Capturing My Paintings : To mock or not to mock, that is the question.

I mentioned before that natural light is like a kaleidoscope for paintings but in general, any lighting can be; often bringing hues to the forefront (or the opposite) depending on the angle that they are captured from and type of lighting that they are captured in. It's much easier said than done. Frustrating but also fascinating and often why I, and I'm sure many other artists say that there is nothing like seeing a work of art in the flesh — because there isn't. When interacting with art that you've purchased. you have more control in experimenting with lighting and positioning it at angles that flatter, compliment or show you the full spectrum of hues present within a given piece. 

Chasing the perfect lighting can be very time-consuming. Many people make use of art mockups. Art mockups are essentially a preview of what a painting could look like in a home or in a tasteful display scenario. Basically it's a work of art positioned into a minimally decorated room or section of a room (like on a tabletop, against a wall or behind a couch.)

For my mockups, I use scanned images of my art, as these are the most accurate images and are an accurate representation of how my paintings appear. Photographing my art is a time-consuming, iffy process that often leaves me frustrated that my camera won't or can't capture the hues present within my paintings. It sucks when that happens. As an artist, few things are worse than spending hours on a painting and then not being able to properly capture that effort. It is intensely frustrating and I have had times where I've taken over 300 photos of one painting to try and capture how it actually looks, through a lense. That was not fun.

I prefer scanning all of my paintings to capture texture, deeper hues and composition. It's nice to then go and find the frames that I have bought and add them within the image to properly show how my paintings appear. 

Throwback to The Parthenon

I went there in my very early teens several years ago. I took many photos, including a few near the undeniably astonishing Athena Parthenos statue but I can't seem to find any of the other photos now - there were tons. I took this photo with a disposable camera. This place is incredible. Athena, though not pictured in this image, is so beautiful and absolutely massive in person. Massive. Truly something to be behold. As a girl, I couldn't put into words the impression that it made on me. It really is such a lovely place.

Harmony in the Sun

Traditional medium, thick hues and texure - framed in black. HD videos are more ideal, given that natural light can be such a kaleidoscope for paintings - often bringing hues not shown in artificial light, to the forefront depending on the angle that they are captured from. It is very interesting to see how angle impacts the potential capture of color.

'Harmony'

Lighting is a funny thing. Position your camera too far away or at the wrong angle, or under the wrong kind of lighting; your painting looks washed out and dull or the color is off or the frame looks curved etc. 

Reposition your painting, tilt it alittle to the right or the left or at a different angle and voila after 789 years, you captured how it actually appears. Cameras are tricky and possibly evil but scanners, (good scanners) are simple. Any image that I share of my paintings are scanned images. When I scan my art, I am usually very relieved that the actual colors that I use are shown on screen and that the texture comes through and all of the tones that most cameras cannot pick up, are brought to the forefront and shown on screen. Mind you, ''screens'' are a whole other topic and depending on any given person's device settings, colors can be altered. There are so many different devices these days that folks use to browse the web and with every device comes a plethora of different settings and a spectrum of optional screen brightness or colorization intensities (which can impact viewing art). 

I was taking new photos of my florals earlier and saw the beautiful sunlight kissing the surface of this painting. It actually isn't a good practice to display paintings in direct sunlight but fortunately, I had this painting laying there on the table only briefly. I couldn't help but share this photo because it's shows how textured 'Harmony' actually is. 

Prog

Painting a rosa; one of nature's kisses (of which there are many). Flowers hold a pure kind of beauty; true beauty. They're oblivious to their loveliness, swaying in the wind or growing tall under the sun, in an elegant show of fragility. That is one reason why I enjoy painting them and capturing them in my own way, because they are so meaningful to me. This painting was inspired by white columbian roses gifted to me by my husband. I wanted to focus on their fullness but also change the cream white to a deep red and play up with texture here and there.