone from underpainting to near finished!. At each circular "swing" through the fields of the painting I will stand back before reversing and going back over each area in the opposite direction!. I don't stick to a strict pattern of circular and direction change, but rather this is how it feels as I work each area at each stage pretty much simultaneously!. This aids in balancing and repeating colors for unity, and it also helps in not forgetting the "whole" while working the specific!.

The details get added carefully, often finishing with the details in the subject, or focal point, last, as it is the most detailed areas of the painting!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I am not going to tell you how you should go about answering your question, because I really don't know, I don't work in oils, or acrylic!. I do watercolor and I have a hard time with that same thing!.

What I DO want to tell you is that you don't need to throw the canvases out!. That is a waste of money!. You could simply re-prime the canvas with gesso and you can start with a clean slate so to speak!. However, I may be wrong on that!. But, for me, I would want to save money and try to salvage the canvases if I could!.
I'm sure the other artists will thumbs down me if I am wrong!. If so, I WOULD appreciate feedback on my statement!.Www@QuestionHome@Com