photoshop

Undervaluing My Values

| emmapittson
©2024, Emma Pittson, “Forest Path”. Oil on canvas, 10″ x 8″ x 0.5″.

With all my paintings of lakes in recent days, I’m feeling a little waterlogged, so I thought I’d expand my painting horizons and try to paint a forest scene (“branching out” as it were). As a reference, I used one of my photos of the path that links Lac Monroe to the Chutes du Diable up at Mont Tremblant National Park

Far from being a “walk in the park” (sorry – had to!), this painting went through a LOT of reconstructive surgery. Stepping back to take in my finished piece, it became obvious to me that I had hewn too closely to my photo reference. The end result was a painting with values that worked against me, making the trees off in the distance appear to be on the same level as the trees that were in the foreground.

To test this theory, I brought my painting into Photoshop and used Image > Adjustments to switch it to Black & White. The results are below:

1st version of the painting
Same painting converted to black and white

Notice how the space feels very shallow, with an awkward push and pull between the foreground and background elements? Clearly, this needed a serious overhaul!

The first thing I did was tinker with the black and white version of my painting until the values held together in a way that made sense and created a feelinge of depth.

Old values = shallow picture plane
New values = now we’re going somewhere!

The next step was to adjust the coloured version of the painting in Photoshop so that when converted to black and white, the colours translated to the new values (or at least, resembled them as close as possible).

1st version of the painting
Same painting but with adjusted colours in Photoshop

Once I know what I was aiming for, I repainted the areas that needed repainting. Sometimes, I could get away with a light glaze, but other times, a complete repainting of certain areas was required.

Not gonna lie – this exercise in tinkering with values took much longer and was far more difficult than I had imagined it would be. I took countless progress photos and brought them into Photoshop so that I could compare the values, and not matter what, I always seemed to be slightly off the mark. Worse yet, the original brush marks in the first version of the painting disappeared the more adjustments I made, and I found myself missing that original, imperfect painting.

1st version…
…. to Photoshop adjustments…
… to Final version!

In fact, I’m not completed convinced that this painting is well and truly done as I’m sure that certain areas could use some improvement (in other words, I’m not “out of the woods yet!” – okay, that’s the last pun, I promise!!). But for now, I’m happy to move on to other things!

2023 Year in Review: the year that wasn’t

| emmapittson

One blog post for all of 2023. That’s it. ONE.

Believe me, if I had produced any kind of finished artwork at all, I would have shared it here. But other than spending an inordinate amount of time tinkering with endless colour variations for a new painting that was never completed (see image below), and that one raspberry-coloured self-portrait, 2023’s art output was a bit of a bust.

There are many reasons why the art never really manifested itself, but most of it can be boiled down to two reasons: work and depression. By late 2022, all of my closest friends at the office had moved on to bigger and better things, and I was left with a serious case of “feeling left behind” and lonely, and that really sapped my creativity. What kept me going was the carrot that had been dangled over me for some months: a much longed-for promotion, which I eventually got in the Spring.

And then my job just took over my life! Things were made worse by the fact that the Writers’ and Actors’ strikes had wiped out any employment possibilities for quite a few people in the FX and Animation industry (including my husband), so any job I had, no matter how stressful, was one that I was grateful for and intended to hang onto for dear life.

Also, to be perfectly honest, the self-portraits happened out of necessity, but at this point, I think I may have said everything I needed to say with them. What that New Direction is, I’m still not sure, but it might be something completely different from anything I’ve done before. Stay tuned…!

2022: Year in Review

| emmapittson
Self-portrait of Emma Pittson
©2022, Emma Pittson, "September 23 Paintover"

First, some numbers…

Number of posts this year: 21

Number of completed artworks: 19

Number of digital pieces: 17

Number of traditional pieces: 2

Number of incomplete artworks and/or tests: 5 (and no, I’m not sharing them)

Number of exhibits (virtual): 2

Number of exhibits (IRL): 0

Number of publications: 4

And now for some highlights…

Biggest, happiest Art Win this year: Being featured in the inaugural issue of “Women United Art Magazine”! To be honest, I am still pinching myself.

Most popular piece on Instagram: This fanart for “The English”. It doesn’t matter how old I am – I cannot get the urge to make fanart wholly out of my system, it seems.

Most popular piece on Instagram that ISN’T Fanart: This wip reel for “Stripes”. And for the record, I HATE reels, but it’s the only way to get eyeballs on Instagram these days.

My favourite piece: This digital portrait of my daughter…

©2022, Emma Pittson “Screentime”. Rebelle 5.

The most difficult piece to complete: This other portrait of my daughter…

©2022, Emma Pittson, “Backlit”. Rebelle 5.

My most successful piece (well, successful to me, anyways): My “Self-Portrait With Kerchief”. In my opinion, it’s one of the only pieces that looks like actual “art”, and not just a well-developed study.

©2022, Emma Pittson, “Self-Portrait with Kerchief”. Photoshop.

Piece that made more of a splash than I anticipated: My “Vintage Cleveland” piece – my second attempt at painting a colour portrait from a black & white vintage photograph. In fact, it was picked up and shared by “Photo Trouvee” magazine, which was kinda nice.

©2022, Emma Pittson, “Vintage Cleveland”. Photoshop.

Piece that went nowhere and, frankly, that fact disappoints me: To be honest, I wish that everything that I’d published this year had met with greater enthusiasm, but clearly, I don’t know how to play Instagram’s game.

Putting it all in perspective…

Ok, so… some highs, but also some lows.

My goal for 2022 was to produce a large volume of work so that I could finally break out of my eternal “studies syndrome” and make actual ART. And for a while, it was working. I think I cranked out about 5 pieces in January alone – 4 that I completed, and one that I abandoned (which was fine as it was more of a stylistic exercise anyways).

I also took the plunge and applied to have my work included in art publications and online exhibitions. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Still, no one was more shocked than I was that the very first publication I applied to actually accepted my digital painting.

After that, there was no stopping me! Sure, I had my fair share of rejections, but overall, it was a pretty successful year in terms of having my art selected for magazines and exhibits. In particular, the team at “Women United” art magazine really believed in me – more than I believed in myself, to be honest – and to see not just one, but several, of my artworks in print is the most incredible feeling.

But here’s the thing: for someone who was supposed to spend the year in creative experimentation and risk-taking, it feels like I missed that mark by a pretty wide margin. There’s no denying it: my portfolio is very safe and very tame. Even more disappointing is the fact that I had really hoped to be able to detect some connecting threads between the pieces and to be able to say “A-ha! I can see that I should drop so-and-so and concentrate on such-and-such instead…!”. But… I haven’t hit that eureka! moment yet.

Still, considering where I was at the end of 2021, I can acknowledge that I have made enormous progress, not least because I committed to increasing my output. I also took risks by putting my work out there even though I didn’t feel like it – or I – was ready. If anything, that is what I want to take with me into 2023: “Jump, and the net will appear”.

On that self-congratulatory note, I wish everyone a fabulous Holiday Season, and I’ll see you again in 2023! 🙂

With a little help from my friends

| emmapittson
©2022, Emma Pittson “Summer Study” Photoshop

The first few months of 2022 were spent pushing myself to produce as much art as possible, and then the summer came… and I needed to take a break. And well-deserved, I thought!

But I admit that I’ve also been feeling the pressure from my empty easel a lot more lately, and I knew it was time to get back in the saddle. Summer was long-gone, after all! And if I don’t keep up the art-making on a daily basis, I’m prone to letting self-doubt creep in and knock me right off my stride.

Don’t get me wrong: I was over-the-moon happy to have my work featured in a magazine (#artgoals!!), but as a result, I was also hit with a MASSIVE case of Imposter Syndrome, too. Even now, I still can’t believe that my paintings are sitting alongside the work of REAL ARTISTS – women who have a body of work, gallery representation, a full bio of exhibitions, etc, etc. All I can think of is: “I’ll betcha that being an artist is their full-time job! How can I possibly think of myself as being worthy to stand amongst them??”

Well, if “working takes away anxiety”, then I knew what I had to do: get back to work!

AND it was around that time that an old high-school friend generously offered me some recent pictures of her so that I could paint someone other than myself. Talk about excellent timing! Of course, this is still digital, so in a sense, it’s a bit of a “cheat”, but I didn’t think I could handle the pressure of paints and mediums after such a lengthy absence. All in good time, all in good time…

Experimenting With Colour

| emmapittson
©2022, Emma Pittson, “Glasses”. Photoshop.

With all the enthusiasm of a New year’s diet, at the start of January, I vowed to throw myself into judgement-free artmaking. The plan was (and still is!) to produce like nobody’s business, and at the end of the year – HOPEFULLY – end up with a massive output of art from which I will be able to detect certain patterns, like “what subject matter do I gravitate towards?”, “what colours do I use most often?”, and most importantly “what am I trying to say with my art?”. I know, I know… the pressure to have the Big Questions answered kinda short-circuits the whole “judgment-free” thing, but “Quantity Leads to Quality” and all that jazz…

Part of my plan also involves experimenting with different artistic approaches. My Pinterest account has an Inspiration page filled to the brim with figurative art, and quite a lot of it is done with large areas of flat colour, something I find completely fascinating but have never really attempted to do myself. And that’s how this portrait came to be! Going against my detail-oriented ways was both scary and exhilarating, but ultimately, I’m undecided about the success of this piece. On the one hand, it got me out of my comfort zone (which was the point), but on the other hand, doing it made me feel like I was wearing someone else’s identity. So maybe… I should do this more often? 😉