Of Landscapes and Paintings without People

ON LANDSCAPES AND TWO LESSONS

When I first started drawing with crayons some twenty-plus years ago, people had established I was a ‘landscapes’ type of artist. I drew beaches, mountains, rivers—and cliffs, apparently—with chubby crayons. When I was in grade school, my favorite subject was art, because we got to draw, of course, and I got to lowkey brag about my drawing skills.

I was one of those kids who was taught to be straight-laced, to ace in math and science, but I also wanted to explore art more than anyone.

I didn’t know how to draw human figures and people then, but I remember a classmate being the one who was good at that. But I was keen to learn and started with cartoon drawings. The years of spending time watching animated shows, both Western and Japanese, encouraged me to draw people, albeit in the style I used to see in television series. But that was good practice.

I still painted landscapes but found that I wasn’t too inclined to lean toward that genre, and instead focus on faces, portraits, bodies, and expressions. I felt like I was more expressive with those. Besides, I get to paint skin, and my best friend said it’s one of the hardest things to achieve. While I’m not particularly saying I had perfected that, nor have I mastered the art of skin tone, I could at least say that I know the basic idea of it and know how to apply it in my paintings.

Painting the shadows is also one of the things I had fun learning. It’s such a wonder to be able to see the skin come to life when applying the darker colors.

So, I started collecting paintings with a lot of people in it, a lot of portraits, some with emotion, some with poker faces. I began using actual people as references, getting ideas from their features, and sketching a whole face.

I began accepting portrait commissions, but for a short while only.

As I begin my journey into drawing in canvases, of course I wanted to draw something with a person too… which was why I started with ‘Salvation’, ‘Guardian of the Palace’—both repaints of old artworks—and now, I’m working on the Goddess Series.

People would praise me for them, but would always end up asking, ‘How about drawing landscapes? For display?’

I didn’t really find that offending, but I only think that I have already established on my own that drawing landscapes wasn’t my forte.

But being the one who loves to accept challenges, and since my best friend told me my clouds were pretty, I gave them what they want, albeit with more clouds than land.

Thinking back to my cloud painting journey, I remember not being good at it. Especially in watercolor. I knew the principle behind how to paint them: lighter on top, darker at the bottom, vice versa, or really depending on where the light source is. But the general rule of thumb I swear by is ‘light on top, dark on bottom’ technique.

A picture of my recent landscape paintings by the beach.

This event taught me two important lessons: most people would appreciate art that is quiet and reserved. Granted, they were happy about the landscapes, and seem to be more accepting about them. The second lesson is about practicality.

Sure, there are probably some people out there who will appreciate my true style. But since more people seem to accept the simpler things like landscapes, I might also consider adding more similar works in my portfolio. It’s also great practice and added content, so I’m not really complaining.

On that note, I’ll probably just paint more clouds and beaches in the sideline.