The mechanics: the fundamentals. When you make us paint something unattractive and push our minds to paint something that makes the viewer go "wow! what is that? Look at how they painted the light!", then we understand how to use the IMAGINATION and truly become artists. You're right, otherwise it's just pretty pictures. It's that PUSH to become something that was inside, is really awesome. That's the magic. To get your students to make something from nothing. Wow, breakthrough moment. That's why you want us to paint toilet paper or some other mundane object. It truly is not the object, it is the lighting and shadow. Thank you. And you're right, we don't see something until it is understood. Blessings!

Lights and shadows are so important. Learning to identify it is what I need work in!

i dont know why you dont have a million subscribers to this channel .. the information you give is amazing and eye opening. I just realized i do many of these things naturally and never knew why. thank you for all of this

Stephan, Do you know what I love about your teachings??? You are "OTHERS-CENTERED" THANK YOU 🤸🏿‍♀️🖌️🤸🏿‍♀️ I notice how you handle awkward situations---WELLLLLL DONE, STEPHAN brilliant ❣️🖌️🎨🥰

Every time I watch you talk I learn something new. Great video.

Thank you so much about some few but very important points about Composition, Materials and even the business I didn't find them in any of the other books or tutorials but in your videos!

I’m just starting out painting with acrylics on canvas. I’ve never taken an art class or watched any kind of video or podcast about art theory or technique however, I am really doing it and my ideas are coming to life with a certain flow that i didn’t know I had. I’m 29 years old & it’s my first time picking up a paint brush and I feel so at home. I’ve been modeling for 3 years and started doing photography of people and things in 2018 with the help of my photographer boyfriend at the time. Learning how light, shadows, rule of thirds, and leading lines works in photography has helped prepare me to paint, because like he said, it’s all lights and shadows. We don’t stand in the spot light, we are the spotlight. It’s all light. I point out the photography aspect to give a suggestion to anyone who is struggling but who really loves to paint real life but feels like they’re missing something in their craft. Get a manual DSLR camera and start learning to work the composition triangle during free time and play with different effects of light and how it changes a photo when you follow basic rules like the rule of 3rds. I love that I was trained by my guy for that because I unknowingly developed the eyes to see to be able to bring a painting to life & scale the size appropriately for what I’m goinh for. I don’t hop in here all cavalier to say “look at me.” I just am writing out my thoughts I’m having at the moment and maybe an artist will be able to relate when I say that all my life I’ve never been very *good* at anything. Mediocre and never recognized for any of what I’ve done in my life & I accept that. It’s alright. But a light turned on in my heart when I picked up the brush and realized, “I’m good at something, omg. Holy crap, I’m good at something.” I love the feeling of being my own authority and giving myself permission to be good at something enough to talk about it with others and hear their input and not let it deflate my passion. Painting has introduced me to a new part of myself that I didn’t know was waiting for me, laying dormant within me. I feel activated and more whole. I would like to paint things that really capture the essence of my life experiences. I found out this summer that I have cervical cancer - we don’t know how bad it is yet, but having a cancer in me that could take my life force from me has really stirred the forces within me to capture the essence of the life of a 29 year old young woman who is worthy of having a momento or two to leave behind for humanity to be reminded that maybe, they too, are good at something & that it just takes the right or wrong scenario to come along and wake it up - but that thing that lights them up in the world..... it definitely exists.

i love your classes MR ! im a big fan from Brazil !!! Keep posting !

Funny you mention the importance of critiquing, that is SUPER helpful! Knowing and understanding what makes some thing good, and something else better, and then the key points of "checkerboard", focal point, understanding that you are painting an effect, that just makes everything come together. Thank you so much!

I've been wrestling with that left source light and focal point on the right. What baffled me is that based on physics, the light will be brightest on the first object which will be on the same side. After nearly scratching a hole in my head, I realized that (just as Stefan says in this video), I control where the objects are placed and need to arrange the still life, or move objects around in a landscape so that the focal point is where it belongs. Playing with my still life setup became more complex. However, it worked.

Hello Stefan, I've been watching your KZfaq videos for several months.I love your approach to CFP, light vs. shadow & eye magnets within the composition that create movement throughout the painting,ultimately bringing the viewer back to the central focal point(being closer to the center but ultimately on the right on the 'golden section' of the canvas)As I'm watching THIS particular video,I can't help but notice the FANTASTIC B & W 'photo' behind you of the arches with light beaming in from the upper left,statues pointing toward CFP,wall opposite to right with vertical 'stops' to keep the viewers eye in the photo,the floor picking up light ALSO pointing 'back' to CFP & EVERYTHING ELSE in the photo working through perspective,leading the eye into distant wall & eye magnets to what 'I see as the CFP',which is the small rectangular vertical light 'glass reflection' surrounded by darkest mass of back wall in the 'middle of lower right quadrant' of the entire composition.That's where my eye settles but is being continually swept up by eye magnets moving throughout! I hope you can view the photo I'm relating to in THIS KZfaq video & give some feedback! The CFP(as I 'see it'),is much further away than what would be considered to be the middle right on one of the Golden Mean lines but 'even further to the right away & lower also' than the upper left light source.But,as you suggest(CFP being opposite to light source),THIS seems to bring me 'EVEN FURTHER INTO' the composition!So,my question is:Can my CFP be even further away from the light source coming in from upper left than resting to the direct right of the middle 3rd(Golden Mean)?Maybe,if you can view THIS B & W photo in your class,you'll understand MORE of what I'm asking you.I view this photo as a perfect example of what you speak about regarding shadow,light & CFP BUT having 'A LARGER LIGHT STORY!' Thank You,Ron McNally

Great lighting tip on using a clamp light snd a funnel! I had never thought of that and I desperately need a spot light for composition. Thank you! Always great information Stefan!

Been to Florence quite a few times and it is an amazing city.

thank you stefan

just terrific

Thanks

There is Alumo-Comp that I'm going to try out. It is aluminum that doesn't even need priming to paint on. It is archival and can be painted on both sides. Jerry's Artarama has them.

Oh I wish, I could go to Italy to paint.

My sisters toilet paper rolls were always squashed intio an oval and not a tube because her six kids used to use too much when they went. You can only roll a few times with a squashed roll. A Yorkshire lasses thrift tip lol 😂

I've been wrestling with trying to paint the light source oppositely because I (usually) use my left paw to paint... but I keep forgetting. LOL, some of a lot of Stefan's secret painting secrets, I did instinctively. Though (Thanks to Mr Baumann) bringing such tidbits to awareness is invaluable. It is because of the dude that looks like he just got back from the Renaissance Fair that I am able to do what I do when I do it. I love being in the zone like when that overwhelming feeling of needing to hold a paintbrush and see magnificent colors. Oh yeah, my point was that because of this amazing teacher, I see the ENTIRE WORLD differently. For example, colors and shadows and colors in shadows and shapes that dance out of the corner of my eye... i see how light strikes objects, bounces through things, sneaks through stuff in ways that surprise me; sometimes I think I may be going mad from drinking turpentine... lol, not really... i only did it twice... 2 drops one night, then 3 the next... couldn't find the honey, so it was maple syrup... plus it was that good shit from Hobby Lobby clearance section... I love turpentine - since a child - there was always this giant man named Byron painting. He was my Dad's buddy and was probably a bit on the spectrum, but we didn't care... Ah, the perfect analogy... how the world is revealed to me through my bubble gazers' ocular portals is very much like how Brad Pitt saw the world after becoming a vampire... except there's less craving of the bloods... I said "less" dammit!!! lol i am a "megan" by nature... a vegan who eats meat... I know, what a trailblazer... There is one thing I learned from Ms. Sealark's channel... it's a super good one... "Paint more than anybody you know." lol, in the last week or so I've had about 3 people see my works and say I could sell some of it... some. of. it. So I'm thinking of having an artist's garage sale.. you know, put an ad on craigslist, and sell paintings and lemonade one weekend soon. Here's my tip for the day to get better (nobody told me this one): take lots of pictures even during the process. Sometimes you'll see your works in new ways one could not have even thought of. It's kind of hard to explain but then again, ain't much that ain't when I'm this hungry... it helps to be a starving artist, when one is a starving artist... I've come up with the most amazing diets! Like the gummy bear diet... when the pang of hunger starts creeping in ya tummy, devour a gummy bear or two; but no more than three per every 4 hours... it works!!! The little tiny popsicle diet is very similar, only it involves frozen grapes as the main staple... Ok, ok... I could type quippily all day every day... thanks for reading my babblin babylon... i must go eat a grape or two (frozen of course) then paint until probably midnight or so... i don't usually put time constraints but just to give an idea what i do on friday nights in Bakersfield, CA...

When I was a kid we had an out side privy and it was my job to make the toilet paper, newspaper cut into shares and hung on the back of the door with string threaded through each square. Think I will paint the memory, spider webs and all. Lol 😂

Hi, ,i find I cannot paint everyday, I can't even practise drawing every day, life gets in the way. How often do you think I should really paint to improve? You are right about pictures I have oodles of picyures I want to do..

Is there a link on the web site for info on the trip to Italy workshop. For the life of me i just don't see it.

Can you please expand on the 5 or 6 things you need for a great painting?

We used to throw rolls of toilet paper out of the window of a small plane from 3500 feet and watch them unroll through space, then dive down and see how many times we could cut the ribbon before it got to the ground. Now I paint. I might paint that toilet paper tomorrow.

Looking at online artists last night for market research for my business plan, I saw a site where they offered what looked like good quality oil paintings finished in 2 weeks by one of their selection of artists for only £65 per landscape painting and only £79 per pet portrait. I was really shocked. Then the more I read last night I found out that some artists are using digital technologies, as you say, to produce pieces that look great but are more like glorified photos than works of art. This particular website claims no digital manipulation having said that. But it was off putting at first as there is no way to make a living charging such a low amount. Luckily, further inspection of the market showed that they were a rarity compared to other prices of artists out there. Still it makes me suspicious as to how they can have it complete in 12 days and charge so little.

I, Cedric williams will someday become a great artist.

How to make a 40 minute video feel like 4 minutes