Painting the “Essentials”
September 28, 2009
Valencian Fisherman by Joaquin Sorolla
The “essentials”, also called “the critical information”, which I mentioned in the the previous post, are so called because our paintings will not work without them. The Four Value Planes and the Five Types of Light are the pieces of information that we need to look for as we paint. We need to state them effectively as they relate to each other in life. Notice in Sorolla’s painting how definite he was about his three value planes (no slanted planes in this one). The sky is the lightest, the flat lying plane of the water is second and the uprights of the men and boat are comparatively dark. Failure to understand this point will mean that our paintings will not “read” properly. Anyone who has taken his or her supplies outdoors to paint a landscape from life can attest to the fact that it is possible for things to get out of hand. Winston Churchill put it this way: “The pictorial battlefield becomes a sea of mud mercifully veiled by the fog of war. It is evident there has been a serious defeat.” (LOL) Usually this happens because we have lost touch with the critical information.
In his “Guide to Landscape Painting“, John F. Carlson said, “There probably never was a picture that was poor because it lacked detail or subject matter; rather the opposite. Bad paintings are usually so overloaded with useless detail that the essentials are obliterated.” That is not to say that detail is bad a thing only that useless detail will detract from your work. The statement also implies that bad paintings suffer from a lack of essentials. Which of course begs the question, “How can I proceed in a way that avoids missing this critical information?”
I don’t want to lay down rules of procedure for starting a canvas outdoors but I feel I should give a hint for beginners to follow. You can start by arranging your four value planes in a flat poster-like design. Give them unequal weight, in the light and dark sense, trying to follow nature as you go. After these value masses are clearly stated you can proceed to their beautification through the painting of form (the Five Types of Light) within each mass. We’ll pick up there next time. For now I am going to leave you with another field study done at my favorite place in Ft. Desoto Park, Pinellas Co., Fl. This was done on a completely overcast day. I started it in the way described above. This scene has only three value planes mainly because there are no mountains in Florida. (Although if you watch any of the old Elvis movies which were set in Ft. Lauderdale or Miami their are always beautiful mountains in the background.) Within in the three value planes there are five different value masses. The sky is one, the horizontal plane has two (water and muck), and the upright plane has two as well (distant trees and foreground trees).
Black Mangrove in Silver Light
Carlson’s 4 Value Planes
September 23, 2009
Men laying sod.
I got several days behind on my weekly posting schedule because of a couple of landscaping projects. In addition to being a painter I am also a landscape designer. I design landscapes for residential clients and approach the projects as a general contractor approaches a construction job. That means I oversee a network of subcontractors who perform the various aspects necessary to complete the installation. I love it, not as much as painting, but enough to thoroughly enjoy my involvement with it. So, look for two posts this week as I play catch up.
We left off at the end of several consecutive posts discussing “The Form Principle“. The last in that thread was a “still life demo” which showed how to transmit form using the “Five Types of Light” as an approach. At the end of that post I promised to explain how all of that applies to landscape painting. So here goes….
I was first exposed to “the Five Types of Light” when they were emphasized at a workshop with Scott L. Christensen. After that I began to notice in videos and books that, whether they used the terms or not, all great painters are basically painting the Five Types of Light.
Also emphasized at the aforementioned workshop were the writings of John Fabian Carlson. Carlson was born in Kalmar, Sweden in 1874 and died in NYC in 1945. He was a student of American artist/illustrators Frank Vincent Dumond and Harrison Birge. Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting, first published in 1929, is widely considered the ultimate landscape painters instruction manual. The book’s content is so valuable that I place it at the top of my list of favorites. (That would be a good topic for a future article, my favorite art books. Someone please remind me if I don’t do it soon.) I wasn’t able to find any Carlson images that came with permission to publish but I am working on that. I did find a nice Harrison Birge image.
November by Harrison Birge; courtesy Art Renew Center
The first significant concept explained in Carlson’s book is the idea of the four value planes:
- the flat lying plane (second lightest)
- the upright plane (darkest)
- the slanting plane (second darkest)
- the apparent arch of the sky (lightest)
Four Value Planes with our vantage point (5)
The elements in our landscape – trees, ground, water, clouds, buildings, etc. – receive various degrees of light from the sky according to their plane. It is this difference of plane that establishes their values relative to each other. The different planes can then be classified according to how much light they receive. The sky is the source of light and is therefore the lightest plane. It is lighter than the flat lying plane, which is lighter than the slanting plane, which is lighter than the upright plane. This is very much like the Five Types of Light used to describe form. Each of those are also classified according to how much light they receive. So, I think it’s fair to conclude that the four value planes explain the basic “form” of the outdoors. This theory may or may not be unimpeachable but it does help us to see things simply. Being able to see simply is a key to good painting. There is so much detail and information outside that we need some means of distilling it down to the essentials or what I like to call “the critical information”. The Five Types of Light incorporated into the Four Value Planes provide such a means. I’ll pick up there later this week when I will begin to discuss how we can incorporate the one into the other. I’ll leave you with a fairly recent field study done at a favorite location in Ft. Desoto Park, Pinellas County, Fl. We don’t have many slanted planes, like mountains, in Florida but this picture clearly illustrates the sky plane, the flat lying plane (water and sand) and the upright plane (trees and mangroves).
Black Mangroves
Still Life Demo
September 12, 2009
The Setup
Here is the still life demo I promised in last week’s post. It’s meant to illustrate the development of form using the “Five Types of Light“. The subject matter is a martini glass, a Spanish olive and a ca. 1936 penguin shaped cocktail shaker by Napier. I borrowed the shaker, with permission, from a friend’s cottage on Mexico Beach, Fl. I love it’s interesting shape and art deco charm. I’m giving myself the added challenge of subordinating the larger and more unusual penguin to the olive. I’ll let you be the judge of how well I accomplish that objective.
line drawing
My ground is lead primed linen #LLD-DP, from New York Central Art Supply. It’s my first time using it. I’ll let you know how I like it at the end of the post. I toned the linen with a cool green of viridian, quinacquidone red (Vasari’s ruby rose, actually) and a touch of a tubed gray (Vasari’s adobe). I chose a cool green because there will be lot of warmth in the background and table top. I draw with the brush in an alizarin like gray that I mix from a tube gray (Vasari’s shale), ruby rose and ultramarine blue. I like this color for drawing because it relates well to the way I see dark accents. Key issues at this stage are placement, good proportions and variety in the negative shapes. I made a simple line drawing in the interest of accuracy.
massing in of shadows
Using the paint like charcoal I state the dark accents (such as underneath the wings) and mass in shadows. Some of the lights and reflected lights are indicated by pulling out with a paper towel. My concern at this stage is establishing good value relationships. Notice that the “terminator” line is well established. I like the fact that the painting already has the feel of glass and metal.
initial color statement
I move out of the monochrome stage and into color by working shadows. (Note that I am not completing the penguin then moving to the glass. I am quite literally working all of the shadows, on all of the objects, including both form shadows and cast shadows. ) There is a concerted effort not to change the values established in the previous stage. Except for the reflection of the table into the penguin which was entirely too light. This step is first estimates. All colors are subject to refinement as my familiarity with the subject grows. I am using natural light from a north facing window which means “cool light and warm shadows”. The terminator line is on the purple side of blue but moving to the right the metal is picking up a lot of cool reflected light. I also indicated some of the warm gray tone in the background. Notice I did not paint the whole background. I only wanted to get some of the tone up there because it plays a part in the color relationships. Often times students will paint the whole background first as if they are painting a wall. They are compelled to completely cover the canvas. I think by doing so the background plays too dominant a role. Without realizing it they end up painting the subject to the background instead of the background to the subject. This is a consequence of a mindset which paints objects rather than relationships in the context of the Five Types of Light.
Further Development-Midtones
Here I have moved out of the shadows and begun to paint midtones. This is evidenced by the cool grays on the left side of the terminator. Remember that by definition midtone is the darkest part of the light and is most noticeable between the shadow (terminator line) and the the light. Midtone is where we see most of the local color. Also significant at this point is that all of the objects are at a similar stage of development. That is because I am painting the Five Types of Light in a sequence rather than painting objects individually. Student painters often want to complete one object before moving on to the next. When we do that we sacrifice unity and harmony in our work.
During this and the previous stage I began to pay attention to edges. The new canvas seems great for the initial fusing of hard and soft edges. The paint seems to do exactly what I want it to do.
I have also done some under-painting, in preparation for glazing on the front of the scratched up wooden box which serves as a table.
Adding the lights!
By now I hope you have realized that I am working in sequence from dark to light. I started with dark accents, then shadows, reflected lights and midtones. Finally I start on the lights. Notice the lights on the glass, olive and head are developing.
I avoided all detail until now because it is more important to establish form (ie, the Five Types of Light) than it is to model details. With the form well established I can now suggest details like a dent and an eye. I have also glazed over the table front with a black mixed from a tubed gray (Vasari’s Shale), Ruby Rose and Paynes Gray. Using a palette knife I scratched into the black letting the warm color underneath show through.
As I have done with each stage I asses the overall painting. Satisfied with the developing sense of form, space and light I decide that my first estimates are good and I start the sequence over again.
Second trip through.
I recognized that the shadow side of the penguin had gotten a little too light and a little to cool. Working through the painting in sequence from shadow to light again I made that adjustment. I also further developed some of the details like the reflection of the glass in the shadow side of the shaker, the dent and the eye. I added other reflected lights as I noticed them (upper right) and began to push color intensity everywhere. In the spirit of Winston Churchill’s statement, “there is strength in reserve” I usually start with neutral color only to “push it” later. I becomes a matter of seeing just how much the painting will bear. Notice how pink the background has gotten and how orange the reflection of the table has become.
And guess what, I still haven’t entirely covered the canvas. I wonder if I will ever get to that.
Another pass through!
Believe it or not, I went back through the painting again from dark accents, to shadows, then reflected lights, midtones, and lights. This time I started to add light accents, also known as highlights. In terms of shape, values, colors and edges the Five Types of Light are all working well. The tactile senses of the objects’, glass and metal, are well stated. After neutralizing some of the pink in the background I set the painting aside for a couple of days.
Vuala! Spanish Olive with Snowbird!
Returning to the picture with fresh eyes I decided that there was an edge at the lower left of the penguin that wasn’t sharp enough so I started there. That edge led to another, then another and another. I went through the whole painting working transitions and edges. There was far less looking at the subject than in all of the previous stages. I made changes based more on what I knew and less on what I saw. I finessed color temperature and intensity in the background until I was satisfied and then place that color (not value but color) into the midtones. By painting background color into your midtones you impart a sense of airiness to the painting.
Before bringing this, longer than usual, post to a close I want to touch on a few things:
First, I want to dispel any thoughts that what I have done here is demonstrate a formula. What I have demonstrated is a sequence or procedure which is based on actual observation. Painting formulas are not based on observation. They are based on a set rules. The Five Types of Light are not rules they are words in a visual language meant to help us organize what we see when we “look” at our subject.
Second, I love the new linen. The paint does exactly what I want it to do. It stays where I put it unless I want to move it. I look forward to using it again.
And third, feel free to use the comment section to ask questions or let me know whether I accomplished my objective of subordinating the penguin to the olive. Thanks for hanging in there this long. Next time we will segway into landscape painting.
The Form Principle Part III
September 5, 2009
When new students come to my class I usually start them out painting a simple white, ceramic water pitcher. The initial reaction is almost always the same. There is the audible sigh and the noticeable effort to resist rolling the eyes. “I know, it seems painfully boring, but it’ll be fun, trust me”, I say. Realizing it’s too late to turn back they give it try and are usually glad they did.
Here’s why I start them with such a simple set-up:
Often times new students have read a few books and taken a few classes. They have experience painting from, or more accurately put, copying from, photographs . Usually they have very little experience painting from life. Painting from life requires learning to use their powers of observation. The simple white pitcher is perfect. I use it to introduce the Form Principle as a basis of approach. I convey the Form Principle using a sort of visual language called the Five Types of Light. Each of the five types of light must be evaluated with regard to its shape, value, color and edges.
In case you are new to this series of posts here are the five types of light:
- Light
- Shadow
- Midtone
- Accents (both light and dark)
- Reflected Light
In the previous post, The Form Principle Part II, we discussed The Five Types of Light regarding how they relate to each other in terms of value. Here we will discuss them regarding how they relate to each other in terms of color. Evaluating color in The Five Types of Light is more subjective than evaluating value. That’s because an object’s local color has some level of influence on the color of each type of light. Still they can be studied in a universal context. That’s where the “white” pitcher comes in handy. Because it is white the student is able to focus on the color of light without the distraction of local color. Most students have little trouble seeing the “pink orange” color of an incandescent light when it is shining on a white object. But the task becomes more challenging when the same light is shining on a multi-colored subject like an apple or a peach. A lot of variation in local color can cause even seasoned artists to loose sight of form and get bogged down in the modeling of detail.
Cool light-warm shadows in Sargents portrait of Henry James
Understanding the color temperature of your light source is an important part of evaluating color in your five types of light. The relatively warm temperature of an incandescent bulb is evidenced by the “pink orange” color it lends to the light side of the white pitcher. If you have a warm light your shadows will be relatively cool. In the case of the white pitcher the shadows are noticeably blue gray. Conversely, if you have a cool light your shadows will be relatively warm. Thus, the well known axiom: Warm light, cool shadows – Cool light, warm shadows. A good example of cool light would be the natural light from a north facing window.
The above axiom explains the color of light and shadow but how does that effect the other types of light? Midtone is where you will notice the most local color. Although it is part of the light and is illuminated by the light source, midtone does not receive direct light and is therefore less influenced by the color of the light source than those areas in direct light. In short the source washes out local color in the areas it hits directly but not so much in areas not directly in its path. So, you will see the most pure local color in the midtone.
Light Accents in Sorolla's Children on the Seashore
Accents also depend on the color of the light. Light accents (highlights) are usually a washed out version of the color of the light. Many artists, including Sorolla, have taken liberties with light accents painting them the complement of the local color of the object on which they appear. This strategy may add an extra level of contrast and vibrancy to the picture. Dark accents tend to obey the above axiom within a narrow range. I tend to see most dark accents in dark purple range. Cool purple in warm light and warm purple in cool light.
Relative to the shadow, Reflected light is similar to the light. If the light is warm, reflected light will also be warm. However, relative to the same warm light, the reflected light is slightly cooler. The converse is true given a cool light and warm shadows.
It is usually during the explanation of reflected light that my mind drifts to thoughts of Snook fishing. For those of you not familiar with recreational fishing in Florida, the Snook is a highly prized inshore game fish. It is extremely fast and powerful. Pound for pound one of the best tackle-busters around. As table-fare it’s hard to beat. State fishing regulations give Snook what is known as a slot size. To be a keeper it has to measure between 28″-33″ (some parts of the state its 28″-32″). Reflected light is like that too. In terms of value it has to be darker than the midtone but lighter than the shadow. In terms of color it has to be cooler than a warm light but warmer than a cool shadow.
As my weekly discussion of the Form Principle progresses we will eventually take a look at how it applies to landscape painting. Things get a little more complex when we have to think of the Five Types of Light in the context of distance and outdoor space. Next week I will post a step by step still life which I think demonstrates the concepts we have discussed so far.
Meanwhile don’t forget to check out my classes and workshops. I may be coming to a city or country near you soon.
art pics courtesy of art renewal center.
