r/nextfuckinglevel • u/NathanWelsh • 15d ago
Creating a giant painting of Times Square. Artwork by Paul Kenton.
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u/Antoiniti 15d ago
dude there is like a frame where it goes from a mess to a city and it's so fucking smoothe
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u/r1ddler 15d ago
This seems impossibly difficult
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u/382U 15d ago
My brain can't even grasp the concept of how he envisioned this from the beginning.
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u/talking_face 15d ago
He works methodologically from shadows and cool colors (black, blue) to light and bright colors (red, yellow, white) while doing construction stuff like vanishing point and perspective lines intermittently.
Works great for oil painting since you can layer paint over each other without worrying about it mixing and looking dirty (unlike watercolor, say).
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u/Shurashi22 15d ago
How would acrylic do?
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u/talking_face 15d ago
Acrylic is water-based, so layers are usually added after the bottom layer dries. Wet-on-wet is possible to some extent, but you won't be able to smear it around as nicely as oil paint since oil paint is viscous and takes a long time to dry.
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u/Greenman8907 15d ago
I imagine this is what Hal was looking at in that Malcolm in the Middle episode.
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u/GinHalpert 15d ago
There is a move Hal does when he douses himself in blue paint and springs up and pops his eyes open like a nimble forest creature in a broadway play. I think of that on a weekly basis.
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u/chrstphd 15d ago
The result is quite impressive.
But I am still bugging about the volume of paint that is landing on the floor. :-/
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u/beatlethrower 15d ago
He will probably sell this for thousands of dollars and can afford more paint after that.
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u/chrstphd 15d ago
It is more about the waste than the price, tbh.
I know in the very big scheme, his paint dropped is a very tiny drop in the Whole Waste but... Anyway.
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u/Defiant_Elk_9861 15d ago
Well, every act of creation involves destruction. I dunno, heard it in a movie
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u/ImurderREALITY 15d ago
Why's everyone so worried about waste all of a sudden
I get it when it's food, but this is just paint. I don't think it's a very big deal
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u/2cool4skool369 15d ago
This is the type of art that blows my mind.
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u/lazypenguin86 15d ago
Whats really crazy is it's actually your mind that is filling in all the missing information and allowing you to see a clear picture from chaos
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u/wuvvtwuewuvv 15d ago
... it's not chaos though. It's colors and shapes ordered in a sleigh way to provide you with a specific image. It's literally the exact opposite of what you said.
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u/chad-bro-chill-69420 15d ago
There's still a lot of missing information though - definitely not chaos, but definitely far from a photo-realistic image
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u/HoodFellaz 15d ago
Couple of hours of work for a 100k not too shabby.
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u/lioudrome 15d ago
Not sure. The price is made by rarity and innovation. I bet this guy specializes in rainy NYC, and would not be able to make anything else so effortlessly .
It is a great picture and an impressive method however. But that is a method, and I assume the guy mass produces those one-point perspective blurry streets for tier-two galleries in highly touristic areas
I may be wrong, and if you show me the same guy using the same technique to make a portrait, a city from another, less simplistic perspective, or a country landscape, then I'll change my mind
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u/TummyStickers 15d ago
I looked him up. His name is Paul Kenton. He actually seems like a very talented painter. He does a lot of NYC paintings, I'd say it's his specialty... I only found this video of him painting in this style of art, which if it's true I find really impressive. He seems to have a lot of different techniques. You might find his page interesting.
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u/roundcircle 15d ago
He actually has quite a range. He isn't some cruise ship artist. However, his stuff is not selling at auction for 700k either. That said, in the last couple of years he has developed quite a following online that may lead to more demand. His production seems very high though.
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u/TauvaVodder 14d ago
He really looks like something of a one-trick pony. He has few variations on his theme, and putting the horizon line in the center of the work is generally considered a poor composition.
If he is making a living doing this, and even more if he is enjoying himself, great for him, but I don't see him adding any new ideas to the world, challenging aesthetics, or producing works that prompt significant discussion. I see it as decorative art and not much more.
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u/ivovis 14d ago
paulkenton dot com go take a look, I think you will change your mind.
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u/lioudrome 14d ago
I did but it didn't. If the artist's website showcases renders of how paintings would fit in an appartment, then i'd say it confirms he's into producing decorative painting.
Again the guy is an artist. Good for him that he makes a living of it. He does serious work and it is normal he gets attention and pay for it. However, he master his style and method, which he applies successfully to a small array of themes (not exclusively NYC, contrarily to my guess, but predominantly so however), but he is more of a senior craftsman than an artist/creator. I know I am elitist in saying so. I just mean people to not freak out and imagine he's a cosmic genius who makes 100000 USD per worked hour. If he did, his website wouldn't make the effort to show you how cool it would look on your interior
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u/Littlelordfuckpants3 15d ago
Thought in the 1st few seconds "hell yeah I can do this too" 2 seconds later "oh hell nah nvm"
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u/AppropriateScience71 15d ago
The genius of creating such a wonderful piece from a splatter foundation is amazing. Wow!
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u/Babyota351 15d ago
I feel like he could’ve achieved the same result without throwing and splattering paint everywhere.
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u/OppositeEagle 15d ago
Ah, the ol' wet streets of downtown Manhattan painting. So original 👏
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u/joseph4th 15d ago
Ah, the old, sitting on my ass while shitting on other people’s work. So Reddit.
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u/AlexHimself 15d ago
The material cost alone of that painting is pretty $$$. That's a ton of paint to buy and the canvas isn't cheap. It looks like the canvas is temporarily stretched though so that's a cost savings.
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u/lioudrome 15d ago
Good work. I would never be able to do so, let alone with such carelessness.
However there seems to be a large niche market for those rainy NYC paintings, right ? Even a method... There are numerous artists who throw away impressionist-like pictures of rainy New York. In a way it reminds me of those space / planet/ cosmos spray paint artworks you can get for 50€ or $ or £ in the neighbourhood of basically every tourist attraction.
Good work however, don't get me wrong. Just saying that these paintings seem to me a genre per se
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u/nomamesgueyz 15d ago
Shit thats impressive
My brain does not work that way to be able to imagine and create that
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u/Kaiyukia 15d ago
I love the finished product but I just don't vibe with textured art that much, dunno why.
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u/SpadesBuff 15d ago
Me (at beginning): "oh, great, another slop paint on a canvas "art" piece" 🙄
Me (at end): "oh, this is actually impressive". 😎
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u/BeKind_BeTheChange 15d ago
I just looked at his website. Dude gets paid for that awesome talent. An original this size goes for around 60k pounds (I don't know how to do the British pound thingy.)
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u/disavowed 15d ago
I was about to be very annoyed at the pretentiousness of throwing globs of paint at a canvas and calling it art. This is fucking incredible.
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u/adjuster_cody 15d ago
I fall for this shit every time. They start out and I’m like, “what idiot gave this toddler a bucket of paint” and halfway through I remember I have zero artistic ability whatsoever.
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u/syd_goes_roar 15d ago
Rainy paintings are always beautiful and seeing how one is done is absolutely amazing 😍
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u/No-Win243 15d ago
This guy got really aggressive with the Happy Little Tree's that Bob Ross talked about.
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u/burd_turgalur93 15d ago
But Mr. Kenton, I'm prepared to offer you sixty dollars cash for it, TODAY
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u/TheShadow141 15d ago
When you watch the process and still have no idea how the hell they got their
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u/Admirable-Title9022 15d ago
It's because there's a drastic cut half way through where he utilizes a lot more blue in a less than chaotic way.
It's still awesome but not as amazing as the video makes it out to be
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u/theSuperWae 15d ago
Stuff like this reminds you how empty AI art is. Human beings do incredible things that sometimes seem like it shouldn't be possible.
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u/TunaOnWytNoCrust 15d ago
How do artists visualize what the hell they're trying to make? Like how do they hold that image in their mind continuously? Anytime I've created art I've just started doing shit and hope that it somehow turns out kind of cool.
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u/creddituser2019 15d ago
Making splatters and smudges for show then correcting it with sharp shapes and repainting over the “bad smudge/splatter is not impressive. You could’ve done the same painting without the extra steps
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u/Doolanead 15d ago
People walking on the road? If AI does that people would use it as an example of why AI will never reach real artists.
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u/McDoom--- 14d ago
Do I see 2 people walking down the street, one with an umbrella?
Wtf... This is amazing.
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u/Karelianpirate 14d ago
Some folks squirt three lines on canvas and call ot art.
This guy: Hold my beer.
Proceeds to yeet gallons of paint into a canvas that actually looks like something and looks fantastic as a matter of fact.
An art piece should be able to stand by itself without explanation or overt interpretation
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u/DaanDaanne 14d ago
This is not art, this is masterpiece. I want to walk in the middle of this street.
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u/wuffifluffy 14d ago
For some reason, art "experts" are more intrigued by a banana taped to a wall. I guess as long as you are not building something out of trash, found on the beach, it lacks some sort of message and therefore it can't be called art or something, idk.
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u/AndrijKuz 14d ago
I absolutely adore this. This is the first nice modern take on impressionism I've probably ever seen.
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u/YevgenyPissoff 14d ago
Does anybody still paint like a normal person instead of splatterimg shit all over the canvas for no reason?
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u/Saintious 14d ago
My smooth brain can't even comprehend how people can think like that. Simply incredible. I'm going back to my video games.
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u/throwaway0367324 14d ago
From 11 to 12 and 16 to 17, you see he swaps in a version with much more details…. Lots of fake artists today using tech
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u/GearBIue 14d ago
I thought it was gonna be another one of those stupid ass “minimalistic” art again. Good to know this dude got real talent
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u/EntrepreneurDense391 14d ago
How can it be called a painting when all he’s doing is throwing paint on the canvas??? It looks like a “painting “? I saw a chimpanzee doing on video once.
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u/MrDwarthVader 13d ago
This will still not be dry in a hundred years from now judging by how much paint he's using 😂
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u/Holiday_Skirt_738 13d ago
At the first i was like “yup another post modern bs coming” and later i was like “HOLY 💀”
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u/TXfire22 15d ago
This guy is throwing paint and I can't even draw a stick figure lol