WHAT'S BLACK AND WHITE AND READ ALL OVER?

The latest Palette Magazine arrived today and I was very excited and honored to see this image as part of issue on Black and White paintings.  I had submitted it after seeing the call for paintings in the last issue.  I sent a few different images but never heard back if they were accepted or not.  According to the magazine, they were swamped with submissions, so I was lucky to be selected.  This is such a great magazine, I hope all of you subscribe.  You can find it on Cheap Joe's website.  The magazine always talks about design concepts instead of how-to's.  This issue is on working with intensity to create mood.  I just finished teaching two workshops last month and we covered this idea when we dealt with color as an element.  I could have used this issue as excellent examples.  I need to put it with my teaching materials.

Went to a life drawing session tonight.  I was much less tired than last time and sat in a low chair with a back.  It made a huge difference.  No back pain and I enjoyed the evening.  Check out my blog "Drawn from Limb to Limb" for details.

TINT AND TONE EQUAL IRIDESCENCE

I have been re-reading Faber Birren's book from cover to cover in order to fully comprehend his ideas. He has a very formal way of expressing himself and often it is difficult to totally process the concepts. Putting words to visual expression is very tricky I am finding out. It turns out that Birren's contribution to color as it applies to painting was mostly in the area of figuring out how to express luminosity, iridescence and luster along with chromatic light effects and mist, etc. Much of this is strange to apply to a portrait but the attempt creates some very unusual results. I don't think you can really get an iridescent face but I decided to do something with the formula in today's painting. The general idea is to have the majority of the painting in the mid value range fairly neutral with TONES and then have small touches of TINTS. Instead of having the TINTS as part of the features, I decided to super-impose these squares on top of the image just for the fun of it. By masking off the areas for tints, I was able to paint more easily. I created the TONES by mixing complements. I have my palette arranged according to Stephen Quiller's recommendations for perfect compliments. It makes life so easy when it is established this way. All of his palette is pure hues so it works very smoothly with Faber Birren's 7 forms of color triangle. This color effect is all about INTENSITY of color and controlling the VALUE range. INTENSITY is the degree of purity of hue versus neutralizing or dulling it down. The confusion of intensity comes when you lighten the hue but don't dull it. Theoretically it maintains it full intensity but not full SATURATION which has to do with the pigment load, not the purity. I understand the concept. I just think there could be a better term to describe the situation. I like PURITY myself but the term INTENSITY is here to stay.

Art has it's own specific language and we have to be consistent in order to communicate these visual concepts. Many years ago when I was a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis in one of my first classes, the professor gave a talk. I remember thinking it sounded like English but I didn't understand a thing he said! I hadn't learned "art speak" yet. I'm still working on it!