Painting Like Edward Hopper

Continuing with the "Painting Like" video series. In this episode I attempt to make a painting done in the style of Edward Hopper. We look at his visual language that he employs in the creation of his work. We also learn some new techniques along the way that will aid in the creation of other works, most notably, how to grid a photo and a canvas so your proportions don't get all out of whack. Here's the step by step Begin by finding a Hopper painting which resonates with you. Just google out a bunch of his paintings, and pick one you like. Then, using this painting as a launching point, you're going to take a photo that you will copy during the painting stage. Some key things to remember about your photo include the following. 1. Take advantage of strong diagonal lines. Have these lines pointing at your figure. 2. Place your figure in a similar place as the one in the painting you have chosen. 3. Hoppers paintings tend to have very strong shadows. If it's a day painting, then take advantage of strong sunlight that casts strong cast shadows. Once you've got your photo, Determine the size of your photo as compared to the size of your canvas. For instance, your photo may be 8 x 12 and your canvas may be 20 x 20. To grid a photo onto a larger canvas you'll do the following. Go to your photo, and grid it out every inch. You'll end up with a number of boxes (in my video there are 8 boxes x 8 boxes in the grid) Now, if your canvas is 20 x 20" you're going to want to divide 20 by 8. This will give you the size of the grids you need to draw on your canvas. Which ends up being every 2.5 inches. Draw on your photo, and indicate areas where there are drastic value changes. Then based on your gridded photo, draw these lines onto your canvas. Once you've got the drawing complete you will want to mix up a number of Hopper's colors. Download a hopper to your phone, and then zoom into it, looking only at the colors. Mix up 20 to 30 colors based on what you see in the Hopper Painting. Keep your photo black and white, you don't want to be swayed by colors you see in it, you want to use the Hopper painting as reference for the color. Start with darkest colors first, and work your way to the lightest. #art #artist #painting #oilpainting