PAINTING ONE: STARTING TO PAINT
1: Shapes and Tones
Sunday 29 August 2010
Goals and Study Plan:
Having completed the work for the drawing course yesterday, I am now ready to embark upon the painting course. Although I have some limited self-taught painting experience, I have not had the opportunity to pursue an organized course, and I hope that so doing will improve my skills and broaden my understanding.
In this log, I will record only activities directly related to the course, i.e. time spent setting up a still life, drawing or painting, reading, and theoretical work will be recorded, but time spent on writing the log, posting the blog, photographing work for inclusion in the log/blog, or hunting for my pencil, will not. This may seem rather arbitrary, but such a scheme worked well for me in keeping the log for the drawing course. I prefer to keep a paper log, but the identical material will be posted to the blog, http://decrepitpainter.blogspot.com/, usually once or twice a week.
Books and other study materials will be identified as well as possible in the log. Since it will be necessary to make frequent reference to the OCA text, I will usually refer to it simply as
Starting to Paint, with relevant page numbers. Small photographs will be included in the log as cross-references to sketchbook and non-sketchbook work, and will be identified by sketchbook page number or by other identifier for non-sketchbook work. Sketchbook work required for the course, and personal sketchbook work, will be done in the same volume (approximately A4 size), with a separate pocket sketchbook (about 9 x 14 cm) for “out and about.” If I use anything different, I’ll describe it.
Reading and theoretical studies:
Ian Simpson
Painting 1: Starting to Paint
Open College of the Arts (No date)
Pp. 11-47
Starting to Paint, p. 54: “…can you see ways in which the artists have used their imagination both in their choice of subject and the way they have interpreted it?” In my opinion, interpretation is typically done with more imagination than is subject selection; the number of potential subjects, though exceedingly large, is finite, but the ways they can be interpreted appears almost infinite. Choice of subject may result from inspiration, from desperation, from borrowing from the work of another, or from returning to a subject previously used. The ways in which one’s imagination then deals with the subject selected are multifactorial to the extent that a thorough investigation of the topic might yield one or more doctoral dissertations.
The Matisse and Bratby paintings referenced in the text show imagination of interpretation by employment of inconsistent or nonexistent perspective (Matisse tended to flatten perspective, Bratby to exaggerate depth), depiction of some objects more realistically and others less realistically, use of both realistic and unrealistic colors (often appearing to be used “straight from the tube”) and highly varied brushwork, ranging from smooth to very textured. Similar findings are present in the several other paintings by each artist that I reviewed. It is interesting that the Fauvists and the Kitchen Sink artists, separated by a half-century, produced work with such similar techniques (though, admittedly, with different subject matter and quite different motivations).
“Can you see how you could work in a similar way?” Yes, I can, though it would certainly not be the way in which I typically work. I do like the Matisse drawings of the mid-1930’s, and can see those fitting into my armamentarium more comfortably than some of the other approaches taken by Matisse or Bratby. My two little sketches are a somewhat Matisse-like figure done in simple lines, and a wholly imaginary and disorderly kitchen sink. (Sketchbook#1, p. 1)
Starting to Paint, p. 55: “How many different tones has he used?” I think I can identify six (and possibly eight) tones in the image ‘Nude’ on the Bridgeman Education site. The gradations are very subtle, and I doubt that any two observers would fully agree in their observations as to which tone was which. I think I can see six in ‘At the Eden Concert’ also.
“Make a list of other drawings in ‘Drawing, Seeing and Observation’ which use few or no lines.”
(This list is of drawings from the third edition. There are a few others that could debatably fit into this list, but these are the ones that best fit my understanding of tonal drawing.)
Fig. 5-Vulture
Fig. 11-Altamira Cave Drawing
Fig. 3.1-Memory drawing after Titian
Fig. 10.1-Standing female nude
Fig.10.19-View of the Stour
Fig. 10.38-Trees and Stretch of Water on the Stour
Fig. 16.6-Water studies
Fig. 18.12-Untitled
The employment of only a few tones, often with indistinct borders, allows a solidity of the image often not apparent in a more linear drawing. Since nature seldom employs lines, this can lead to an increased degree of realism. It appears to me that in order to produce a really satisfactory drawing of this type, one would have to work it up over a light preliminary sketch. (I found it interesting that Seurat’s sketchbook drawings tended to be quite linear, and that lines are in fact clearly visible in a number of the tonal drawings.)
My first two attempts at tonal drawing, a cat’s head and part of a manikin, were done with the side of a blunt Design Ebony pencil. At a few spots I produced lines, or at least linear edges, despite my effort to avoid them. (Sketchbook#1, p. 1)
As an experiment, I made a very loose, light sketch of a Seurat drawing, then added tone with the side of a Design Ebony pencil. I made no attempt at producing a finished drawing, just a tonal experiment. (Sketchbook#1, p. 2) I think a better result could be obtained using the original materials of black Conté on fairly rough paper.
Sketchbook work: A buff-colored mushroom about 12 cm in diameter with irregular light brown spots and a cream-colored stem, seen while walking in the woods. (Pocket sketchbook, p. 1).
Time today: 3 hours 37 minutes
