Photo-Based Concept Art & Why It Destroys Creative Development:
Today I'd like to talk about something more serious, and what I've come to find as a problem not just on sites like Deviant Art, but on any site that artists show their work. I'm talking about one simple concept: "Photo Based Concept Art." In short, creating an "original artwork" built primarily from colors, textures, and often full images from other sources.
So let's start with an example: http://bdbros.deviantart.com/art/Venetian-Dream-163839804 while this image creates an amazing scene and is in my mind a very inspiring landscape, the image itself isn't really a "painting" or "drawing" even by modern digital standards. What we have instead is a perverse creation of a "completed piece." Now don't misunderstand my critique of the industry. For skilled professionals to submit such a piece to a client is perfectly alright. As being a "concept" in trying to convey the base for something larger, artists will find that clients don't care how the product is produced, just so long as they get what they want. However, as artists we should hold our work to a higher standard that what is simply "acceptable."
As an analogy, let's look at a fast food restaurant. If I'm sitting at a drive through window and behind that wall the fry cook drops my compressed meat patty on the floor, picks it up, then throws it on the grill anyway. I will never know, because it is out of sight and out of mind. However, if you put a gourmet chef in one of these fast food "kitchens" the will probably vomit at the sight of lack of respect for the creative process.
In recent years I have begun to make a shift in what I give my attention to here on the internet. The obvious use of stock photos to build a concept has become so disgusting to me, I usually don't even give the artist the benefit of the doubt. I'm not saying it didn't take time or skill to "arrange" these images creatively, but I am saying "what's really the point?" Even with this analysis, I find myself looking for the "cheaters" that try to pass of a "digital painting" as a painting with textures thrown in at the beginning or end as a cheat. In another example artist and designer Feng Zu's work often starts with photo and texture based images. In his FZDSchool's Episode 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X0Npd5REQw he builds his base color with several images rather than choosing and building up the colors from scratch. Sure this process builds a fast design and saves time, but when you create an image not for a class or client, and try to call it a stand alone piece of art, what you have is (dare I say) a form of art theft at the deepest degree.
The biggest problem with using these techniques and even teaching them to beginners, we find that it teaches them to steal images (even stock photos). Rather than pulling from these images, artists need to learn the skills of drawing in perspective, building color theory, understanding composition, and the other base skills of drawing and painting. Without knowing how to draw, you cannot fully utilize the "short cuts" many of these artists advocate.
For these artists I've listed and others I have not, I have nothing but admiration for what they can accomplish without the use of a brush or drawing tablet, but I do take each "piece" with a grain of salt as while they are "concepts" they are not "completed."
Drawing and Painting: Two Sides of One Coin
There seems to be a strange phenomenon among artists to think that drawing and painting are two very different media, when in fact they couldn’t be more similar. While there are many different types of drawing and painting for today let’s just think about acrylics and graphite pencils.
I have to admit that I didn’t always see things this way. I used to treat the two forms of art as very different both in execution and in the initial thought process. That being said I can understand the slight controversy that comes up from time to time. Of course they are different in media, but the same basic principles apply to each. For example a drawing without textures is flat, as is a painting without detail. Unfortunately for me, it took until just a few years ago to start making this connection and bringing more life into my paintings. So let’s take a look at some examples:
1. http://cinderblockstudios.deviantart.com/art/Untitled-Fire-Side-149826839
2. http://cinderblockstudios.deviantart.com/art/Rebirthing-412964503
First we have an old but popular piece from 2010. While the color and composition are there, the detail and lighting are both significantly lacking. What I did with reds in the piece was heavily unfulfilled with the near solid black surroundings. Where’s the reflective light? The Detail? Well, there isn’t any (mainly since I didn’t really know any better). The second piece is a fairly recent one of a pleasant valley. Tons of detail, texture, shadows, etc., most of which can be seen in the making of video that accompanies the image.
So when and how did I first make the connection between drawing and painting? Well a major player in understanding detail was getting my first liner brush. A liner (if you are unfamiliar with them) creates a thin line similar to that of standard sharpie marker. Essentially a thin for paint, but what would be a thick one for drawing. This allowed me to bring in a hatching technique that I previously could only do digitally or with an ink pen.
Then in late 2012 I painted “The Source” http://cinderblockstudios.deviantart.com/art/The-Source-394479801 which paved the way for my recent line of paintings. High detail and a solid composition built from the ground up with ink techniques applied to the acrylic medium. Ever since that piece, I’ve pushed for the same (or greater) level of technique I captured with that piece. Sometimes you just need to find the right tool that works for you. For me, the liner is certainly my special touch to each painting.
So in short painting is just a colorful extension of everything you learn when drawing. Knowing this, a drawer looking to paint for the first time shouldn’t see the new medium as different, but instead as a continuation of what they already know. Then, as you paint and learn new techniques you can find ways to reinterpret them into your drawings as well. Maybe your layering techniques with acrylics or oils will let you dive into colored pencils faster. Or your blending with chalk pastels will open new doors with wet media.