Monday, June 16, 2008

Glass Anyone?




You need to paint say a wine glass, bottle, vase or window, and you ask yourself, "what's to paint?" How can I paint something that I'm looking THROUGH. It's not opaque or even translucent for krist sake...it's transparent...there's NOTHING to paint! Wrong, silica breath!
There are essentially two things you need to know to paint glass. 1.You paint what you see BEHIND the glass, whether it's up close or far away. 2.You paint whatever the glass is REFLECTING. So with the wine glass, I simply painted what was behind it (the potted plant) and reflected high lights off the rim, sides, stem, and foot.. Note that some of these reflections follow the shape of the wine glass, and thus significantly help to define it as such. Same thing with the wine bottle... I painted the bluish green of the glass itself (it's local color), what was behind the front of the glass (that inside dome thingy), reflected high lights and the dark backside of the wine label ( again,painting what's behind the glass). This was all done with super thick paint (impasto), but because the local and reflective colors are all in the right spots, correctly shaped, and value contrasted accurately, they read as a wine bottle.
Finally, take a look how this pair of glasses on this devilishly handsome gentleman were painted. Remember, paint what is BEHIND glass and any reflections off the glass. The only thing that says glass here is the frame and all I had to do was paint the skin tones behind each lense! Who is this bearded fellow?... 1. Brad Pitt? 2. David Lobenberg? 3.Moses?

DON'T THINK GLASS! THINK WHAT IS BE BEHIND THE GLASS AND REFLECTIONS OFF THE GLASS.

Oh, one more thing: PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES SHOULD NOT THROW STONES.

And one more, one more thing: ALWAYS TRY TO KILL TWO STONES WITH ONE BIRD.

End of lesson.

23 comments:

Mike said...

I get it. I get it! Throw the bird at the glass . . .izzat right?

Ha! Great stuff, Dave! Lessons like this are needed by all of us! Honestly, I had forgotten.

Hope all's well with you!

David Lobenberg said...

All's well as long as I can stay away from ye ole gasoline station as long as possible! Yea, I had a fellow painter (her name is Dana) request that I post the water bottle/wine glass acrylic. We were at Terry Miura's studio painting some still life set ups, and she remembered it. She's doing a painting currently that has glass in it and wanted to see how I handle it, and she thought it might be something I'd want to talk about on my blog. I'm waiting to see more of your stuff dude! So far, it's been damn good!

Cooper Dragonette said...

Striking self portrait David. Well done!

Anonymous said...

I like that blue/green bottle. Did you do it directly after drinking the contents?

David Lobenberg said...

Thanks Cooper. You guessed correctly... not Brad and not Moses!

David Lobenberg said...

No way, Onpainting. I gotta sober up first.

Anonymous said...

Excellent lesson! Thank you.
I think I recognize the portrait. It's Moses Pitt, right?

Ambera said...

Great tips and great painting! I'll remember this for sure.

David Lobenberg said...

Silvina: If that's what you see behind the glass then yea, it certainly is Moses Pitt.

David Lobenberg said...

Ambera: Thanks, and I'll remember your clouds!

Austin Maloney said...

Great blog, you do beautiful work. I'm a fellow daily painter and I was curious if you'd be interested in doing a reciprocal link exchange.

My Blog:

http://austinmaloney.blogspot.com/

My Email:

amaloneyart@gmail.com

David Lobenberg said...

I'm glad you enjoy my work, Austin. I'm not adding any more links to my blog to keep it simple for my college students who visit it, but thank you so much for asking.

Clive said...

I love the w.c. portrait. Beautifully done.

Interesting stuff on glass. I spent a fair bit of time myself trying to get something to suggest it in watercolour, something with the feeling of the American watercolourist George Seguouris, but was never happy with my attempts. I think I spelt his name wrong, but he is a fantastic watercolourist.

Anonymous said...

very interesting lesson. you mean that's not brad pitt? wow! extraordinary likeness. very handsome. i like it a lot.

paz

Anonymous said...

I'll raise a glass to your portrait - it's so very striking and well done.
Good representations of clear, reflective surfaces.
Your students are fortunate. Do you keep reminding them?

I'm filling my artistic reserves here in NYC so no paintings to display- just the opportunity to enjoy my favorite bloggers while I'm away.

Great lessons here David.

Jennifer McChristian said...

Fantastic water color portrait!!

David Lobenberg said...

When one gets a very positive comment from a person whose painting talent one greatly admires, it can really make one's day. Much appreciated, Jennifer McChristian!

David Lobenberg said...

Thank you so much Bonnie. Hey, did you know that Golden will be coming out with an ultra slow drying acrylic paint line in July? Atlier has a line, but it seems way to complicated. I'm banking on Golden. I'm hoping to plein air test it! I'm glad you like my portrait. It's about 6"x71/2" on 140lb Artistico cold press watercolor paper.

Anonymous said...

Great info about Golden- and of course I just replenished my arsenal before I left St. Croix. I must have two big drawers full of regular acrylics.

It's so like buying a new electronic gizmo and the moment you get one, the new version comes out.

I'd be interested in trying even a few base colors just to see.

Thanks for that.

Frank Gardner said...

Great lesson in painting glass. It is good to hear about so many challenges and not just one.
That portrait is very well done.

David Lobenberg said...

Thanks Frank. Glass I can handle. it's foliage that's a bear...shrubs and trees for instance. I struggle. Maybe in one of your blogs, you could give us all a lesson. We art blogsters need to teach each other!

Nick said...

It's refreshing to see a type of handling that gets away from the razor-sharp look that so many render glass with - particularly watercolorists. Good work David! (never seen the Pitted one and Moses in the same sentence, heh)

Jared Shear said...

This is a really nice group here David....portrait is great. Especially love that wine bottle in the middle. It has a nice wild energetic feeling to it.