Concerning drawing/painting and photography

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Stephen S. Mack

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I've decided to take drawing lessons, along with some lessons in pastel painting. I've wanted to do this ever since the Jurassic Period 😀. (I will still take photos; I've got a project for me, to photograph as many abandoned houses in Buckingham County, Virginia (where I live), as I can get to.) But I am going to add drawing and painting to my list of interests. Not in place of my camera but as an additional way of seeing.

Now, I was wondering how many of you also draw and paint as a distinct endeavor, as well as doing photography. Has there been any spill-over (for lack of a better word) into your photographic work? How has it affected your seeing? Does it enhance your enjoyment of your surroundings? Does one activity enhance or retard the other? What are your thoughts on this?

Thank you to all who reply.

With best regards.

Stephen
 
I used to be a painter. I painted my ideas, my feelings and ... well, hot chicks. But then I (re) discovered photography. I can be much more obscure and get right to the core of it with a photograph, than I even could with a painting.

Although I still list myself as a painter (and still have a bunch of paint tubes, brushes and other gear standing by at the easel) I haven't put a single blob of paint on a canvas since 2003. On the other hand, I have exposed thousands of negatives.
 
I've been drawing and painting my whole life, though these days, not so much. I definitely think my experience in the fine-arts lends itself to my style of photography... I definitely "see" more like an artist because of it. Though I express myself most often now-adays through photography, I still consider myself an artist first. (Whether anyone agrees, well that's up to them! LOL)

BTW, this is my bedroom... I painted the mural... LOL

MasterBedroom1.jpg
 
I started as an artist..drawing, watercolors..moved on to oils, and printmaking. Never actually stopped. Photography was my sketch book of things that I did not have time to draw or were moving faster than my hand. I do a great deal with color pencil or pastel pencil. I expanded into photography as I could make images that were beyond my artistic talents in BW & Color.

I see photography as just another tool like going from pen and ink line drawing...off into a different medium. I like Print making...etching, dry point, wood block. As graphic impact is more powerful. I also prefer alternative prints for photography...salt or carbon black.

Drawing will change how your eye functions and also allow you to see more aspects of each subject your eye falls on. A sketch book will also force you to be critical..but offer you a chance to compare your ideas.
 
May be not a direct answer to your question but, I was told by a painter friend (who was trying to teach me at the time) that I was photographing because I couldn't paint. The thing is, I'm not good at photography either, so there might be a connection...

More to the point, I think painting at least will be helpful with your composition.
 
I have worked in painting and sculpture more than photography really... though have always had an old camera fetish. sometimes I like the pure freedom of painting for the fact that you can literally paint anything you can imagine... with photography you are stuck working with reality. I trade off and on over the years... both are interesting and allow for creative expression... and can lead to the same end and expression... go for it!

🙂
 
I would love to be able to draw or paint...I cannot...
I have often said that I do photography because I cannot draw and that I consider photography my cheating way of drawing...
My best people are sticks with arms and legs...
I feel that not being able to draw or paint pushes me harder to photograph since that is my artistic release...
 
In order to get into art school (Coventry College of Art and Design for a BA Fine Art in photography) I had to learn to draw to A-level standard, though fortunately they didn't insist on painting. I got the place, but decided to read law instead (a wise choice, I am convinced). But no, there's been virtually no spillover.

Far more spillover from looking at others' paintings, drawings and photographs.

Cheers,

R.
 
I'm not able to do a drawing without a ruler. As I child I started with drawing ships and houses...always with all the linear and curved rulers my father had. Painting? I can't even paint a wall.
 
Well if we get back on track...the upside to drawing, painting and other eye tasked brain creative efforts is it develops a better ability to see and also see composition elements and move to position with camera to...hopefully. acquire the best or better images, as a result of a developed skill associated to manually creating a compositions from hand labor. That is the theory.

Like any talent...artists by nature feel the need to walk around an object or find a undiscovered angle. The unseen side so to speak. There is a very good book that deals somewhat with this concept and it is associated with what was called the "California School" and was founded by Minor White. The Book is titled "The Moment of Seeing" Minor White at the School of Fine Arts. The book is a little to gushing in it's worshiping of White, Adams, Lange, Cunningham and Weston. But it does deal with some issues in this topic of art affecting photographers. But it goes down some paths that are not valid.

You may want to check it out and see what you think.
 
DRabbit said:
LOL - No... just married to huge Beatles fan and luckily, though well into "middle-aged", we are teenagers at heart. 😀
Click to expand...


Do you have the Sgt Pepper Comic Book from 1968 to go with that mural?

Most of the painters at the local Art coop take the camera, photograph the person, place or thing, and use the photograph as a starting point.
 
I love to look at art of all kinds, but cannot paint or draw. I've taken classes over the years, but the teachers have all kindly pointed out that it is good I chose photography as a career. 😉
 
I drew endlessly as a kid and painted in watercolours and oils. My father interfered too much in my development there and I shifted to photography when I was 12 and got more serious when I was 16. I last seriously drew when I was on a holiday in Italy more than 20 years ago. I didn't take a camera, having had one recently stolen. Bought an M4-2 with a 50 soon after arriving there. Still drew a bit. Was it Manuel Alvarez Bravo who said that he was a photographer years before he ever held a camera? My teenage daughter is truly an artist and paints endlessly, out of her head, and photographs with her little Canon and takes inspired photos even with her mobile phone. I am only a photographer, noticing the light, looking for the geometry, loving that and the inhabitants of those shapes and sunbeams and don't see drawing or painting being something for me at the moment. I have a compulsion to photograph, as my daughter has the compulsion to draw. I don't think I will draw again unless I have that compulsion. It might come one day. My synthetic urge is more towards words I think.
 
If I were to recommend any art course it would be life drawing, it is essential!

And yes one discipline informs the other, composition, sensibility, light, colour, framing, rhythm, i.e. Ways of Seeing. The list is endless.
 
I can draw, if there is a subject (still life or model). Took a class to pick up on the techniques. But I'm no good at imagining a scene and draw on it (pun intended 🙂 ).

Problem is, I am also impatient and the way my life unfolds, I can hardly find time for photography, let alone to draw.

To answer the question, I definitely see the connection between drawing (pencil, charcoal) with B&W photography. The strong correlation between texture, shading and light can also be applied in both arts.

As for painting, I don't know the techniques, maybe I need to take a class.
 
I haven't painted in years. I used to do mostly oil, some watercolor but it was difficult ...
I draw sometimes, but not for a while.
I do photography everyday.
 
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