Observations
Comparing Abstract and Realism in Painting - Fall 2023
In my career I have heard three or four truly outstanding lectures. One of those was a lecture I heard in the mid-80's by Wayne Theibaud at the Tyler School of Art. In the lecture Theibaud argued that the dichotomy between realism and abstraction is truly a false dichotomy for the serious painter and proceeded to show paintings by Sargent where he showed the overall painting followed by detailed close-ups from the same painting. Theibaud's purpose was to show that there is considerable abstraction in great realistic paintings as one works to create the illusion of a three-dimensional world in two dimensions. To get space to recede and keep the eye's focus on the primary elements of the painting's composition it is important for the painter to 'abstract' the background so that it sits properly in space and does not distract from the main focus of the painting. Below is an example of what I believe Theibaud was describing. The detail is the loose strokes that constitute the women's scarf who is in the foreground. In this example the collection of oranges is drawing our attention partly because the scarf drifts beckward in space because of the abstraction.
The second example is from Sargent, the "Chess Game." in this example both the women's scarf lying in back of her body is lose and abstract as is the far distant water at the top of the painting. In both instances the abstraction creates the sense of depth and holds our focus on the center of the painting.
Comparing Digital 'Painting' with Traditional Wet Medium - Fall 2022
As can be anticipated, digital painting has characteristics distinct from traditional painting with wet medium. I have found that digital painting has peculiar attributes -- both too fast and too slow, as well as simultaneously too near and too distant. These attributes of digital painting present some striking challenges to the painter that need to be embraced and accounted for when working.
Digital painting is fast in the sense that the painting setup is quick. To start, you just open your backpack, fish out your iPad and stylus and begin to work. If you paint plein air, there is very little equipment to carry -- no easel, palette, brushes, paint tubes, stretched canvases, or racks to transport wet canvases. When working digitally should you see an inspirational scene while you are out for a walk you can quickly set-up to capture it. This is a real asset when traveling! But easy set-up has its own problem. For me the ritual of packing up equipment to paint means one needs to commit to painting, plan the trip and set aside the time to devote to painting. Wet media painting is not a grab and go endeavor. The discipline of preparation is accompanied by commitment and this discipline translates down to the process of mark making.
The lack of commitment in painting preparation has ramifications in the painting process itself. There is little finality to the mark making. Each mark can easily be adjusted or reversed in the digital world. When engaged in traditional painting, the successive alteration of an area of canvas leads to muddy colors and disappointing results. To avoid this problem, deliberate mark making is a virtue that is difficult to achieve when adjustments are easy. The fungible quality of digital marks means the image can be noodled endlessly with no apparent consequence in the degradation of the image. If you watch videos of digital artists at work you will observe the constant formal adjustments and color changes even in accomplished digital painters.
Painting with a traditional wet medium means you easily see the whole as a complete object. It is immediate! Digital painting on the other hand is a rather drawn-out affair. You paint, upload to a computer, process the image with software and then, finally, print the image. After printing, one usually discovers areas of the image that require more image processing to get brightness, color saturation and contrast to the desired state. I have found this need for processing is almost a necessity because printers rarely replicate what is seen on the screen. Adding to the time delay of completing a digital painting is the transformation that occurs in the image as it moves from an image that has light emanating from it to one where the light is reflected off the printed surface. This transformation inevitably results in more processing of the image in the computer to get the printed image to portray the desired likeness.
When painting with wet media one can always see the whole at size. Each mark is easily and almost instantaneously placed into its context of the whole. This is not the case with digital painting. When painting on screen it is easy to zoom in and get very focused on a portion of the painting. This detailed work is not easily contextualized. Zooming out to see the whole means the operation must be repeated to get in close again and continue to alter that piece of the canvas. It is not as easy as shifting your focus as you do with traditional painting…it requires hand gestures and time to focus in and then out to see the impact on the whole!
A complicating matter for a digital painter is we rarely work at the final size. My efforts are limited to the size of my screen while the printed output is almost always considerably larger. This presents a significant challenge when looking at your latest digital mark and forecasting the difference between what is seen on the screen with that of the final print. When working at size as in traditional wet medium, it is relatively easy to discern that additional detail is required or the colors require adjustment. With digital painting, to understand that local color requires adjustment takes considerable time as you work between screen and print.
Yet in another sense digital painting is too close and slow. The critical distance that one can achieve by simply stepping back from the easel is not as easily accomplished with digital work and I find that critical distance is not achieved until it is printed. The physicality of the print offers the first opportunity to easily view the object at a distance and obtain the critical distance from the object that can be achieved by stepping back from the canvas on the easel. I have found it takes considerable training to gain any critical distance while viewing the screen. The link between physical distance and critical overview is delayed in digital painting until the print can be seen and the image is finally observed as an object that reflects light. This reliance on the printed output to see the completed image makes digital painting more related of photography than any traditional painting medium.
These peculiar aspects of digital painting do not mean it is not a useful medium. It is just different from traditional painting with wet medium and requires its own distinct working method. Fortunately, like all painting, digital painting sits upon a platform of seeing like a visual artist. A cultivated eye combined with some perseverance can lead to rewarding experiences and, if one is fortunate, beautiful work.