Carrel - Realistic Painting Workshop

CREATIVE METHODS FOR PAINTING FROM LIFE

Dan Carrels
TRANSFORMATIONAL PAINTING METHOD
Step-by-Step!

2010 by Quarry Books

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owners. However, the publisher grants permission for the purchaser of this book to copy the patterns for personal use. All images in this book have been reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned, and no responsibility is accepted by the producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with information supplied. We apologize for any inaccuracies that may have occurred and will resolve inaccurate or missing information in a subsequent reprinting of the book.

First published in the United States of America by

Quarry Books, a member of

Quayside Publishing Group

100 Cummings Center

Suite 406-L

Beverly, Massachusetts 01915-6101

Telephone: (978) 282-9590

Fax: (978) 283-2742

www.quarrybooks.com

Visit www.Craftside.Typepad.com for a behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world!

Digital Edition: 978-1-6105-9456-1
Hardcover Edition: 978-1-5925-3637-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carrel, Dan.

Realistic painting workshop: creative methods for painting from life / Dan Carrel.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59253-637-5

ISBN-10: 1-59253-637-9

1. Painting--Technique. 2. Realism in art. I. Title. II. Title: Creative methods for painting from life.

ND1500.C35 2010

751.4--dc22

2010018100

CIP

ISBN-13: 978-1-59253-637-5

ISBN-10: 1-59253-637-9

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Design: Kathie Alexander

Layout: Sylvia McArdle

All paintings by Dan Carrel unless otherwise credited.

Muse Marmottan, Paris, France/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library International,

32 & 33; Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, USA/

The Bridgeman Art Library, 37; Ringling Museum of Art, 38

Printed in China

4th of July Kansas River; oil on canvas, 18" 48" (45.7 122 cm)

I HAVE BEEN AN ART TEACHER and a professional artist for thirty-four years. Although I have taught at several universities and colleges, much of my experience and passion are in helping nontraditional students relearn how to access the mental functions associated with art. After working with approximately 10,000 people over the years, I have come to the conclusion that almost everyone has the capability to personally experience the essence of art in their lives. For every 100 people who follow the technique I discuss in this book, roughly ninety-eight will be able to reproduce complex images through the traditional art mediums in a matter of hours.

How can this be? We were taught that we could not be visual artists unless we were born with artistic talent. We were also taught that most people have the capacity to learn to read the world verbally and mathematically but not visually. In my classes, I reintroduce my students to some of the seemingly simple visual games we all played as children and then demonstrate how those games are actually the complex foundations of visual art. When they learn to play again, the visual world opens up for them. They go back to their jobs and families with a renewed sense of joy. Many of them find that their problem-solving skills are enhanced because they have become more visually aware of the patterns in their complex world. Even better, their emotional and physical health improves. Art is the original chemo- and psychotherapy.

People from all walks of life, including professional artists and designers, have taken my classes because of the remarkable results theyve seen from people who considered themselves complete beginners. With this book, I hope to capture the artist in everyone.

Dan and his teacher granddaughter

Everyone has the potential to be an artist. In fact, we were wonderful artists by the time we were four years old. Then, as we got older, we were told that we had to be talented to be an artistthat is, to be able to visually sculpt, paint, or draw. But no one told us that we needed talent to learn math and writing skillsto sculpt, paint, or draw with words. We could learn math and verbal reading without a talent, but we couldnt learn art structures without it.

In school, we learned to read and write using a verbal alphabetour ABCs. And, if we put the letters together in the right order, we create words that everyone can understand. But we do not learn a standard visual alphabet that enables us to communicate visually, despite the fact that 13 percent of us can learn to visually read, paint, or draw very realistically when given a blank page. Instead, we falsely describe that 13 percent as artistic and talented and give the remaining 87 percent of our population an excuse for being visually illiterate. Our society expects the visual-artist population to be verbally literate but in turn does not expect the verbal-artist population to be visually literate.

Tyco Wave, Window Blind series; acrylic on woven canvas strips behind a canvas/wood lattice, 3" 48" 78" (7.5 122 198.2 cm)

Aspens;acrylic on canvas, 44" 36" (112 91.5 cm)

We all can learn to paint, draw, or sculpt realistically if we have the right instructor or need. There is enough hardwired programming in our brain to do almost anything in an average way. To be able to draw a realistic, recognizable image is equal to being able to write a complete sentence.

True talent is the ability to immediately access a universal human abilitysuch as painting, running, singing, and working out complicated math problemswithout training. It is a genetic memory that is passed down through a persons genetic makeup. To write a novel that brings new insight to the world or to paint a portrait of a woman whose perfume you swear you can smell is the product of talent. Being able to write a complete sentence or paint a recognizable portrait is learned and is not true talent. Great artists, mathematicians, writers, musicians, and singers rely on a powerful talent, but the average person can learn to paint, write, sing, play music, and do math in a competent way without requiring a special talent.