How to Paint Like Thomas Kinkade
The question of how to paint like Thomas Kinkade comes up by email and on the Painting Forum every now and then. If you were wondering, well, now you can have it straight from the horse's mouth in the form of a list of 16 points to painting "The Thomas Kinkade Look" published on a Vanity Fair blog by someone who's obviously not a fan (scroll down a bit to find the list). These include:
- Creating a "cozy look" by darkening the images towards the edges
- Using a "color key" to create mood
- Including hidden details
- Using "dramatic sources of soft light" with "classic compositions"
- Having a short focal length to create a center of interest and keep "mid-distance and distant" parts "blurry"
- Focusing on the "concept of beauty" and getting rid of the "ugly parts", to have "a general sense of homespun simplicity"
- Using atmospheric weather conditions, and nostalgia
It's certainly a recipe for success if you measure this in financial terms. According to The Art Law Blog Kinkade is making an "apparent attempt to establish broad intellectual property rights 'over a style and manner of painting and image-crafting'." What a commercially driven world we live in. Read more about this in Concurring Opinions: Copyright in Movie and Painting Styles?.
Painting Forum Discussions:
• What is Thomas Kincaid's Secret of Success?
• How Does Kincaid Achieve His "Bright Lights" Yellow?
Comments
Sounds like sour grapes to me. I have been painting as along as I can remember. I have achieved a bachelors degree, and am prepairing to enter a Master of Fine Art degree program, and I continue to fight to be taken seriously as an artist. My crime you ask, being good at what i do, which indeed is a crime to much of the uppity art world. Maybe Thomas kinkade enjoys painting with bright powerful colors and painting warm english style countrysides because he likes it. Those who call them selfs artist but have no real talent need to get off his back, it’s not his fault he’s good.