Achieving colour harmony

One of the greatest little tricks I learnt as a young artists was how to attain colour harmony in my work. It is much simpler then you can imagine. Here's the rub....

1. Determine the overall colour or two that permeates the entire scene. So for example if painting a snow scene it might be grey-blue or some other similar combination.

2. Work out a value scale with ivory black and titanium white from 1 to 10, with one being the darkest while 10 being the lightest. Thus you'll have 10 distinct Gray values on your palette.

3. To each of these 10 values add a little bit of the "overall"colour from step one and in so doing changing the Gray scale to something different.

4. Start painting by mixing every colour with one of the colours from your pre made pool of values. So for an example if you a mixing a value 1 green hill as illustrated by the dark hill above; I would mix that colour by adding the appropriate green with the darkest value from my batch.

With this "soup" painting method you invariable have mixed the same colour theme with every paint batch. Perceiving a scene in terms of  one strong dominant colour and then painting the entire scene with it, can also be achieved by mixing a single pair of complimentary colours and then limiting one's palette to the use of those colours and white. The two complementarys would basically replace ivory black on the value scale. Remember however that the proportion is 1 to 2; that is 1 primary and 2 complimentary.

The above example was painted to illustrate this method using an overall green-yellow mixed into every batch of colour. Although the jpeg does not capture it well the whole work does achieve that green-yellow colour balance.

One final point, that although this way of working can be used for still life or portrait work, it is widely accepted as outdoor way of working.

My quest to be a better colorist

   In my quest I have decided to dissect a painting into shapes almost like a mosaic of color. I wasn't concerned about tone, value or temperature as is conventionally taught...Just color.
  
   Traditionally when you examine color it always gets related back to the median tone; for example a cadmium red middle and then every other value is either darker or lighter then it. You would then mix this color with an appropriate light or dark color to make an art school 10 point value scale chart. Furthermore a color would be examined according to the ambient light source, and adjusted for temperature accordingly.
 
   However a simpler approach to painting color has been used for generations but has largely been abandoned or forgotten today. This approach, made famous by the plain air painters based in Provincetown, Massachusetts, molds every color in major then minor variations. Their approach to painting is based upon color contrasts and not value contrasts. To commence a painting the observed mass colors were stated with chromatic strength and then modified several times to get the visual color relationship as close to the subject as possible.
  
   In painting this way there really is no reason for developing of a value study or a warm cool under painting as I usually do..., In the words of famous plain air teacher Henry Hensche: " In value painting the value can be absolutely correct and the color still be totally wrong; in color painting if both masses and variations of color are correct values are automatically correct." For anyone interested in reading his whole book that deals with his color methods in details here is the link:

Henry_Hensche_Colour_Study

    I’m not saying that I am changing my approach to painting but it certainly is unique trying to paint a new way and did I mention a whole lot of fun. A small study painted in about an hour on lineʼn as usual.

When to say done?

This is an ago old questions for painters working in the "bravura" style of painting. When is a painting completed? This is something that I struggle with on a daily bases as do painters who are/were much more accomplished then I.
For an artist coming from an illustrative, photo realism background, it is really easy to get carried away with the work and render it far to  completely. The key is doing just enough the be able to send your message across with as little strokes as possible. Your goal is to make your work look fresh as if it was done effortlessly, even though it took great effort and calculation.
One old art school method we used is to take a size or two larger brush then you would normally use. Force yourself to render larger shapes first and then focus on the details. In this way you are invariably works from the outside in. Once you have your larger values established you can go in with smaller brushes to render things more precisely. Remember however to work on the section that is most important first and then work from there. Or if your work is a statement of color, put down the boldest color first them work out. This way you, from the onset have established what your work is about, and everything subsequent is just a filler.
So when can you say that the painting is finished? There really is no fixed answer. Work broader to narrower observing fat over lean principles and have fun along the way.

Ex: I"m including this painting as an example as maybe it was rendered to tightly. My intent was for it to be a lot looser but in the end it was rendered with more details. There really are no rules and sometimes the paintings paint themselves.

Where I've come from

I thought I would do a quick post paying homage to my early years as an artist. Some of these works span back a decade so it is very surreal doing a post about them now. The reason is that one has to study ones past to know where they are headed (haha spoken like a true art history nerd like I am).

My early work was very illustrative. Very linear. I was more concerned about rendering and true to life capture, then I was with other things like brush control and spontaneity. I think that the biggest difference between my work now and then is in the amount of time I spend before I start a work and amount of the time it takes me to complete it. Now a lot more time is spend studying a model then completing the piece, where as before it was the other way around. I'm sure a lot of you will look at my early stuff and say, wow it's better then now, and that's okay. For me what's most important is the journey along the way and not necessarily the end result; and I don't remember that I've had as much fun as I do know painting....It's messy, fun and every now and again and get an occasional wow..God bless..

Do you have mudd in your color?

This is a common problem among young artists I work with. When you have such a large array of colors to chose from and mix where do you stop. Because invariably using and mixing to many colors can and often does lead to a muddy look in your work. The painting looses its freshness.
Another reason that a color might appear muddy besides over mixing is, if it is too cool or too hot for the spot. Examine your work and gauge whether the color in question needs to be wormed up accordingly or cooled down. A lot of the times that will fix the problem.
In the example below I painted a portrait using pure color as much as possible: Cadmium reds and yellows, alizarine crimson, and neutral grays..and the effect is a fresher more spontaneous painting. This pure color use was what made impressionists of 19th century so famous. I was furthermore mindful of the light hitting the subject and adjusted accordingly when painting her face. Remember warm light always produces cool shadows, while cool light produces warm ones. Happy painting.

"Girl with cat" Oil on board

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ode to Nikolai Fechin

Having once again rediscovered the work of the Russian master Nikolai Fechin , I thought I create a portrait in his style. Fechin's dramatic portraits in charcoal and oils, with a loose demeanor but a controlled hand, stirs emotion and inspires visions. More on him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolai_Fechin

Oil on Linen 18" by 22"

I sought to create a portrait of our friend Tijana using mostly the palette knife and was it ever fun. It is certainly hard to control especially if you are used to painting the traditional way with a brush; however the outcome is unique in its own way....

Brush control

A recently posted video on YouTube posted by me briefly covered a proper way a brush should be held when painting. It can be found here: How to paint a portrait in oil

What we contemporary realists strive for is to convey a subject matter true to live with as little strokes as possible. Give an illusion of effortlessness, even though a great deal of calculation goes into it. Greatest thing that separates an amateur and a professional is in the way they see. A beginner will view a scene linearly while a pro will see it in shapes. That is why when starting a painting, I will always grab my largest brush first to block in large shapes and then work my way down. The key at all times is to be mindful of color values. Let me illustrate through two examples.....

 

Here we have  a relatively controlled small study. It appears lifelike because I paid attention to color values at all times. However if you examine the second image of the close up you can see that this whole painting is rather abstract as a lot of it was done with a palette knife.

 

This is a more completed traditional portrait that shows much more control. Even though I started out much the same way as in the previous example I carried this painting further refining it with smaller brushes. 

Remember, don't be hung on with the details; focus instead getting the right value and color and then from there add detail as needed. Happy Painting!!!