3 things:
– general tonality
– collating values
– organizing effects
Anchors need points
Strong readers
-value + edge
Bottom line is unity:
Collating all data to everything else
“We don’t create Unity, we find it”
All we do is collate data
The Start:
Give:
Values to values
Edges to edges
Angles to angles
In that order
We repaint corrections
Not just retouch
Always comparing like to like
Large masses with well-articulated points
Work up the start in the Visual Order –
Blur eyes, then paint strongest effects
Apply charcoal heavy, then rub out – kills the brown paper colors
Largest masses – don’t pay too much attention to value shifts within mass
Start should have crisp articulations that can carry through to the finish
Find the strongest readers
Avoid the back-straggler
Paint & sketch all the way to the edge
When working in charcoal, emphasize frame
Use ruler to get crisp edge
When measuring angles to points, make sure the points are crisp and articulate
Start by isolating and spotting main effects
Find the music / poetry of relationships – i.e. angles of the lines – see Gerome’s “Gladiators”
Arabesque = outline of center of interest? [my question]
Only paint what you can see within your hands held thumb together as a viewfinder
This typically fulfills Da Vinci’s rule of 3 – 3 times the distance
Also, observe that in the placements – standing before easel – 3x size of artwork
Start: first marks are question marks – no info, start to build on
1 day for start
We don’t have time – blur eye to see what not to draw
The only facts in painting are relational facts
To paint red – find it’s context – look around the room
First marks are speculative
“Keep your knees bent” – flexible attitude
Shape plus edge gives articulated point
Absolute truth: value relationships
– As black as black and white as white
– Purely relational [range?]
– Transposition of reality
Start by watching – look at tonality – study
Save the whitest white
Transposing, not transferring
Paxton’s rule: look 4 times for every mark
Servant of the visual impression
“Out of charge, into listen model”
Aspects of painting: think of them like a window on PC – value window, color window, angles window, light effects window
“Start slow so you can finish fast” -Ingres
Model: “Need pleasure every 20 minutes”
Power up effects
Don’t look in in the start
Flatten out picture plane – look with just 1 eye
Notice what Paul doesn’t talk about
The Arabesque is a constellation of leading points through the painting
What do you see when you squint as hard as you can?
Make shapes disappear into each other when you see that
-Not drawing/painting objects
Avoid outlines
Seek continuation of forms through objects (forms of light & shadows)
Find the few light effects to go through when squinting?
Talk by Paul:
Unity
Picture in harmony – everywhere through process
With 2 or 3 witnesses get to truth
Get unity of impression in front of you
Values!! Relationships to lightest and darkest
Get differences, but see where else value/color can be used.
Paxton – where else can brush go
3 notes – not comparison anymore – what is unity – how do they [hang?] together?
Unity as expressed by Cox –
Kenyon Cox
“Classic point of view”
Only dissimilar items can bring unity
Philip Hale – book on Vermeer – p 15
All Drawing all of a piece – color, value, line, angle, unity etc.
Be in habit of collating data – seeing how data comes together requires seeing whole
Everything added must contribute to Unity.
Don’t just do something, stand there – slow model
Complex thrust
Complex gesture
Need to get concept fixed into mind or just pushing shapes around
Have to grasp
Always work from an idea – Visual idea, not brain idea
Get [quality?] then get unity
Cornwell murals
Liberty Mutual
A light effect is 2 clearly defined values plus an edge
Power up lights and dark, and the lost edges – where they actually occur – is what gives a sense of space
Hard edges come forward,
Lost edges meld into background
The end game is in the start – get the look of Nature
Spot values around
Lightest light
Darkest dark
Then a middle
Need a context for values to be right
2 approaches
– Series of effects
– [value masses]
In and out of approaches
Sometimes edge
Sometimes spot
Fixing anchors
Effects = value contrast edge
Sharp = strong
Soft = weak
Blur eyes – take top 3 or 4, those effects are the Arabesque – a constellation
Make it as like as you can, then follow through with comparisons
Unity = points being right to each other
Floating constellations
Not Now Cato
Patience Model
Who are the strong players?
Need larger spots – a few for initial places ideas, then larger masses – need to establish context to understand what the spots are.
“The context is the refinement”
“That will tell you what This is”
In the start: Stay away from shape, go for Mass
Blobs, not shapes. Large enough to get the sense and relationships
EXPLORATORY
This is research
All over at the same time – distributing spots NOT covering entire canvas until the end of the start
Flatten out the smudges,
No Texture
“Pulling up windows” – like PC
– Value window
– Angle window
– CONTRAST window
Joints and Rollers
-David
Can start from light effects as well as from value spots
Value contrast is a light effect
Start = [place points unified into general aspect?]
Know what your top player is
Light effect is always brightest contrast sharpest edge
Sharp points for anchors
When you put names to things you start to draw out of your head
Form is in the lights
The innocent eye will get you unadulterated truth – knowing too much is dangerous
Set up effect – find out what it takes to make it happen
Visual Not Actual
“Everything in art is derived from Nature” – Ingres
The “Look of Nature” is on the canvas – is the color relationships
Shape + edge + contrast + color
Look of nature at points
BE the object, don’t be about the object
No generalizing – only the Look of Nature
What are the Leaders?
Float the Look of Nature – float light effects
Most Significant Anchor
Look Easy at things
See Nature as [if] it’s already a painting
From across the room, that’s the composition, everything else is design
-Gammel
Naive Eye – only color, value, effect, shape, not things
Stay objective long enough until the music starts – go slow
Short list of things we work with: the list of transferable attributes between Nature and paint – value, shope, contrast, edges
When analyzing Back stragglers
Is it a form problem, value problem, placement problem, angle problem? Etc.
Likeness is not beauty,
Relationships are beautiful
Squint for the Look of Nature –
Look for any anomalies –
What disappears? What remains?
Be A Loser
Copy Notes:
Hydrangeas – very easy to see form of dark masses
Far easier to see lossness
Portrait: Extremely easy to see strong readers – obvious visual order
– Clear, simplified values: light, dark, middle
– Tougher to get points
Peaches & brass
Hardly anything there – contrast through edges
Copy critiques
-general tonality
Keying a picture: general tonality
5 habits for successful painters??
What are they?
Light effect
Tonality
Ghosting of whites
Values not right
Always step back –
Learn + memorize relationship – Ingres’ 5th floor
Concept: fixing relationship in memory
Balance
Stand Corrected
Keep adjusting
Be careful with each mark – how it relates to context?
Look for unities not differences
Fingers of light and shade
Squinting – one eye closed, softer
Look for “flayed man” video
Make fixed points – top & bottom
1 left & right
Fix longest angles then smaller
Don’t erase, move
Shadows flat: edge to edge, fill in the blanks
Get the light effects right, right from the beginning.
Move them as necessary.
Make the relationships correct right from the start
Try to locate an anchor in a center (x or y axis)
Anchor = a light effect from which other placements are determined
Effect = most found
What do they do?
Gets easy to remember
Doing = what is relationship – story?
Masters of Past Time [Paul recommends RE rembrandt]
Work value masses plus light effects together from the beginning: Get them both in play immediately – the value masses are required to give context to the light effects
Broken color exercise
Red Yellow Blue
Need to do search
Textured areas – can be off in value
Can break color – keep values same
Basis of all color isn’t getting one note, it’s getting set of notes
All over at once
“Hop Hop Hop” -Gammel
Go for pretty colors –
Keeps the rewards
Pursue colors you like!
Trying to figure out where the problems are
Floating points
Don’t squint – lose color qualities – keep eyes moving – wobbling – cones have best light
Just Red Yellow Blue
Just exploration – just research
If you have it in brush – see where else you can use it.
Chromatic = projective
Can make lights too big – [give] drawing with darks
2 or 3 strokes, then a cross stroke
Value first, then intensity
When any 2 colors put down, get them right to each other
Mixing colors: sometimes helpful to overshoot value / chroma
Get 2 – 3 things talking to each other
Most light effects aren’t white
Paint from spots to drawing, but the drawing is in the spots
Size of the spots matters?
Monet approach – appearance of color
Color exists in comparison with several others
Getting enough chroma in the lights is the biggest challenge
Ignore what things are or where the light comes from – painting as is is LIBERTY
When spotting – no hard edges – looks too much like drawing – vignette the spots – nothing flat
The main problem in painting is the chroma in the lights
Look at Da Vinci’s warm/cool shadows comments
Outside in, all over at once. Get notes at the edge of the canvas to avoid incorrect light effects
Avoid clumping spots
The battle is figuring out what to work on. Blur your eyes, and what stands out is what you work on.
Paint the similarities first, then work out if there’s an actual difference
Color-values become the drawing
Shouldn’t take more than 3 marks to hit color
Value adjustment
Chroma adjustment
red/yellow/blue adjustment
Puddle darks to make sure they pop before drawing with them.
Oil adds snap
Just blobs – not drawing
International first, then local
Use black last – red first
Match color first, then make adjustments
Do the start on an unchanging day – and keep the color going forward
Everything open during start.
“Open for Business”
“The System” is the big impression – let the painting lead you
Colors don’t get to be generalized
Greater to less greater to least great
Find out where the juice is then back down from it
Blur eyes
Strongest effects
August 3
See “Fearless” for set design
“King’s Speech” for paintings
“What dreams may come”
Light effects need masses – not broken color
Do it too far into the darks, then use darks to draw
Adjust, not [?] out
Correct exactly and only what you need to correct
If you and adjust it with a stroke, do so – 2 minutes rather than 2 hours
Visual order is visual, but also actual (order of perception AND order of work.
Visual order tells you what to DRAW first
We choose what to draw first – strongest, most dominant, easiest way it
FLOAT them
(float = unconnected MUCH)
Collating data – with each new piece of data – how does it fit in –
Relate with each and every simple note – easier than changing multiple points later.
Start with high chroma – want to relate to something significant – also darkest dark, lightest light, top & bottom – we choose the strongest – what’s worthy of our relation.
Paxton model – simplest is best
Stay on the back straggler
First part of color is value, then chroma
STAY working in the visual order
Strong readers: you can see them when you’re not looking directly at them
What tends to disappear?
What masses with what?
Broken color is search for the mass
Get color in there without killing the chroma
Use live color – put on touch and don’t stir – otherwise mud
“In my world I want clean color”
Put white down in a string
Color distribution by spot
2 categories for relationships –
How different?
How same?
For lost areas, values must match
If I can get to value, I can get to color
How can I influence note instead of how can I [?] over?
Rembrandt: “When I stop thinking I stop painting” – has to do with tiredness
Put a note down – see what it DOES
Don’t look in proportion
Width is function of height
Establish top & bottom
Don’t look for soggy effect
Outside in – major distances for light effects
Gammel – elevator effect – the noble half of a painting
No texture when trying to read values
The start must include the color scheme
No long strings – blobs should be uninteresting
Points only need to be adequate
Mud = no color, no effects – don’t generalize, explore!
Never place easel towards window
More raking light, the better
2 things make a color come forward – chroma & warmth
Need lights to stay fresh and chromatic
Blurring kills color, but establishes crucial order of effects – visual order
Remove texture from masses – creates unintentional light effects
Look straight ahead with both eyes
Trying to find the music, not find the basket – get the notes to sing to each other.
We don’t suggest values, we nail them
Always on a small mission – quick wins
Dead colors = Dead pictures
August 4
Use of palette
Mix colors on canvas – adjust on palette
Paint can’t be stiff – should move under brush
Buttery but not liquid
To adjust, mix pile next to original, get value matched. Then leave original alone as reference
Lets you change 1 variable at a time – everything is adjustment
When mixing, mix enough to cover required area
First mixture is a pig in a poke – test run
When values match, there won’t be a silhouette in pile
Mix to pig in a poke, then adjust
First thing – gotta be good at matching color mixes
Have palette in line of sight to get adjustment clues
Mixes – always of value and chroma unless you plan to change value & chroma
First mixes can be pure paint
Don’t live in yesterday’s knowledge – the naive eye wants candy
Keep the spots clean – don’t mix into each other
If you need dark red, need to use black – can’t use blue as it will neutralize orange component
Make mixtures grow out of each other
Use oil every time for blacks
With this strategy, you stop guessing, and work faster
First test mark wets canvas
When adjusting – exact match to what’s already there – then start adjusting wet into wet.
Cad scarlet = yellow & red
Alizarin = blue & red
If your picture is full of life, your palette will be too
Everything is about being in control
Rothenstein – Men & memories P 192 First book
“Scientific method of work –
Sargent: spotting things around then bringing masses together – assembling
Get top & bottom – then get left – make triangle, get angles in relation to each other, THEN establish width.
Know exactly when you’re there, do exactly what you intend, then get out – accomplish mission then leave
Put down multiple darks, then immediately differentiate
Get as much color on as possible to kill the white
Gammel – what’s the least amount you can do to accomplish your task?
August 5
Rembrandt – when I stop thinking I stop painting
Good thinking always a function of strong back
Read forbidden knowledge a few times –
Hindu 3 blind men & elephant –
Gets to cosmic truth
Truth has to be verifiable
Multiple witnesses lead to big truth –
Watch the whole, see back straggler – closer and closer – anchoring
KEY:
We can’t paint nature – we can only paint what it’s doing
The start is all mobility –
“That’s a pretty good note – I’ll live with it for a while”
Logic – way of working that has its own internal unity – every note is a function of every other note
Keep looking for data – finding things to correct what you already said
If painting isn’t easy, you’re working on the wrong thing
First few notes – find easier and prettier first – get info
The only absolute truth of our world is the relative values
Fluidity of search for truth
Anchors – never be in the world of fixedness –
Keep flexible
Clarity – lends itself to crystalization
“In the beginning” –
Think about how much content is in the word “IN”
(Romanian prisoner in solitary – thinking about sermons)
When you realize you’re a brain and a hand –
You find yourself forming an …
Don’t name colors EVER – look at palette and say “Some of that”
Lose old constraints –
BE OUT OF YOUR MIND
Let the notes think you rather than thinking about the notes
When the value changes, the color changes