Crowfoot Glacier, banff
Oil on linen, 24" × 20" (61cm × 51cm)
One of the most common phrases art instructors use is, “Paint what you see!” This needs some clarification however, because many artists assume this means to copy what they see literally, rather than designing their paintings to be compatible with how the eye anatomically sees. This applies to both plein air and painting from reference photos. Once you understand the way the human eye perceives reality, you will be able to tailor your paintings to look the way the scene would appear as the information is processed in the brain.
Try this: Look at the first word in this paragraph. Without moving your eyes from that word, read as many adjacent words as you can. You’ll notice that you can only bring a few words into focus and will not be able to read the rest of the sentence unless you move your eyes. The same applies to nature scenes—as long as you are looking at one specific area, definition elsewhere becomes lost. You will get better results if you keep this concept in mind: Paint how the eye sees, not what you see!
In this chapter you will learn: