Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

howard hodgkin's paintings keep coming to mind after seeing this piece ... and i don't know why, except maybe your sky.

nicely done.

I'd like to throw this out for discussion. I find that digital images of my paintings can be tweaked to show colors that are not visible to the naked eye when viewing the painting directly.

I've come to wonder if perhaps, the painting. is just a intermediate stage of the work of art. That the final stage of the art is in the digital reproduction, tweaked to elicit the most visceral response. This painting is a good example. Which, in your opinion is the art?

The Painting shown in the last post, or the digital image shown here.

I would have to answer the first post was the closest to your painting among the three, mainly due to the topic at the time of posting.

But your question brings up for me the photo enhancement of, for example, the nudes in Playboy. These have been going on for as long as the magazine as been published. This and the many photos of the nude throughout the history of photography have almost always employed the art (?) of touch-up.

Out newest form of photography, of course, is the digital and all the enhancement features the medium allows, (such as photoshop), has brought art into the age where we now have no idea if even a photograph "speaks the truth of the moment" since the capability of trickery is at an all time high. This has now changed the idea of what art is to some degree - can someone who digitally tweaks a photo, regardless of subject or their own know-how, produce a work of art..?

I'll have to stick with "art is in the eye of the beholder" just as it's always been. What say ye' ?

They're 2 different types of media.

I think it's great to use photoshop or other image manipulation tools to help adjust the image of the actual photo so you can show what the painting looks like. That's one way of using it.

I also think it's great to use it to create new images or even take the painting and turn it into an enhanced image to sell as a print.

But a print is not a painting.

It just depends on your purpose. If your purpose is to create a website with digital images, then the painting is just the start of that process.

But if your purpose is to create paintings, then the painting is the final product and digital enhancement is part of the process to show people what the painting actually looks like.

At any rate, there are some really nice art sites out there which will sell prints of your work for you either framed or as greeting cards or other products and for that purpose, the digital image is the final.

I've been doing digital art and digital enhancement of photographs and artwork for so long I'm sort of getting sick of it. I mean, I do like it.... but I'm leaning toward the real paintings being the final product of my own work these days but I'd love to also sell prints of them. Why not?

As for the progress of this painting, I like #1 and #3 best.... actually I like #1 better than #3 ...

Here's one I found recently

http://www.foliolink.com/accounttypes.asp

Actually let me clarify what I am saying/doing. The first photo that I posted was a photo of a painting that was a work in process (WIP).

The second photo, is the same painting, finished. I added color to the sky, depth and detail to the hills and other enhancements. In other words the second photo is the finished oil painting, photographed with no digital enhancements or tweaks. Just a photo of the painting.

The third and final picture. Is the same photo as photo 2 but I allowed photoshop to auto balance all the levels the way photoshop thought the picture should look. If you compare just photos 2 and 3(the same photo) you can see in photo three that a lot of details, brush strokes and other details are visible that are not visible when you look at the painting with the naked eye. Since art is often judged by emotions. Which version speaks more to you, which is more powerful. Remember they are the same photo of the same painting. Which is the "Better" art. The painting itself or the digitally enhanced photo of the painting?

Oh I see. Sorry I misunderstood.

Well.... I like the contrast better in #3. It's easier to see what's going on.

That said, it just dawned on me that using photoshop to do enhancements can help an artist figure out what to do next with the painting.... what areas to brighten up, where to create more contrast, etc.

One last thought.... I definitely don't feel that your photo of the final painting really probably looks exactly like your final painting. It can't possibly. There are too many factors missing.... tactical factors like the thickness of the paint, the way the textures catch light, etc.

Just saying... It's almost impossible to see a painting in a digital image how it really is in person.

If seen this time and time again... going to art shows after seeing images posted on the web... and then seeing them in person at the show. They always look different and more impressive in person.

After reading your post I went ahead and adjusted the brightness of the second photo, it was kinda dark. Now it looks closer to the painting.

I agree totally with what you said. You can't capture the nuances of an oil painting with a photo.

Oh... I see! ... cool! I like it! .. would love to see your paintings in person one day. You live in Pennsylvania, right? I don't get up there often but it's not extremely far. I'm in Virginia near DC. Do you ever do art shows up there, Garry?

Hi Doreen,

I guess in the next year or so I'll try to arrange a show at a gallery.
Presently I only exhibit at local shows. I'm president of the Pittsburgh Society of Artists so I always submit pieces for our shows, not that they all always get accepted. Our shows are juried so it depends on the juror and his/her likes or dislikes. If I every have a solo exhibit I'll let you know.

well, from my little experience in mountains, the first one looks close to night time, the second one close to an splendorous sunset moment and the third one more like a sunrise! no idea about technic details, I like the tree of them!!! Though, I find photoshop interesting: I´ m doing an offset-taller at the moment and I´m in the process to turn digital photos to white and black in order to make películas, I like the results!.

i like the intensity of the colors in the finished non-digital version, specially the sky & the green grass.