I think there's more pressure on physical framed art to be perfect compositionally, that's why painters get so good at it. It has to have a good enough composition to be justified to even be in a frame. And if it's not perfect, it can easily look wonky and out of place framed up on a wall. Plus, when you spend hours painting something, you don't want something to be a little off when you're all done.
Thank you for this informative and inspiring tutorial. The results are wonderful. Takeaway: the setup and lighting are critical for a good still life! Most memorable quote: "You're not painting objects, you're painting light falling on objects"
Unbelievable. Just watching this I feel like I have been to a museum and I am super inspired to setup my still life's. So many useful ideas. Absolutely stunning.
I have struggled with indoor lighting for years (it is definitely the most important thing). This video has helped me immensely- I'd go as far to say it has changed how I paint. Thank you Paul for sharing your process.
I really struggle with indoor lighting too. My studio is in my basement, which has very little natural light, but a lot of lights in the ceiling. I have a light on my still life set up, but need to turn off my ceiling lights in order to get the shadows and highlights correct...but then it is too dark in the room to see my canvas and palette! Really looking forward to watching this video!
Paul, so I tried to make one of these grid frame things that you use. I was able to make one using an old picture mat and some string. First trouble I had was that if it is attached to my drawing board (so that it is straight in line with my panel), that didn't seem to work; seems like it needed to be bent a little or on a hinge. So, I was able to tape in to my board so that it could swing to be directly facing my setup. Second issue was that any little movement of my position or my head, etc., the drawing would be off. So, what I ended up deciding to do instead was to simply take a picture of my setup with my iPad, pull the image into an app to grid it, then use that to accurately draw the initial drawing onto the panel. After the drawing is on my panel, I can then go back to the setup and continue to paint it from life.
I don’t paint, but I do photography. You’ve got some helpful tips about the lighting, to make the still life interesting by placing light against dark. Thank you. Have a nice day.
Thank you! That's praise indeed! I speaking to someone who did one of your online workshops with Julie recently and she said it was by far the best online learning experience she'd ever had. I hope you're well.
I’m just experimenting with Alla prima and although I’ve chosen my composition I needed to adjust it to get the best light and shadow. I was browsing on line and just found your channel. It’s brilliant! It’s helped me so much in understanding the importance of light and how to get the best out of your painting. Thank you so much. I have subscribed to your post.
Thanks for the great video. When you talked about adjusting the white balance I thought, "I need to buy a decent camera so I can do that," but then I saw the camera on my phone has a manual mode that allows me to adjust it. Who knew? Lol. I'm sure it's not as good as having a really nice camera, but it will come in handy because the color in my cell phone photos often aren't even close.
My 2005 Canon point-n-shoot (powershot a510) had a white balance setting. I had to pull out the manual, as it was buried in settings, but if a relatively cheap camera had support for it in 2005, chances are just about everything has a setting for it somewhere!
wow, this VDO is super useful, an eye-opening for me, lighting set up, pattern of light & shadow making it so much difference and dramatic. I was like in a hurry and didn't care much about setting up process before, but this clip make me willing to spend more time for setting up still life as you mentioned that the set up should already look like painting before you paint, it should already look beautiful!!. Thank you so much :)
Wonderful video, thank you so much! I'm looking forward to watching more, I've learned so much already from this single video. There is no better way to learn than from someone that has figured things out for themselves, that teaches the why. Understanding what's going on is so much better than memorization, for me anyway. So lucky for all of us that have found you! Again, thank you Paul. Your work is beautiful and your kindness is appreciated.
Hello Paul, Thank you very much for this useful video. The set up and the lighting are difficult to master and to explain and seldom shared. Together with the choice of the subject and the composition, they are key to a successful painting. Congratulations!
That squash is so lifelike. I thought it was a real squash :). Thank you so much for this video. You published this 2 years ago and it looks like I am late to the party :)
@@PaulFoxton so your fruit still life settings are done with fake fruit? I think its a great idea because I am bit nervous about contaminating fruits with oil paint. Where did you buy that life looking pumpkin from?
Thank you Mr. Foxton. I’m taking beginning oil painting in Lake Tahoe, California and I’ve learned so much from your wonderful video in composition, shadows and light.
Great information. I'm learning that as my skills as a painter grow and I'm able to paint more of what I see in the way I intend, setting up a good still life with good composition and interest becomes the real art.
It gave me the fear for a while, but once I actaully tried to do it on my Panasonic GH5 it was ridiculously simple! And it makes a huge difference to the quality of the colour.
I like those led panels in softboxes. I wish the lumens weren't so weak, relative to the bulbs you recommended in Mastering Colour. Those bulbs are unwieldy but wonderful to work from. I was using a kind-of hybrid setup to get enough light to get a good read on color when doing the mixing exercises, but I tend to need a lot of light to see color well (in portrait class, the room light was never good enough, I always added a clamp light to my easel, other students seemed fine with just the overheads).
Loved your video, loved the way it wasn’t too polished, I’m just about to get started so really interested to see how you made your setup. Looks like I might be buying a speaker stand!
Outstanding information and inspirational. Lighting is such a difficult problem and you presented it in such a way that makes the info useful and accessible. Thank you.
Hi , thanks @PaulFoxton for this great tutorial. Wondering if 480 LED Beads Neewer would make the job for still life and portraits ? instead of this more powerfull 600 LED. thanks a lot
Not having tried them I really can't say, sorry. They might be fine, probably will be fine, but generally it's much easier to reduce light if you have too much than it is to add it if you don't have enough! I'd go for bigger lights if you can.