I, personally, really appreciate the simplicity of your words and explanations as well as your genuine personal simplicity. Always very didactic and unpretentious. Bravo. I know that you stopped making videos)which I understand), but I wanted to say bravo. Fred (Frenchman living in Australia)

Ian, you are not only a talented artist but also a brilliant teacher. Thank you for sharing your thought process so well.

The most professional KZfaqr ever, very consistent and super quick intro then straight into the gut of it. Tip of the hat to you Ian.

Amazing! That's all I can say. I've watched hundreds of hours of art instruction, from dozens of artist on the web but no one has ever really gotten to the core fundamentals of what makes a good painting. It's like you're pulling back the curtains and revealing what's underneath - a hidden world. I've been painting for a few years now and sometimes compositions work and sometimes they don't. I'm starting to understand why. And I'm also beginning, for the first time, to really appreciate what makes good art. I thank you for that Ian.

Dear Mr. Roberts, Your teachings have been precious and very inspiring to me. I’m revisiting my photos from a new perspective. Thank you so very much...

Tired of hearing “ WOw! You are SUCH a great teacher!” yet? 🤣🤣 hope not as I can’t stop thinking and saying it and sharing your name and books. I love how you took us through the steps you -the master- still make and sometimes decide meh that won’t work... even when you love the image.. I need to learn to let that love of the image go and move to one that will work and not plague me half way through...baby steps eh? Good to see the cozy sweater back. 🤣🤣. Oh, and where exactly did you go for these amazing views? I want to go for that walk along the cliff. Many thanks.

Everytime I watch you I learn something! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise. 😊

Thank you Ian, for a wonderfully exciting week! Loved the live video from the week-end and this is such a helpful lesson. I will come back to this many times, I feel. Your weekly presents to us are a joy.

This was a fantastic video! I have been sketching compositions more and more before painting and I do find that it helps me to decide, sometimes, not even to paint that scene! Which in the end is better bc I skip the whole part about being disappointed when a painting doesn’t turn out! This video only confirms that process for me. I used to just have this urge, “gotta paint that!” I feel like your channel has helped me focus that creative passion to help me very intentionally use my skills of planning to help me be creative rather than acting upon my impulse. Thank you so much, Ian! I’ve been watching your channel for months now and have been meaning to tell you thank you!

really enjoyed Saturdays live you tube chat and look forward to Tuesdays.

i already knew that planning is one of those keys to success in oil paiting, but really... by seeing how these photos translate to your sketches... well, now it all makes sense

You make it seem so simple. Now I want to start going through our hundreds of photos with new eyes. Not just looking for my favorite scenes, but looking for ones with potential. Thank you!

Your thumbnail technique is a winner. Thank you 😎

What a great video. Because you showed us how you think through your own process is huge! So very generous. Thank you for this!

I am re-watching this in preparation of the 30-day challenge at the end of this year's course. I already know I will be traveling for one week and won't be able to draw on location everyday, so I need good photos to fall back on. The ratio of usable photos to photos taken is not unknown to me from my personal photographic experience, but it is still daunting. What I am learning in the course about editing is going to help.

This was not depressing at all, this makes me feel much better about having such a hard time to pick paintable photos out of my huge collection. Knowing it's not just me makes a big difference! Thanks for caring and posting!

I can definitely relate to the 1 out of 100 photos being paint-worthy. It was nice to see your thought process behind the photos

Wonderful video ! Thank you so much. You are the best teacher out there Ian!

What kind of a dope would give a ‘thumbs down’ to such a great video 🤨? Thanks, again, sir for all your fabulous teaching!

Thanks again, Ian! I'm reviewing several of your videos as I'm going out plein air painting tomorrow. I must say again how beautiful your drawings are. I have a new goal to do mine in a 'keeper' sketchbook, not just slap a few thumbnails together! 🤣

You and your wife are so lucky to have such beautiful scenery nearby. The cypresses on the hill with the ocean in the foreground looks like a spot Marcia Burtt plein air painted. Ii is obvious that you enjoy drawing and creating a map or plan. I am more of a what if sort of person and would have probably done some quick, plein air sketches in conjunction with the photos. I have lots of sketches that may become larger studio pieces but I am tempted to look at the photo instead of my plein air sketches/paintings which is not helpful to create looser, more abstract art in my case. Take good care, in these still uncertain times! Appreciate what you do!

I have so many city photos (mainly Madrid) which I want to do some paintings and more loose urban sketches. This video is just what I needed to help me know how best to go about selecting photos and cropping to get better composition for my reference. Thank you so much Ian Roberts.

It is so generous of you to share your thought processes . Novices like us benefit immensely from that, as they resonate with the kind of confusions we grapple with quite often.

It's fascinating to learn to see structure as you see it. Learning to see is what art is all about. Once you see, you can describe as you learn to manipulate the medium you're working with. Outstanding helpful video!

I’m a beginner painter/artist at 62 yr old. That’s a capital B eginner and lower case a artist. I’ve taken art lessons from a local art center but mostly self learning. I gotta say Ian, your videos are incredibly generous. I believe you divulge information that many if not most capitol A Artists just would not. Not without a fee anyways. I get more inspired to paint by watching these lessons. And that’s exactly what they are, lessons. Thank you thank you thank you.

Thank you for your encouraging words, Ian. You let us know it is perfectly normal to struggle to get something good and then show how you overcame the problems.

You teach so well--telling what you think and the process of correcting is so helpful!

I so appreciate you sharing your thought process that goes into picking an image to paint. Thank you!

You make painting easy :) I appreciate the synthesis you make of a complex image. I'm learning a lot from your videos, especially how to observe and "read in between lines". Thank you! 🙏✨

This is brilliant. To see u going through similar thoughts to myself about your own photos. I thought it was just me. Very reassuring!

Thanks! Each week is like a master class!

Ian, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts; sharing thoughts and sharing time - which you do too - is the best to give and to get! Love, Charlotte

Thank you Ian, good lesson, I will no longer feel guilty for taking lots of pictures and not liking most of them

I always find that when I feel a certain upwelling of joy from within taking a picture, then THAT's the one that gets to me emotionally, and chances are, I'll probably hang in there long enough to actually put it down on canvas. 😍

Always great, helpful videos. 👍

I feel like the right side of my brain is growing. Seriously, this is very, very helpful. My work is evolving.

Ian, thank you for sharing your thoughts on selecting the right photos to paint. Cropping and simplifying images to paint also has been my problem. You’re such a good teacher. Thank you 🙏

So interesting to see the scenes you loved in Cambria. I was just there. I need to really study my photographs. Thank you again, Ian.

This was great! I also take many photographs every day on my walks and paint from them. I could see a sort of rhythm and balance of light/dark areas in the preferred pictures. I find that in flat light conditions the juxtaposition of the shapes becomes important. Thank you so much! Your contribution is immense!

Another super interesting video. It is actually quite heartening to hear that you might only select 1 in a 100 of your photos for a painting subject as I have discovered with my own photos that very few of them inspire me towards the easel. It is also extremely interesting to see how you analyse the features of a photo - in design terms - to work out whether it will work as a painting. You're work is so inspiring & your explanations of what you're looking for in any image seem so logical once you have pointed them out. Thank you once again, Ian.

This video really helped me see design elements in photos and explained how to simplify scenes. I am going out on a photo shoot now that I have more of an idea of what to look for! Thank you!

I really loved the photo at 6 minutes. So ethereal. It will be fun to see you paint your selection next week!

Yes, excellent instruction about the process. I live on the California coast and there seems to be exactly the same issues around composition that you addressed. Thank you for walking us through how to choose compositions that can work.

As a photographer I can confirm 1 in 100 is about right. Now that everything is digital it's not a big deal. The overall cost is low and the learning curve is much quicker because you have instant feedback from your camera or phone. I tell friends who want to learn photography to just experiment and keep shooting. If it isn't what you expected take another shot. Experiment with camera settings. Just keep shooting. A few good shots will appear. Some by happy accident and some from gained experience. Just keep shooting. Do it.

The good decisions of what to paint leaves you enough time to do these videos - and do a lot of other things rather than being stuck on something that won't work. Very helpful. As it turns out I have not watched the recording of the live video. I did watch the other video you posted last week- great! I was driving up the coast while you had your live youtube. It was a beautiful drive and I wished someone else was driving because I saw so many things I would have liked to have photographed. The vineyards and the rolling hills studded with oaks were gorgeous. However I now think about composition. A lot of those places along the 1010 were beautiful to gaze at but were mostly horizontal lines and might have been boring paintings. Then when I got to my destination in Santa Cruz I took some photos of the beach. Most also too horizontal. There might be one good one. I have the same question as Miki- I wonder if you ever have an idea that you want to paint not from a photo or a single photo?

Wow, Thank you so much Ian, I am a rookie in watercolor painting and yet have not come across a someone who makes philosophy into form and color with such vividness and clarity of thought and display. 🙏. I love it. You are my mentor💫

So helpful, thank you Ian! 💖

Absolutely helpful. Capturing that perfect image is a great process, and I love not limiting myself while I am taking the photographs so I too end up with several images to choose from. Then your sketch demonstration really helps to eliminate and narrow down which image to paint. Thank you.

Thanks for the lesson Ian! It’s great to learn about your process and how to be more critical in choosing a photo for painting. Btw-I thoroughly enjoyed your live session last week. Lots to absorb and apply😊👍

Yes VERY HELPFUL. Thank you.

Hi Ian ! Thank you for your time and sharing your photographs together with an explanation on choosing the right one for a painting. I too love taking numerous photographs ! When my husband and I went to Santorini and the Greek islands I took more than 600 photographs 😁 ! I am always blown away by the lights and shadows ! I am just getting to grips with landscape paintings as my usual style is similar to Aboriginal Art and I also do lino prints /woodcuts and stone sculptures. Photographs help me to find strong compositions of strong light and shade which create impact. I love your work because you paint such beautiful paintings with strong lights and darks ! As you know, I am always intrigued and eager to watch you draw a sketch in pencil ! Thank you ever so much and I look forward to more videos and hopefully another Live ! Wish you a great week... Lorraine

That's amazing. I was at your live session on Saturday, have watched the 20 minute video a number of times and have been absorbing your book for the past 3 or 4 weeks. I was sat here browsing perhaps 2-300 photos, musing on the differences between a good photo and a good painting. I thought, if I could ask Ian a question, I'd ask about his process for evaluating photos - and it popped up here! Thank you once again :)

Absolutely GREAT, as always. Just watched the 20 minute video on composition. Also GREAT! Now, I am going to look at all my photographs!

Thank you sir roberts,its wisdom to help other artist,alhamdulilla.GOD BLESS SIR

Great lesson today, Ian! Thank you so much!

This is so fascinating.

Wonderful as always. Big thumbs up for your live presentation this past weekend. I had to watch it in recording bc it was on at midnight in the time zone I am in.

Great video Ian. Look forward to painting next week

Very educational, Ian Roberts. I learn as much about your preparation and thinking as in your painting. As a watercolor artist, these studies apply equally well. Your video supports my "Think-abouts" during plein air when I walkabout for 5-10 minutes after sketching, psyching myself in preparation for the next hour or so.

Very very helpful thank you very much Ian, your are a master at explaining useful concepts. Give us hope for better paintings. Thank you again for saturday! Also a very helpful process. Always a great plaisure to receive your tuesday video. Have a nice week

Favorite video so far. 🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞For a visual art, I enjoy the thought process the most. Whenever I observe any artwork, I feel like I am glimpsing inside the artist's mind. Although I cannot interpret into words, I enjoy seeing the artist's preferences, choices, groupings, energy and moods. I really enjoyed your thought process. When you blocked out the areas, I could see a rough counterclockwise spiral that opened to your main point of interest. Maybe I am overthinking it, but I did see it as energy (like a wound spring) and direction. More, please... 🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞🏞

When I am on loation and find interesting subjects, I start sketching FIRST. I decide what my point of interest is and freely draw my composition, moving things around. Adding, eliminating, reducing or enlarging different elements to enhance my point of interest. Only then do I take a photo of the general area, mostly for texture, color and lighting effects. Then I move to the next subject and so on. Back home, when I review my sketches I'm surprised that almost all of them have decent composition. Taking photos first and trying to come up with a composition later at home has never satisfied me. There is magic in sketching on location.

Thanks much for tackling that subject Ian. Good to know my 1 good shot in a week of shooting is the norm! I too enjoy the process. Chasing the light…there’s worst things you could be doing.

BRILLIANT! I loved this one Ian - very helpful to see your thinking process as you evaluate photos. It's hard to let go of subject matters you really get excited about but if there isn't a good foundation for a painting - well all that excitement just turns to frustration. Will watch this one again!

Thank you Ian your video is very helpful!

Very helpful analysis.

Thank you so much for an amazing video. I learned so much!

Beautiful !

So helpful- thank you!! Tuesday mornings are the best. Having your wonderful teaching videos right there in my inbox - so inspiring! Can’t wait to again go through my 10,000 photos in my phone and see about some paintings:)

Thank you Ian for all the hard work you potting in these videos. It's a lot of information and it's really helpful. It's very interesting to follow artist mind of how to compose a painting (that's why I prefer longer videos...). Referring back to your "4 Fundamental Principles" video, the problem for me is when looking at photo I get confused of what to leave out. for example - it would be hard for me to take out the boat because I'm sure it will be the one thing catching my eye first of all, probably more then the shed... so I'll feel I left out something significantly important to the place I'm painting. Or even stumble across the log lying in the foreground which I agree it's not very attractive but it will fool me as an element to draw your eyes into the painting... Landscape versus painting - what to leave out?

Enjoy watching..nice sharing taking fhoto for painting

Thanks, Ian! 👍

Gotta laugh. I painted one of the photos you said would be harder to make a good painting out of and you were right. Sometimes you have to learn by doing, once I started painting I quick understood the problems. Fun topic!

Somewhere at least a bit scenic is always handy , if you're stuck in a boring place or city centre you can still get good paintings but you have to be inventive.

Learned.. a lot.. right my taking photos.. then sketching..! Beautiful sir

Very interesting to see your process and how you break the photo into 6 areas. Thanks so much!

I subscribe to your channel because I'm a photographer. So glad I do. Love your insights

That was so interesting and I feel a lot better about my process now. Thank you

This was a really good episode. Thanks!

Thanks Ian! You were in my stomping grounds (Cayucos) so it was especially fun to see your choices. Very useful and good to know how few photos you keep. It seems to be the same for me. Thanks for your ongoing instruction and inspiration!

This was very helpful! Thank you!!

Thanks you so much, Ian - it really was incredibly helpful and, Yes, there is great enjoyment in taking photos in the first place. Very helpful video - keep going (I hope). Thanks. Jane

Another brilliant lesson from you Ian . . . bless you!! I learnt so much :-)

This video was very helpful I learned a lot from watching you explain your process. Can't wait to try this with some of my photos from a recent hiking trip.

Thank you once again for those excellent insights. Living in flat farmland Michigan, most of my photos are not too interesting. I see the need to get out and explore more and look for those big shapes leading to my point of interest. Reviewing thousands of my old photos I see very few that inspire a painting. I am excited to go out again with your ideas in mind and try again.

Absolutely helpful! This also explains why I have such a hard time finding a spot when I want to go plein air-ing; I often find myself riding around on my bike for so long, the light has gone (lol). Thanks for a very educational vid.

Your ratio of images to useful material for painting it is reassuring, I thought what I was able to pick out of what I shoot was very low, but now I know I am right in with the average. Great presentation as always and looking forward to how you will translate your photos into paintings.

Very helpful, thank you! I have found photos I've taken that I really love, and when I did the thumbnail/notan I found they didn't work, so this really resonated with me. Glad I'm not alone :-)

The way you describe your thinking about your compositions is so valuable thank you! I really struggle with making good decisions about what to paint and how to judge what will make a strong painting. I seem to be drawn to 'the best looking photo' and I'm not considering what it will be like to actually paint it. Not design driven at all!

thank you so much for sharing this video 😍😍😍😍😍

Thank you for all the videos you shared with audiences. They are very helpful to my painting skills. because you analyze the painting scene structure very clear and made great painting out of it. This video is exactly I need to watch and learn. Because I always wondering what photo I use for painting, and end up delete a lot of photos I took. I admit I need this kind of skill to identify good photos and paint some interesting paintings.

Thank you. I really enjoy composition and found myself analyzing each photo you put up to see if it had salvageable content for a painting🤔. I found that with some adjusting there was one you rejected that had potential due to the lighting. If I have time I might try a quick practice sketch to see if it works. Loved the lesson!

I like what you say about enjoying the process Ian; such a good point. Another helpful video. I enjoyed your live stream too but being in New Zealand, 5 a.m. was a bit early for me to watch it in real-time unfortunately . Thanks for your great work!

I need this lesson Thanks Ian...

Not just me then! I so often find the beautiful image I thought I'd taken doesn't translate at all - although like you I've already had fun taking the picture. This explanation i really helpful and I will look for the video you mention. Thank you!

Hey Ian, this information will definitely help me with problems I'm having with a scene I'm trying to capture. Thanks

Great video and Saturday was nice as well. I found your channel a couple of weeks ago and have watched about half of the videos - they are all very helpful. You mentioned doing a WC video in future and I’m looking forward to it. I’m 62 and only started painting 11 yrs ago primarily in WC, so I’m thinking your insights regarding composition vs WC will be interesting.

Thank you, Ian, for sharing your thoughts and process. Very, very useful. I guess the same principle applies to watercolour painting. I end up using one out of a very big number of photographs and very often I get stuck half way thru the exercise. I have to remember to draw a small sketch first and analyse. Thank you.

I liked hearing your reasoning behind why you didn't want to paint something.

one of my reasons for taking up a pencil etc to draw/watercolour was to improve my photograph, to gain a deeper sense of composition and create my interesting photos. with looking at these posts I'm finding myself challenged and going both directions, painting to photo and photo to paint and back again, and as you say, it is joyful to do....