[Lunatique]

http://www.thecardermethod.com/clips/overview.html

Anyone else feel those student paintings are a bit suspicious?

[Lakka]

I loved how the reflection on the knife had all the sweet details in it, "hi thar i did dis with mah carder method! First time, rly!"

I call total bullshit

I'm not saying the man didnt have a point but, yeah.

[Lunatique]

I think what he's teaching is fine, and it's really not revolutionary--plenty of drawing/painting teachers use similar methods of teaching. What gets me is the student gallery. Oil paint handling is not a trivial skill--it takes lots and lots practice to be able to handle oils at a refined level, let alone imparting expressive brushwork and understanding the role of impasto qualities of the medium.

[ax--hv]

Suspicious, yeah. It takes a lot of understanding to paint that good even with that kind of crutches. Without understanding those measurements would still produce clumsy paintings with random value transitions and a lot of un-obvious stuff missing (like shadows in some places). This method claims to be purely mechanical (no brains required). In that case I would probably believe it if every painting took something like a month of dot connecting or the teacher was constantly giving tips (give away kind of tips).
Anyway, I don't get the idea of doing this... Who wants to become an incredibly inefficient human analogue of a camera?

[SubJodge]

Perhaps the student gallery is a form of marketing the method, the wording could be made like this to make it seem its the first time they have ever used oil paints, which it is apparent it is not their first time. Perhaps it means that it is the first painting using specifically the carder method, or the first time under his teaching, it is very suspicious however, i don't see anything wrong with the method and teaching, but it does seem a little underhanded.

[eyewoo]

My understanding and believe is, they are real. I haven't looked with any depth into the system Carder developed, but for some people it works in a rather spectacular way, as evidenced by the student outcome... sometimes first or second paintings ever. The system doesn't appeal to me.

Carder frequents http://rationalpainting.org . You have to join to get access. There are rather strict rules of conduct and you have to use your real name. The forum is primarily for realist painters using traditional media and is a strong proponent of the Munsell color notation system.
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[Mikko K]

Let's face it, painting as picking and mixing the correct tones isn't THAT difficult.

It's not very creative to do it this way though. But if you put in the effort, I'm pretty sure this can be done with right instruction and a lot patience.

Could these students then paint without using the method? I don't think that comes as easily, as the eye/brain coordination and picking the colours takes so much practice combined with the right theories. (Value, hue/sat, Cool/warm etc.)

[eyewoo]

[Mikko K]

eyewoo> yes, and I like this in a way that it strips away some of the "I have no talent" or "there's some magic happening" type mystique from the painting process.

[togg]

I'd like to learn more about the Carder Method from those of you who have used it. To me it seems to be very confining regarding creatively painting, and seems to be too rigidly restricted to copying exactly what the painter sees (whether good or bad).

Secondly, I wonder how this "system" would work in a digital environment with digital apps instead of oil paints?

Personally I don't think there is any shortcut to becoming a TRUE professional artist and no system can invariable circumvent reality, but I may be wrong in my assertion.