Atomic Bottle and Orange

Here is the second still life setup from my Foundations I Class.  The emphasis has been on value and shape.  Developing the ability to see.  Sounds simple.  Typically there is not too much trouble with the bottle and its shadow.  More trouble with just local tone - no shadows - how to make that interesting?  Well, just add an orange to the setup and have them paint it in a complementary pair such as blue and orange.

Light and Shadow

Yes, you can see the core shadow and the reflections and they can be confusing.  Everyone says they can see what is in light and what is not.  But most everyone painted the shadow side of the orange much too light, but not the bottle so much.  The light sides were often too dark.  Seems that as soon as colour is introduced, value judgement disintegrates.

Grey Scale

And the Notan might look something like.....

Thumbnail on Newsprint

It is not easy to paint light and shadow (a predominant mode) when one cannot distinguish what is in light and what is in shadow.  Seems like the colour in all its glory confuses all those rods.  The Practical Colour Wheel shows approximately the local colour and value relationships for paint pigments.

On Value 5 Grey

So Ultramarine Blue is dark and Orange is light.  Somehow we get it for the blues, not for the warm colours.  Squinting and value matching sure will help this.  Practice, practice.

Shooting Snow

I love painting the snow.  Its my favourite subject.  And yes, you have to do it outside.  The colours are amazing.  The "white" blanket makes for all sorts of fabulous compositions a la notan.  Your knowledge of values and value preservation will be increased dramatically.  Your ability to see will jump as well, especially as it pertains to colour.  This effort in conjunction with block studies is paramount.  Studies in bold sunlight are easiest, so start there.

Simple Snow Scene

It is easy to see the components of the snow in this scene in brilliant sun light.  

1.  In Direct Light.

2.  Glancing Light/Shadow Warm.

3.  Glancing Light/Shadow Cool.

4.  Cast Shadow.

5.  A Dark, Such as the Ground showing Through the Snow.

Remember, this is a photo.  You would see the various primary and secondary colours vibrating if you were on sight.  In any event you can see that there are 5 values here.  4 values in the snow alone.  So using a cool and warm variation in the same value is a way to preserve values.

2 and 3 are somewhat confusing.  These appear very bright.  Then you see the sun hitting a surface tilted towards it - true light.  So this area is darker than the true light area and must be painted this way.  This area has both shadow and true light (at the snow flake level), and reflected light from the sky and surroundings.  It is a marbled, vibrating, bright area.  Typically (there is no formula...) it consists of all of the primaries - yellow, blue, red.  Often there are warm and cool variations of this value.

The direct light is more straight forward.  It might be a bit of cadmium yellow with a lot of white to make the lightest value.  Or you might use yellow ochre.  Or.....

The cast shadow is a cool dark in this example in sun light.  It might be a ultramarine and red oxide plus a bit of yellow mixed to the blue side with some white to the right value.  Your ability to see will tell you what to use for the specific situation.

The dark showing through might be a warm dark value using ultramarine and red oxide.  Again, observation will tell you what to use.

Painting these areas has endless possibilities.  For example, mix a dark shadow using the three primaries and a bit of white.  Use this in the shadows.  Lighten the mixture for the light shadow areas and make a warm and a cold version in the same version.  Then shoot reflective cools and warms into the areas on top of the first paint layer.  Or, you might first lay down a pink in the right value, and on top add the other primaries in the correct value.  All such methods will make the snow vibrate with adjacent colours.

La Cabane a Sucre

Gradation for Light

Most of the time we paint a light reflection, not the source.  This however, applies to both.  Reflected light varies in intensity with the highlight the pinnacle.  This is a gradation.  Only a small area of an object in the light reflects the full force of the source light.  (painting a light source then is similar to a highlight)  Other parts catch the light at different angles reflecting varying quantities of light.  As a result, a highlight cannot be effectively painted as a spot of white paint.  (White is another problem for another time)  The gradation towards the light is what makes the highlight so effective.

Still Life by David Leffel

And no, it is not just the value contrast at work.

The Young by Joaquin Sorolla

Gradation gives the landscape luminosoity.  Without it the observer merely labels a passage "this is light, this is shadow" and it no more convincing than a jet black tree against a bright sky.  The observer thinks paint, not light.  Painting from life trains the eye to see such things.

Sure it works with abstract....

Small Abstract!

Still Life Thursday

Tomorrow is colour and light training day.  I try to use Thursdays to do a still life setup and painting.  Training the eye and keeping it colour fit is a never ending job.  So, unless I get to go out painting with the gang I'll set up a still life colour study.  The morning is supposed to be sunny, so I'll do it then.

The easiest way to do this is to use coloured building blocks in a steady light.  This is because they have the fewest planes, and each plane requires a colour change or changes.  This is what Monet became fascinated with.

Here is one set up in four different light conditions.  Makes a great series, especially after you graduate from simple blocks and paint a subject of interest to you.

Same Blocks, Different Light Keys

Look closely.  Some restated and refined outdoor block studies of the same set up of white, black and grey blocks on a light grey cloth seen in different light keys.  This goes to show you that most of us think (not see) local colour per our experience.  Such training helps you get past these preconceived ideas of the mind so that you see what is there - the effect of light on masses.  The exercise takes you to the conclusion that the more plane changes the more difficult the colour perception, and thus the painting - if your concept is the light effect.

Monet, Light Versus the Object

Monet became obsessed with the effect of light on objects/shapes.  If you look at his early work and go through it chronologically you will see how the actual object lost importance and the fleeting effects of light became the subject.  He constantly developed his eye, painting outdoors from life.

Garden St. Addresse

In this painting he was apparently most concerned with "things".

Here is a painting from Monet's early "impressionist" work.

Impression Sunrise

Here he was concerned with shapes, not things, and the feeling he developed.

And later "impressionist" work.  Note the shapes of the brushwork.

Bateaux - Atelier

And then past "impressionism" to light effects and series.

Meule - Effet de Neige

There were quite a number of Haystack paintings.  Here it is said he developed the practice of painting multiple canvases at the same time, capturing momentary effects of light.

And then in the later years.....

The Japanese Bridge

And here the thing was further disappearing.

How the Eye Works

My optometrist helped me simplify this technical subject to the point where I almost get it.  Here goes.

There are rods and cones in the retina of the eye.  Rods are light/dark receptors.  Cones are colour receptors.  The human eye is designed in such a way that the rods vastly outnumber the cones.  This means that the eye is most sensitive to light/dark contrast.  Colour is second in sensitivity.  This is not to say that an individual can't be in love with colour.  However, even their eye is designed to be most sensitive to light/dark.

The implication to this design is that a painting with high light/dark (or value) contrast will attract people most.  For example, a painting with a few interesting shapes with high light/dark contrast will attract a viewer's eye from across the room - where colour is not seen.  After being attracted from across the room the viewer moves to the painting where the colour strategy becomes visible.  So get the light/dark value design with a few interesting shapes established.  Squinting is of supreme value here. Then apply the colour.

The colour application to a value plan gives many artists trouble.  In monochromatic, most do not have too much trouble.  In colour, reds, greens etc. fool many people.  These are middle value and tend to be applied too dark.  A good value scale will help with this.  Another tool for those of you who are studious is shown below.  I use this regularly when I teach.

Practical Colour Wheel with Pigments

This is an approximation of the values or specific pigments.  I have a much more detailed version for anyone requesting it.

I digress.  The retina of the eye occupies quite a small area.  Perhaps like a postage stamp.  The lens of the eye focuses the light image on the retina.  To understand the implication of this pretend you are my student.  I ask you to stare me in the eye.  Then I ask you "which eye are you looking at?"  You will realize that you can only focus on one eye at a time.  Then I ask you keep looking at the chosen eye, and describe to me what else you see.  You see all the other background, but it is out of focus.  This is another way of saying that the edges are soft.  The eye is attracted to a hard edge.

So now you have two powerful tools to help you construct a painting in such a way as to attract the viewer from afar, then to guide the eye to where you want it to go.

Colour or Light?

It seems confusing when you hear "you can paint light, or you can paint colour, but you cannot paint both at the same time."  To illustrate, here are images from the same site.

Silver Creek Swamp, noon, full sun effect

Early in the morning the hill in the picture above was in shade with the sun just beginning to move overhead.

Silver Creek Swamp, 9 AM, shadow and oblique light

Same place different conditions.  Many confuse colour with light.  You can see that sunlight tends to bleach out the colour even though the light is intense.  The colour is more saturated in less direct light.  It is your job to distinguish and choose the situation that most interests you.  Another alternative is to do a series.  The series can run not just the times of day, but day to day and season to season variations.  kevin MacPherson did small paintings on his pond on each day of the year - 365 images.  An amazing collection.

Too Close, 10x12, Oil on Board

Guess the time of this image.

The painting was done as a split complement.  The pigments were Viridian, Permanent Green Light,  Cobalt Blue (the analogous set), Permanent Rose the complement for Viridian, and Cadmium Yellow Light as a modifier for the greens.

Tonalists, Valueists, Impressionists, Imagineers

Things are transitioning quickly here with the rain.  So lets look at more colour concepts.

There seems to be two broad approaches to painting when it comes to colour.  Classically there are those who focus on tone and value.  Our visual world is traditionally based on a belief that we know the colour of things (such as trees - green, sky - blue etc.).  In fact these accepted colours are so set in our mind that we do not "see' anything else.  We have all experienced the phenomenon.  For example, we glance at a shape we recognize as a door, open it and walk right in.  When asked for the colour or the kind of door knob we are often unaware - because our set filter for the known object is all we consciously "see".  It is the same for most of us painting something familiar.  Many artists approach painting from drawing and value.  Rembrandt, Titian, Valazquez, and others had such highly developed tonal sense that most observers are unaware of their limited colour range (and their materials also limited colour choices).  The second approach is total colour which focuses on the effect of the prevailing light on the object/mass.  Monet and his "what an eye" developed this approach.

Here are two examples of a tonal approach to painting.

A start of a still life - in umbers - David Leffel

Notice the drawing and the shading.  The image is in earth tones and the shadow darks are used to give the feeling of form.  In times past artists did not have modern pigments at their disposal.  Today, glazers and traditionalists favour this approach.  

A House in Local Colour - Susan Sarback

This image is executed as a camera would see it.  The shadows are a tone of the colour of the object in the light - the tall tree for example.  The object and drawing are important in this process.

Here is the same image done by "seeing" the total colour - the effect of light on the object.

A House in Total Colour - Susan Sarback

This image was done by looking for and seeing the effect of the prevailing (sunlight in this case) light on the object.  The important thing here is the light effect, not the object, not the drawing or rendering.  The painting process is more aligned to sculpture.  Monet evolved along this path and Hawthorne and Hensche taught in his tradition.  Painting from life in sunlight is central to developing the eye to see the colours for this approach.  Notice the colours in the shadows.  This training takes time and execise.

Today painters use these approaches and everything in between, such as expressive colour, imagined colour, planned colour, emotional colour, accidental colour.....

Each approach is valid for the concept the artist is exploring.  All approaches can be used with the tools and materials available to us.  Now, if we could just discipline ourselves to make a concept statement and stick with it.

Always, Never, Sometimes

Artists often ask if every plein air painting is completed in the field.  No, and quite a number have little or no merit and become "skimmers", not keepers.  The training is always good.


Last time out we all got to do 3 paintings.  This is my third for the day.  Late day sun was beautiful.  However, my palette, which looked loaded with paint after I squeezed out, was starved by the time I got into this painting.  Short on white, and yellow, no viridian to speak of, lots of Alizarin and Ultramarine and sufficient Mineral Violet.  Not enough time to squeeze out reinforcements.  Sun going to the horizon quickly.  So, quick thumbnail for value and composition.  Then 15 minutes of frantic painting and searching for paint.

Third Key of the Day, 10x12, Oil on Board

Lots of work to do.  You can see the board showing through.  The colours are off, values need to be resolved.  Light source to be resolved.  Some focal painting to be done.  Then again, is it worth while?

Painted with a dirty #8 bristle filbert.  Comments welcome.

Mid Day in Hockley

We stopped with the escarpment wall facing us across a valley.  The sun was November bright and tracking toward the north west.  The valley wall was in shadow but the warms were beginning to creep in. Have to hurry to capture it this way.  After a quick shape value sketch I used the paint already generously squeezed on to the palette for the morning paint (see the last blog).  First the cool shapes were massed in.  This fixed the most rapidly changing elements.  Then the shadows.  Finally the warms of the foreground and last the slowly changing sky.

Valley by the Trout Pond, 10x12, Oil on Board

At this stage the value masses were established.  Next the masses were modified relative to one another.  The escarpment wall was very close.  So each other mass, such as the near darks, was compared for value - lighter, darker, colour temperature, warmer, cooler, and colour chroma, bright, dull, and corrections made.  It is interesting to see how much a colour's appearance is changed by the colours around it.  That is why the corrections have to be made when the shapes are massed in. This process was repeated with smaller colour variations put into the large colour masses.

The painting was done with a #14 and a #8 bristle filbert brushes.  Same palette as last one.

From Blue Fog to Orange Shimmer

Four of us painted in the Hockley yesterday.  Vic lead us to the far corner of what we call Hockley North.  The early fog was still hanging in the air under the burn of the sun.  Or was it the moon?  In the little valley Tamaracks hung on to some of their needles.  The set-up was facing south east to catch the shadow side of the valley wall.  At the start of painting the key was overcast with fog, but is was quickly moving to early morning sun.  The thumbnail was done quickly, the main masses were massed in, and a few minutes of painting went on in silence as the key changed.  So I stopped looking at the scene except for reference, the colours were totally different.

2, Sometimes Three  10x12, Oil on Board

If you look closely at the image you will see the wood grain show through where the paint is thin.  The board is door skin which is thin and light for travel.

The painting was done with a #14 and a #8 bristle filbert brush.  The palette consisted of Ultramarine, Viridian, Cadmium Yellow Middle, Cadmium Orange, and Alizarin, and Titanium white.

The afternoon session allowed us to paint two images, one in mid day bleaching sun, and one in late day orange sun.  Just a magnificent day.  We'll do better next time for cold weather training.

Fast Before Dark

OK, here is the second image from the last outing to the cemetery.  It looked better in the day light, so no changes in the studio.   It was done in 15 minutes and at the end the reference had changed completely.   The comments from the last post apply.

Evening's Second, 6x8, Oil on Board