Artist research: Simon Stalenhag
While creating my last painting in which I was focusing on colour I looked through my collection of artists books I have on my shelf. Stalenhag's work best fitted the aims I was aiming to achieve so I while painting I had open 'Tales From The Loop' and 'Things from the flood'. The lighting used in his night time scenes reflected on the mood that I wanted to have for my own work.
I started digging through books and the internet to find a tutorial or some sort of process that I could study of how Stalenhag creates his work. It was tricky to find surprisingly as there are no tutorials or step by step images that show how he does it. However after scraping together parts from several sources I am pretty confident that I can string together the process he uses and the lighting method he most frequently paints in his books.
In his first book 'The loop' I noticed that on a few of the pages Stalenhag has presented sketchbook work that feature similar designs to what can be seen in his final paintings. So like most artists he starts with a few simple sketches and highlights certain areas with a cool grey marker to show shape.
After seeing this I was confident in the fact that I should be researching how to paint with this method to best understand how Stalenhag creates his work.
Thankfully I was prepared and had a copy of 'Color and Light' by James Gurney on my shelf that included a page spread about Overcast lighting.
Painting using Overcast lighting allows you to paint forms in their true colour which will help if the subject that's being painted is busy. This is because the light comes evenly from above. This also means that there's no sharp or dramatic contrasts within an Overcast painting. Despite this colours often appear more brighter and purer than they would in direct lighting.
This could be one of the main reasons that Stalanhags work seems to pop and standout as the lighting allows for pure colours along side great composition and eye catching designs. The lighting used definitely allows him to showcase his unique structures within his work and helps make them pop from the page.
I started digging through books and the internet to find a tutorial or some sort of process that I could study of how Stalenhag creates his work. It was tricky to find surprisingly as there are no tutorials or step by step images that show how he does it. However after scraping together parts from several sources I am pretty confident that I can string together the process he uses and the lighting method he most frequently paints in his books.
In his first book 'The loop' I noticed that on a few of the pages Stalenhag has presented sketchbook work that feature similar designs to what can be seen in his final paintings. So like most artists he starts with a few simple sketches and highlights certain areas with a cool grey marker to show shape.
(Sketches from Tales From The Loop)
I found a short video on YouTube about 'Tales From The loop'. From what I can gather it was originally a kick starter video as it talks about the aim of the book. In this video Stalenhag talks about growing up in a rural town in Sweden had his memories of the surrounding landscapes. It was interesting to notice the similarities between these real life locations and the ones seen in his book.
Roughly half way through the video a quick step by step of his painting appears frame by frame. I managed to screen shot these stages and lay them out to display it more easily as a reference for studying his process.
(YouTube link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pTMVOzqdW4&index=38&list=PLgm0zlZgUnRqUID13y1spUBRbag4sJttd&ab_channel=IgorGabrielan)
I didn't expect to find that Stalenhag uses a photo base to start his images as no sign of it is left over in any of his paintings. However it makes perfect sense to do so as he's painting Scandinavian landscapes he might as well use his own references that he has collected through photography.
He quickly transforms the original image into a snowy landscape that he's know for painting.
He keeps the lighting from the photo and starts building up details of the objects and scenery simultaneously with each other up to the point of completion.
I wanted to learn more about the typical lighting that he uses in his work. I had a hunch that it was Overcast lighting as searched the internet for conformation. I found a bunch of artist studies based on Stalenhags work all using the same lighting and one mentioned Overcast lighting in the description.
Thankfully I was prepared and had a copy of 'Color and Light' by James Gurney on my shelf that included a page spread about Overcast lighting.
Painting using Overcast lighting allows you to paint forms in their true colour which will help if the subject that's being painted is busy. This is because the light comes evenly from above. This also means that there's no sharp or dramatic contrasts within an Overcast painting. Despite this colours often appear more brighter and purer than they would in direct lighting.
This could be one of the main reasons that Stalanhags work seems to pop and standout as the lighting allows for pure colours along side great composition and eye catching designs. The lighting used definitely allows him to showcase his unique structures within his work and helps make them pop from the page.
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