From Real to Abstract - Event Discussion - TwoInchBrush

From Real to Abstract - Event Discussion

Felix

The event will run from today (May 4, 2025) until July 13, 2025. You can submit a painting until Sunday the 6th.

Link to the event page: https://www.twoinchbrush.com/events/from-real-to-abstract

This thread is for discussion about the event, as well as sharing your progress

flippergirlpaints

🤯 O.M.G. you sure created a challenge with this one!

Felix

flippergirlpaints that was the goal! 😊

I'm really curious what everybody will create (and in which direction I'll go myself)

paintcrazy19

Wow, I saw the event am I ready. Thinking of what to do. I got some ideas and playing with it in my head.

paintcrazy19

Hi @Felix, i got a stretch i want to post on the forum but can't do so

Felix

paintcrazy19 Sadly uploading pics to the forum is not straightforward. Here's a tutorial how to do it:

https://www.twoinchbrush.com/forum/d/17-how-to-upload-images-to-the-forum

Let me know if that works for you 🙂

paintcrazy19

Felix
its a stretch not a link, so I guess not uploaded. I will just add it when I do the final project.

indicationofart

Great event Felix. As you said, will be a challenge to all of us landscape painters, but also a nudge to grow!

TheLandscapePainter

indicationofart Hi Tomi, I like your submission to the event. Beautiful mixture of colours and strokes. Can you offer any explanation how you arrived at the finished product to help me understand this process?

flippergirlpaints

I enjoyed this challenge MUCH more than I thought I would. The key was really to choose a subject that inspired me - which was my pet portraits. When I started doing my sketches, they were not loose at all! LOL. By the time I got to #6 I actually did it super fast (like a little kid not worried about the result) and finally got what I wanted.

TheLandscapePainter

flippergirlpaints it's fabulous.

Felix

I'm enjoying it very much as well. Just settled on my final concept, now it's time to explore

TheLandscapePainter

I'm still in the process of getting my head around this. Looking at the picasso example it reminds me of that film "the man with xray eyes" where he starts off being able to see people walking around in their underwear. Throughout the film his xray vision went through various stages. It progressed to allow him to see fully clothed people completely naked, then he could see their muscles, internal organs, and eventually he could only see skeletons. 🤣

TheLandscapePainter

I'm struggling with this. For me to put a painting on my wall I have to see the beauty in it which is messing with my thought process. I have a subject in mind but I can't seem to achieve what I want without slipping into surrealism. Otherwise my final painting is going to look like a corporate logo, but I guess that's OK coz it doesn't need to look anything like the original conception?

Felix

TheLandscapePainter

I think it is okay to not think of your own art as beautiful. There are things in life that are not beautiful

paintcrazy19

Anything anyone does should be fun as @Felix said. Have fun with it.

TheLandscapePainter

Felix Thanks. That reminds me I've been meaning to ask, you know that ugly stage that artists often mention early on the painting, sketching and blocking in, I can't do that as I can't see beyond it at that time, it just looks so messy. I just want to build the finished painting as it progresses like Bob does. I think the ugly stage is likely used by traditional painters where Bob offers a short cut, would that be a fair assumption? I can't even sketch and it's holding me back painting a dog that I want to paint. I feel a bit trapped. So I've decided to have a go at drawing something and see what I manage to do.

Felix

TheLandscapePainter

You're not alone with this!
This is actually one of the most common things painters struggle with. Both the "ugly" stage of a single painting, as well as the first time of learning to draw seriously, where you have fantastic ideas in your head, but everything looks just terrible, because you don't yet have the skills. The only way to get through this is to go through this.

I'll go through my sketch books and see if I can find something that I did a year ago that is similar to something recent, so you can see how fast you get better once you start to seriously work on your drawing skills.

I'm also actually working on something that will help people transition to this more skill-based way of painting and drawing. It's still in the very early stages, but you'll know when it is done.

TheLandscapePainter

Felix Thank you, much appreciated.