Monday, March 8, 2010

Conversation of Color--Warm and Cool

I wish I had painted this, but no--this is Vadim Zanginian--another Russian who has hit the American scene with a bang.  This nude demonstrates wonderfully the conversation between warm and cool colors that I try to teach and that I try to make happen in my own work.  Look how the cool notes on the lower right provide a perfect foil for the beautiful reds on the cheek and below the chin.  The warm tones in the arms and belly are held down--it would have been easy to over heat the reds there with cadmium, but the artist used nice tans and greyed out warm tones to do the job. He did not smooth out all of the passages with his sable brush--he left the transitions rough so that our eyes could have fun making the connections.  Nothing is over rendered--there is plenty of room for the imagination to wander.  This is the key--don't make me feel stupid by rendering the life out of every inch of the canvas--I have a brain, and I can take a hint--so don't scream at me with all of your damn details--save the details for the main story--don't throw them in everywhere.  This is a consistent weakness in those who have had heavy illustration backgrounds--no subordination of detail or color--too much detail and color everywhere.  It is also a weakness for those of us who render detail when our painting hits default mode--we give up the big initial vision hoping that if we render detail--then we can bail out the painting--guess what--no can do! The old timers like Dean Cornwell, Pyle, Frank Brangwyn and their buddies understood subordinate detail and color--that is, they would cause your eye to  "run up" to colorful passages by not putting too much color or detail everywhere.  This "run up" notion is true with line, shape, detail, color and other things I can't think of.  Warm me up to your painting, give me a little "now you see it, now you don't", give my eye a little "lead in" to your main theme--starve my eye a little, then feed my eye--play with my eye and brain--let me have a little fun with your canvas--how about some nice fore play?  I promise you that if your canvas does these things to me--I will have to buy the damn thing even if I am broke. 

6 comments:

  1. That's the ticket! I've been trying to figure out how to put the notion into words, confuzzling people with my roundabout, inarticulate way of explaining. But here it is. I'm going to borrow this Don. I'll buy ya a beer next time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don,
    Ditto Terry Miura's comment. . .Nora

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is amazing stuff. I am going to write this down and post it to my easel.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You have a very nice way of saying what we need to hear. Thanks Don!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good keys to a critique Don. You speak to the artist in us. Good things to ponder..

    ReplyDelete