Loving Van Gogh
Sometimes the world has a way of laying something in your lap. Something you were not aware of, something that turns out to be really special. Something totally unexpected.
Back in February I saw a trailer for a movie called Loving Vincent, a remarkable film about Vincent Van Gogh’s life and death. It’s special because it’s animated using actual paintings in Van Gogh’s style.
I was enamored with the movie and could not wait till it came out … after all, I love Van Gogh, and I love the idea of the first ever fully hand-painted feature-length movie.
And it was not just painted by animators or with animation tools: Each frame is an oil painting done by an artist. There were over 100 artists brought into Poland to do the 65,000 paintings.
Soon after seeing the trailer for Loving Vincent, I saw Dena Peterson, one of the artists who worked on the movie, speak at the Plein Air Convention.
Dena was not only a great communicator, she had the audience really engaged. It’s such a unique story. She showed the process of animating with paintings, something that had never been done this way before. Each “cell” was a full oil painting; that’s why the film took years to produce.
Then she started showing paintings…
Were these lost Van Goghs?
Nope. Dena painted them for the movie. But they sure had the Van Gogh feel.
After her standing ovation, there was a crowd of people gathered around her asking questions. She was like a rock star with her groupies. Though that happens with many PACE speakers, this was even more than usual!
Can you guess the number one question everyone had?
Sure you can.
“How did you learn to paint like Van Gogh?”
Dena was careful to say that Van Gogh had his own style, and though the Loving Vincent artists learned to emulate it, no one could ever be Van Gogh.
But she learned lots of tricks…
Like how Van Gogh managed to keep his colors so bright and unpolluted.
Or how Van Gogh managed to paint so thickly without the colors becoming muddy.
She tried to answer all their questions, but finally said, “I’d have to show you. It took us a long time to figure him out. People have tried before, but once we got it down, we shared it among all the artists in doing the movie, and magic happened.”
What she said next, though, was unexpected…
“I never painted like Van Gogh. I have my own style, and it’s completely different. But as a result of doing 600 paintings in his style, I made some important discoveries that made my own work stronger.”
At that moment, it came to me: We needed to do a video with Dena. So I picked up the phone, called the boss lady, and said, “I think we need to do something with this woman, and here’s why.” I got a thumbs up, and we approached her.
Before long, Dena appeared at the Liliedahl studios and started filming our latest video, Loving Van Gogh: How to Paint Like Vincent Van Gogh.
Though I get excited about all the videos we produce, this one was so different, so unique, that I couldn’t wait to see her show Van Gogh’s techniques … all the things she had discovered working on the movie Loving Vincent.
So in Dena’ art instruction video Loving Van Gogh: How to Paint Like Vincent Van Gogh, you’ll discover…
- What Van Gogh taught her about composition
- What she learned about Van Gogh’s technique from studying his letters
- How to keep thick paint moving without making it runny or hard to manage
- How Van Gogh used reed pen drawings to plan the brushwork and movement in his paintings
- Direct painting and broken brushwork
- How to use line to emphasize pattern and shapes
- Some history of Van Gogh and his path to becoming the father of Expressionism and modern art
- How to get out of a rut in your work through more expressionistic painting
- Van Gogh’s philosophy of painting, as well as her own
- How Van Gogh became a “third-level painter” and what that means
- How to use complementary colors and “simultaneous contrast” to add visual excitement, as Van Gogh learned to do from the Impressionists and Pointillists
- The difference between local tone paintings and light and shadow paintings
- How to use directional brushwork to show form
- How to use more paint and less medium to create impasto brushwork
- How to let go of the need to copy a scene and instead respond to it emotionally
- The palette of colors used to create color harmony
Plus one important thing she learned that impacted her work, and her soul as an artist, after emulating Van Gogh for several months.
Not only will you see Dena Peterson’s interpretation of Van Gogh and what she learned from him, including the process of making a Van Gogh-like painting from start to finish … you’ll also receive:
- Video of the presentation she did on stage at the Plein Air Convention
- An interview with Dena Peterson
- A show of Dena’s work
- Plus some of the paintings she did for the movie
Portraits Van Gogh Style
Here’s just a bit of what Dena Peterson has for you:
- Get more creative (but without over-the-top risk!)
- It just takes this ONE thing to generate more excitement in your paintings
- Loosen up! Paint more freely and be satisfied with your results
- Explore color like never before (Dena shows you how!)
- Create paintings that are more enlivened, yet uniquely yours
- Just how did he do that? (Dena shows you!)
- Your paintings are probably missing this one thing (but no more!)
- Avoid THIS and avoid disaster
Let Vincent Van Gogh Teach You How to Push Your Boundaries
A couple of years ago, a groundbreaking animated feature film was released that will go down in history as being the first of its kind. It was met with high praise and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards.
The movie, titled Loving Vincent, is about the life of Vincent van Gogh as told through his paintings. Each of the film’s 65,000 animation frames is an oil painting on canvas, painted using the same techniques Van Gogh used.
Who in the world created all of these Van Gogh-style paintings for the movie?
Maybe you’re wondering who could have painted 65,000 Van Gogh-style paintings to make this movie…
That answer is pretty simple, really.
Over 120 international, classically trained painters were selected to contribute to the film. They all journeyed from their homes to Poland to create this labor of love as a tribute to the life, art, and struggles of Van Gogh. Many artists were on location for months — sacrificing time from their own lives, families, and work to be part of the Loving Vincent production.
But here’s the trick ... you can’t have 120 different artists using 120 different styles. Every painting had to look like it was done by Van Gogh. So the artists and producers put their years of knowledge together to develop an exact standard in order to figure it out.
Now You Can Learn What 120 Artists Discovered
Dena Peterson is one of the artists chosen to paint for this project, and one of the few Americans. She personally painted over 600 Van Gogh-style paintings. And she discovered something … Van Gogh approached portraits differently than landscapes.
Her first video about painting Van Gogh-style landscapes became an overnight sensation. Now the next step in your journey…
Portraits, Van Gogh Style is an instructional video where Dena continues to share her incredible depth of knowledge and skills in painting the Van Gogh way.
It’s Not About Creating a Copy of Van Gogh. It’s About YOUR Unique Voice.
“Van Gogh believed that he wanted to paint the colors that he felt rather than the colors that he saw. He said, ‘We’re not human cameras, we’re artists, we’re painters!’” —Dena Peterson
