Lesson 7, Part 1 - Shape Hierarchy

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Reference photo from Wikipedia: Two Indigenous Men, a photograph by Roosewelt Pinheiro/ABr - Agência Brasil

Today’s lesson has two parts; I completed part one, which was to paint a protrait from a reference photo of a Brazilian indigenous man. For this lesson our task was to focus on, 1) recognizing shapes; 2) identifying the large shapes and painting them first, then painting the smaller shapes within the large shapes; 3) working with the largest brushes possible to avoid the inevitable temptation to dwell on details. We used the unpredictable Sargent brush, which has a high degree of randomness built in to it’s soul.

It was fun going through the ugliness of the initial stages to see the image come to life when I added the highlight to my subject’s upper lip. Pow!

The Three Apples Lesson

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Corel Painter Sargent brush following Isis Sousa’s tutorial.

Now that I’ve published my second book, I’m taking some time off before I start working on book 3 — I want to learn more about painting, digital painting, that is.

I’m fortunate to have found Isis Sousa’s Corel Painter tutorial on Youtube. She mercifully restricts the brushes to the Sargent brush set, and she provides color-corrected reference photos so that we students can practice. I especially appreciate her course because she’s actually teaching how to paint digitally rather than merely focusing on showing how to use Painter’s many features.