Anna by Swedish painter Bruno Liljefors

In your inspiration right now: Anna by Swedish painter Bruno Liljefors.

(Click on right here to obtain a high-resolution picture of the portray.)

What I really like most about this portray is the attention-grabbing mixture of realism and unfastened, painterly brushwork. Liljefors painted the topic (Anna) with wonderful rendering and readability while the remainder of the portray is extra relaxed and impressionistic. There’s no mistaking what the point of interest is and the place Liljefors needs us to look.

The wonderful rendering additionally performs into the character of the topic, along with her hair executed up, good clothes and niknaks, and youthful and female qualities. The unfastened, impressionistic brushwork performs into the character of nature and its untamed and unrefined magnificence.

There’s a pleasing combine of sentimental and arduous edges. The comfortable edges ease the transition between the topic and the environment. The arduous edges add readability and draw our consideration in direction of the point of interest. They’re like exclamation factors within the portray.

The hat on the bottom performs an vital function. It provides our eyes one thing else to bounce between. The place of it helps draw our consideration into the portray. There’s a refined coloration hyperlink between the crimson accents on the hat and the topic’s lips. And it’s additionally a part of a unfastened zig-zag movement that takes our eyes on a journey to the point of interest (see the picture beneath).

If we slim in on nature, a number of intricate leaves and flowers do many of the work. Every thing else is relatively easy and imprecise. Sir Arthur Streeton additionally did this fairly successfully in lots of his landscapes.

My solely criticism is that the topic seems to be a bit stiff and inflexible. Which may be as a result of pose or the topic’s clothes, however regardless, I feel a bit extra fluidity might go a good distance. (It’s vital to search for methods you may enhance or do in another way when analyzing grasp work. This helps take the grasp artists down off a pedestal so we are able to see them for who they had been: artists similar to us.)

Thanks for studying! Should you ever wish to study extra, begin with my Portray Academy course.

Dan Scott

Draw Paint Academy