The short answer is No!
Anybody can create surreal artwork because it's all about you and what your unconscious mind has to deliver.
So what really is SURREALISM?
For me,
"Surrealism is a Partial Reality and the rest is confusions.
The word surrealism doesn't imply a specific definition. Each artist, each personality has completely different insights into surrealism.
A surreal painting may be interpreted by several people differently. None of these interpretations can be considered to be wrong anyway.
Surrealism however has some link to the real, physical world. It seems to have accurately depicted the real objects.
It can be used to resolve the conflicting ideas of reality and dream.
I won't say that the artwork I have here is a masterpiece of surrealism. But I can always help you to boost yours form my *little* experience and knowledge.
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| Completely made in Blender |
4 Tips to help you get better at surrealism
1. Don't go 10^infinity light years away from reality
This is very important for surreal artworks. If you want to incorporate surrealism into your image, render, painting or whatsoever, remember that it should somehow relate to reality.
It should depict the physical objects. The viewers should be able to visualize the reality partially and then leave them in confusions to understand what the picture really wants to depict.
2. Sketch-out first
It doesn't change anything, if you are into surreal art, realism or abstract art, always sketch out your ideas on paper -or a wacom tablet may help. It needs not to be a perfect sketch with realistic shading.
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| Did some lighting and shading study |
You would just like a rough visualization of your 'bathroom ideas' (that's what happens in my case), to know exactly where each object will be and not be wondering about the next thing you need to do. This tip is very obvious but very difficult to follow and maintain, especially when one is not so good at 2D art. Nevertheless, this trick has never failed me.
3. Brainstorm the right colors
Deciding the colors is a headache. I use 'Leonardo da Vinci's color wheel' a lot and it really helps a lot when I struggle to select the right colors for my renders.
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| Belongs to: http://irtel.uni-mannheim.de/colsys/GoetheFarbkreis.html |
You need a lot of research and experience before you get expert at it. I would advice you to "just start!" and you will begin to realize the difference.
For me, I wanted a 'dreamy' feeling for this render. In that case, the colors should have more or less a common tint to it. I used a little greenish-blue tint for the entire render. So, the background also needs to have similar tint to it.
4. Use reference
This is the most neglected tip I have ever come across. Nobody wants to type 'surrealism' in the browser when we are walking on a digital artwork. It seems to be very frustrating to find the correct reference. So, our mind unconsciously dictates that references are useless.
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| Reference works like magic!!! |
The real story is, be it surrealism or realism, you have to take reference to fake it correctly in CG. Many a times using references has also helped me to improve the rough idea in the first place.
Tip:
To get a surreal effect, just multiply the diffuse direct and indirect and add it to the product of glossy direct and indirect. Don't understand what I'm talking about? Just check out the 'Surreal' node group in the video.
Thank you very much and I hope I could develop some interest for surrealism in you.
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