Teacher
Richard is a talented full time artist, who loves painting and teaching.
with Richard Robinson
Well I never thought I’d want to paint a city street but San Francisco changed my mind. The subject of the painting is really the light and atmosphere and the interesting shapes found in a street scene. This workshop also explores how you can free up your colours by working from a black and white photograph, and how we can use images from the internet to paint from. Enjoy!
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Richard is a talented full time artist, who loves painting and teaching.
Hi I’m Richard. I’ve been painting my whole life and back in 2001 I traded my graphic design career for the humble life of a full time artist. I love painting, and as it turns out, I love teaching too.
Nowadays I balance my life between parenting, painting, surfing, travelling and teaching. My work is regularly featured in international art magazines, in galleries in New Zealand and America, on TV and in my Mum’s house.
I give outdoor painting workshops in interesting spots around this beautiful planet of ours and love encouraging people to paint. Two of my favourite artists are John Singer Sargent and Joaquín Sorolla.
My painting website: www.nzpainter.com
I’d love to be your new teacher.
Richard is a master artist with an exceptional skill in identifying and communicating key factors to making successful paintings. I have found his video workshops an excellent resource for improving my own work.
"San Francisco" 14x14" Oil on Canvas by Richard Robinson
"One Sunny Day #2" 12x12" Oil on Canvas by Jessica Futerman
Not too shabby Jessica, a nicely balanced composition and a good play of colour against grey. The drawing is my first concern here - all those straight lines are tricky with a wobbly paint brush right!? We seem to be having an earthquake in your painting as some of the buildings are swaying to and fro. I had the same trouble with my buildings. Using a ruler helps. Looks like you ran out of room for a sidewalk on the right too and so the tree on the right seems to be growing out of a crack - again just a drawing thing. Looking at your colours you've done pretty well getting the buildings to recede in the distance but it could have been much more interesting overall if you'd put more oomph into your darks and mid values in the foreground, which is all I did with the Photoshopped version of your painting, as well as slightly lightening the lights. It creates a better sense of depth. I also changed the shadow of the cable car and the blue car. You're getting there.
"One Sunny Day #2" 12x12" Oil on Canvas by Jessica Futerman
"S.F." 12x12" Oil on Canvas by Mariangela Margoni
Hey good colours Mariangela! I like the extra kick of warms you've injected into the sky especially. Your atmospheric perspective is working really well too as your building begin to merge in colour with the sky. The soft edges are really helping there too. I would just say that your shadowy blues going up the street and into the distant buildings are a little too light and that's creating some visual confusion there. You could either slightly darken those or slightly lighten the sky to sort that out. You could look closer at the drawing of some of the cars if you want to be picky but overall I think you've done a great job. Nice one!
"Streets of Italy" 16x20" Oil on Canvas by Sandra Harris
A beautifully coloured and structured scene Sandra! I'm glad someone painted this photo because it was my favorite one that was submitted. I've included the image here to compare it to your painting. First of all I think it was a great idea to bring the orange jacketed guy out of the shadows and into that key spot there, however, it would have worked out better if you'd painted him moving. Figures standing still in paintings (unless they're in a group conversing) always have the appearance of posing for a photo. The only other thing I would have changed would be to darken the distant hills and sky as shown in the Photoshopped version in order to simplify the the background area which seems to be a bit of a jumble. What about putting some really thick impasto paint on the light areas in the foreground too add more textural interest and help with the recession? Could be good. Great job!
"California street - San Francisco" 28x38" Oil on Canvas Paper by George
A very striking image George and I think you're onto something here. I'm a sucker for a blue and orange complementary colour scheme. A picture speaks a thousand words so I did a little photoshopping of your image to show how I might change the lighting in it if you don't mind. Note the placement of the cable car too. Good on you for even attempting such a technical scene - it's not easy getting all those lines pointing in the right direction! If you want to keep those verticals straight it pays to use a ruler or a guide and keep using it throughout the painting to keep it all in check.
"Streets of Italy" 16x20" Oil on Canvas by Sandra Harris
"San Francisco" 50x50cm Oil on Canvas by Elena Sokolova
Hi Elena, I like your take on this scene. Strong colour and a good range of values from dark to light. The Sky is a bit flat though - could do with more of a gradation in value and hue from right to left. Your drawing of the buildings and a few of the cars is really good (except that much of it seems to be leaning to the right a little) but the drawing of the cable car lets the painting down. Well, mine could have been better too. It just needs some panel beating to straighten it up and the figure needs some serious physical therapy. Your recession of colours is working beautifully up the street except for the trees which seem to have stayed the same green until right at the top. Some of the shadows on the street are a little too blue and because they've been drawn fairly wobbly it gives the appearance of being shadows of trees cast on a dirt track rather than straight edged shadows cast on a slightly curving but otherwise flat concrete road. Other than those few points though I think it's really good and I can tell you've knuckled down on this one and been quite studious with it. Good job.
"California street - San Francisco" 28x38" Oil on Canvas Paper by George
$45.00USD
$15.00USD
$15.00USD
$45.00USD
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