Elle Loc: Long Island, NY

Lady, you knocked that out in record time...pretty good too.

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

I assume that is a joke...lol. You have presented the big difference between painters and photographers and also have introduced printing as a third option. The charts are done well but you got one labeled wrong. Painting uses a red,blue and yellow color wheel, for the mixing of color pigments. Cyan Magenta, and Yellow are used in printing only, usually as transparent colors, with white as the paper color. I am a painter by trade too, and know if you mix yellow and magenta with oil paints you won't get red, and cyan and magenta will not make blue, blue is a primary color. . A painter cannot mix two primary colors to get red, or blue, they are already primaries. It is a terribly confusing issue, and I still do not fully understand why printing with cyan, magenta.and yellow works. The terms subtractive is used to describe paint (reflective) and additive to describe optical(transmited).I think the printing process uses transparent overlays of CMYK where as painting actually involves mixing the colors physically on a palette, hence the difference.The biggest problem is looking at colors on a computer screen which are optical(additive colors) (like when viewing a photo) and then trying to reproduce them with an entirely different system when printing (subtractive colors) and wondering why they never quite look the same.

rrg6481 Loc: USA

The reason why cmyk works is because the image is "ripped" electronically (digitally) into the 3 basic colors plus black, converted into a halftone which is made up of thousands of dots of various sizes (halftone screen normally 133-300 lines per inch) 4 metal plates are made and each are attached to a printing press cylinder, then all the colors are brought together on paper...normally using a white glossy surface stock, using a single, 2 color or 4 color printing press using translucent ink. It is the dot pattern of the halftone screen when positioned correctly (registration) which creates what is called a "Rosette Pattern"....an overlapping circle of cmyk translucent dots. Lightest color goes down first, Yellow then Cyan, Magenta, then Black. This mixture of the basic colors creates the illusion of hundreds of colors but if you take a powerful magnifying glass to view the surface of the paper you will see dots of each color. Similar process is used with digital Xerography (color copier) For a more detailed explanation just google 4 color process definition.

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

What you just described is known in the World of Art as Pointillism, made famous in paintings by Georges Seurat,in the neo-impressionist period of the late 1800's.The method uses small brushstrokes, like dots, of pure color, which is mixed by the eye to form a tone. As I just checked Wikipedia for spelling I noticed in the article it is the same principle as CMYK in printing.The article notes: "subtractive mixing of colors is avoided" meaning physical mixing of paint, like on a palette.

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

On the color wheel, cyan and magenta are not really "basic" colors as they are actually mixtures of two other basic colors. (You can buy cyan and magenta in tube paint, but they are considered admixtures, not primary or basic colors) Magenta is made of Red and Blue, and Cyan is made of Blue and Green, Green actually being Blue and Yellow, so Cyan could be said to be Blue and Yellow. Yellow the Y of CMYK is a basic color,and of course K is Black, not really considered a primary color. In optical or additive color theory it is the absence of color,(a surface which absorbs all colored light) in pigmented colors (subtractive) it is a mixture of all colors. In printing it is used as a darkener.

rrg6481 Loc: USA

George,
Very cool...the evolution of printing has been taken for granted by millions and millions have benefited so much. It is a fascinating process. Thanks

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

There is a program called painter, which is used to make digital paintings on a computer screen. Instead of a palette for mixing paint, you pick colors by adjusting a color wheel,and a seperate triangle placed inside the circular "wheel" for darkening to black or white, grey or pure tone, where the top point of the triangle is white, one of the bottom points is black, and one point is the color chosen on the wheel. The color wheel itself has Red, Blue, and Yellow arranged on a circle; you can pick orange, in between Red and Yellow, and darken it until you have brown. Magenta would be between Red and Blue. Any conceivable visual color can be designated or "mixed" with this system.

rrg6481 Loc: USA

yes I am not surprised this exists. There is probably many things on the market to aide an artist with their skills. I taught offset printing and sold printing equipment in the early 80's. We competed head to head with Xerox so had access to all the latest and greatest cutting edge technology but after opening my print shop and the evolution of computer graphic technology I lost touch. Still trying to catch up but probably never will. Am happy to learn new things as I go. Thanks for your info.

Horseart Loc: Alabama

I make my living painting and teach it as well, and I can tell you the #1 rule of pianting that I think might help. ALWAYS, light against dark, dark against light. (to some degree) YOU pick the degrees of light and dark. I often paint a black horse agains a black background and make it work. You can carefully do the same in photos.

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

I have taken both painting and photography courses when I studied at MICA to get my BFA. I would say learning to paint also entails learning to draw. I would say in my opinion learning to paint will sharpen your skills of observation. Learning to paint will definitely train your eye to see how light falls on an object, which will directly improve your photography skills. It will change how you look at the world, which can improve how you do photography. It may also give you an artistic "eye", a sensitivity to colors in the real world; and give you an ability to be able to appreciate the painting masters and how they compose images. This also will increase your emotional reaction to scenes you want to photograph. It will improve your awareness of the abstract which is essential to composition, it will teach you how to chose shapes and forms to fill that rectangle, whether it be a rectangular canvas or photoprint. It will improve your visual thinking. I find it invaluable as a life experience, but it will not necessarily give any technical advantage to working a camera's controls.

Horseart Loc: Alabama

Absolutely correct. I once taught a lady in my own town to paint and she said that after she learned to do landscapes she actually "SAW" the trees, clouds, land and water she had just "looked at" for so many years. We "SEE" those things in photos too.

rrg6481 Loc: USA

George and Horseart,
Thank you so much for your insightful advice. As a long time print designer and lithographer the tendency for perfection has such brittle boundaries that it shows in my photos and the way I approach photography. Your comments will be taken seriously and will now find the time to take a painting class or 2 maybe more to see how it effects my skills. Thanks again. R

lilad51

Art is my first love as far as hobbies go. I took a photograph of a young Coharie (Native American) girl in her regalia eating Lays Potato Chips with all intentions of doing a painting of her. This is the results. As far as art classes go...it is alway good for photographers to attend to learn a different way of looking through their lenses. An artists would be well advised to take photography to enhance the way they paint, draw, etc. Also the photograph belongs to them and they are not copying another persons work.

"Can I Eat Just One?"

Roger Hicks Loc: Aquitaine

Does it help? Hard to tell. I mean, who DOESN'T study art to some degree? In my teens I had to improve my drawing dramatically in order to get into art school (which, after being accepted, I decided not to attend), but on the whole, I'd say I'd learned more by looking at GOOD paintings and photographs and trying to work out how they were done. Come to think of it, I've learned quite a lot from bad ones, too, about what NOT to do.

The technique of analyzing them is something I learned partly at school, partly through reading, partly from artist friends, and partly through just looking at pictures. Going to as many galleries as possible (in any visual art) is extremely important.

Cheers,

R.

Horseart Loc: Alabama

What you say makes some sense alright, but I must tell you, I have drawn and painted for 70 years (yes SEVENTY) since I was 4. It had to be God-given, but I know for sure that there are 2 ways to paint...1 as a talent and 2 as a learned skill.
I once taught a young man who came to me to learn at 15. His tries at painting looked pretty hopeless, but I knew and know that EVERYONE can learn it. They just don't know it YET! A year later, he sold the first painting he did without my help for $2000. He is a Dr now and still paints (25 years later)
I am not at all fond of digital painting, maybe just because I have always painted with paint and brushes. I think painying it teaches people to SEE it, not just look at it and never truly see. Of course that means YES.