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I- $16.95
Witercolor
\burWky By Carl Schmalz
Disc? ter your own watercolor style, build on
your unique strengths as a painter, and learn to
i
watercolors in your own way
Noted watercolorist Carl Schmalz, author of
Watercolor Your Way, offers a practical self-
eva'uation program for discovering and devel-
oping your style in watercolor—for being original
an^ for being you! Twentv chapters each pose a
—
q .estion which S"- cuz calls a "critical con-
cern"—that you should ask yourself to help you
analyze your paintings objectively. The answers
to these questions might dramatically change
your watercolors.
Are you predominantly a stroke or a wash
painter? Is the usual light-to-dark procedure
(normally considered essential to transparent
watercolor) helping or hindering you? Are you
using paint textures for the greatest possible vis-
ual interest? Are "rules" of good composition
getting your way 7 Are you getting the most out
in
WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS
BOSTON
PUBLIC
LIBRARY
Witercolor
\bur\fey
Witercolor
Y)urWw
By Carl Schmalz
W 9420
m
Edited by Connie Buckley
Designed by Bob Fillie
Includes index.
1. Water-color painting —Technique. I. Title.
Manufactured in U.S.A.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6
INTRODUCTION 7
BIBLIOGRAPHY 150
INDEX 151
CONTEXTS 5
Acknowledgments
No book is written, perhaps no gether with a few fine examples decade and a half. Equally, I sa-
human achievement is accom- from the past. I have also tried to lute Susan E. Mever, Editor of
plished, except by building on include as manv paintings as pos- American Artist magazine. She per-
the works of others. This book sible by people from all parts of mitted me to use the collected
owes, hrst, a great debt to the this country, paintings bv both photographs in her files, manv of
lateProfessor Arthur Pope of women and men, and bv people which appear in this book. I am
Harvard University and his pre- of different races, backgrounds, especially indebted to Robert E.
decessor Professor Denman Ross. and different degrees of fame. I Kingman, Amherst College pho-
It also is based on the special feel only partially successful in tographer, who is responsible for
knowledge and pedagogical gifts this, although I believe that the all black-and-white photographs
of Professor James M. Carpenter variety of illustrations achieved is not otherwise credited, and to
of Colby College as well as many still unusual. David Stansburv, whose skill and
others of my teachers and col- I am deeply obliged to manv care produced the color photo-
leagues. people for the illustrations that graphs that are not individually
have tried, in an abbreviated
I appear here. Owners, artists, acknowledged.
and sometimes awkward way, to dealers, and museum staffs were Finally, I owe an obligation to
adapt what I learned from Pro- particularly helpful. Among Professor Joel M. Upton of
fessors Pope and Carpenter them, I single out the staffs of Amherst College, whose critical
about the great art of the world the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, reading of my text aided and sus-
to the special nature of trans- the Fogg Museum, the Bowdoin tained me; to his wife, Sara \\
parent watercolor in America. I College Museum, and Colbv Col- Upton, who tvped it; to my wife,
trust that what 1 have said will be lege Museum. I am particularly who not only made the initial
useful. It is not, however, all that grateful to Dr. William C. Land- typescript but protected me from
either of those distinguished wehr, Director of the Springfield unnecessary intrusion and bore
mentors could have said. Art Museum in Springfield. Mis- with me through the long days of
A book of this sort requires il- souri,who lent me a wealth of labor; and to all of my students
lustrations. I have tried to photographs of works awarded from whom I learned something
present a good cross-section of purchase prizes in the splendid of how to talk about these matters.
contemporary watercolors, to- Watercolor U.S.A. Exhibitions
run bv that institution for the last
There are many excellent books their presentation, not because mary aim of this book.
that introduce the beginner to they cannot paint well, but be- Way is based on
Watercolor Your
transparent watercolor painting, cause they cannot judge their two fundamental assumptions.
but few that deal with concerns work well. The first is that quality in paint-
encountered by painters at the How do
you select a group of ing is not basically a matter of
intermediate level. This book ad- pictures with which to introduce "beauty" or even "meaning," for
dresses some of those concerns. yourself to a gallery owner or neither can exist without order.
Although it is directed primarily dealer? Here you want to
again, Just as a statement in language or
to those of you who have had show only the very best. As with numbers must be appropriately
some experience with watercolor, choosing pictures for an exhibi- structured to be comprehensible,
I hope that it may prove helpful tion, it is —the
wise to get help so a painting must be structurally
to beginners and more advanced most expert you can find — but ordered in ways appropriate to
painters as well. often, and finally, the decisions visual language. There is no hard
Once vou have acquired basic must be your own. and fast grammar of visual lan-
skills in watercolor, vour primarv The last reason for learning to guage, as every painting repre-
need becomes regular, informed your own work is the
criticize sents a dialect of its own.
criticism. Except in certain areas most of all: painting is not a
vital Nevertheless, artists develop indi-
of our countrv, this can be diffi- mechanical affair; it is a human vidual dialects that they use with
cult to find; in many places there event. As you put paint on your slight variations in all of their
are few watercolorists. Les-
still paper, you constantly assess your mature work; hence, just as we
sons and workshops arranged bv progress, are alert to new possi- say that Madame B ovary is written
art societies, galleries, and muse- bilities, and are wary of things in —indeed, "in" Flau-
French
ums are extremely valuable, but that require change or refine- bert —we can say that the Polish
usually less frequent than one ment. You make continuous criti- Rider is painted "in" Rembrandt.
would wish, and not evervone has caljudgments. For an artist, mak- Pictorial order is created by the
the time or money for painting ing and judging are aspects of interplay among the artist, his
trips that would introduce him or the same process. Learning to see subject, and his materials. It is
herto new experts. pictures with some sophistication recognizable as what I will call
Were these the only reasons to is, therefore, just as central to here pictorial coherence or integ-
indicate the importance of learn- your task as is learning to paint rity —the wholeness and consis-
ing to criticize vour own work with competence and facility. tency that result from a marriage
they would be sufficient. But This book differs from most of singleness of vision (whether
there are other reasons, too. How how-to-do-it books because it tries trivial or profound) and well-
often have you attended a solo principally to answer questions used materials.
exhibition and wondered at the about how to see pictures, rather When you make a painting,
variation in the quality of the than how to make them. But you do a very special thing: you
works shown? Too few artists are since seeing and making are make a completely newborn
able to make the solid, ruthless interwoven in the act of painting, world. Like a god, you create it.
judgments that produce a really the questions related to both be- You alone are responsible for its
fine, high-level show. Artists mav come entangled at some points. life and which is why that
laws,
include a weaker work because Nevertheless, helping you to see white sheet can be so frightening.
thev "like something about it" —
pictures especially your own The order of your painted world
and thus diminish the qualitv of clearly and objectively is the pri- emerges from your response to
INTRODUCTION 7
the world you experience, trans-
lated by your vision and skill into
the terms watercolor paint will
permit.When you are finished,
you have made a personal state-
ment about your understanding
of the human experience. This
statement reflects your strengths
and weaknesses, your sympathies
and dislikes. All this you have to
accept, for it is a consequence of
the responsibility you took on
when you gave life and order to
the blank paper.
This "world" you make must
be coherent: that is our first as-
sumption.
The second assumption is that
you can best grow as an artist by
building on your strengths rather
than concentrating on your weak-
nesses. I do not mean that you
can or should ignore your weak-
Perhaps an old dog can learn new tricks! This demonstration focused on nesses; but because they are,
reserving small lights to indicate die Queen Anne's Lace in front of the shack. in general, easier to see than
Apart from that, it is basically an "easy" picture, a tvpe which I describe in strengths, it is tempting to focus
Chapter 1. Photo by Alice Moulton.
on them. Unfortunately, this may
mean you overlook your
that
strengths, and that is folly, since
it is chiefly in what you do best
is look hard and analytically at They should be varied. Include More than that will prolong your
your own work. Select from your all possible shapes, sizes, subjects exercises beyond tolerance and
work twehe to fifteen pictures, and treatments. But don't include clutter \our analysis beyond use-
although as few as eight will be anything you feel is not quite fulness.
sufficient if you can't or don't good. You are going to spend a
Simplon Pass: Mountain Brook bv John Singer Sargent. 14" x 20" (36 x 51
cm), courtesv Museum of Fine Arts. Boston. Sargent's painting is based on
strokes of essentially similar size and shape. He differentiates them to en-
hance the description of rocks, shrubbery, and water, but pictorial coherence
is so strong that in black and white it is difficult at first to make out the
INTRODUCTION 9
Figun 1
Morning Fog. b) Carl Schmalz, 1969, 124" x 21f (32 x 55 cm), 140 lb. rough
paper, collection of the author. The easy progression of values from light to
dark, background to foreground is especially evident in a black-and-white
illustration: but without the pla\ of yellow and violet, and red. green, and
blue in the more distant objects, the dark boat at lower right demands too
much attention, creating disequilibrium in the design. Photograph bv David
Stansbury.
1 he easy
Picture
concentrate first on the central Illustrations
Is the light-to-dark features of your picture if they Morning Fog (figure 1) is an ex-
are dark. There are some obvious ample of an "easy" picture. I be-
painting procedure, advantages to procedure, of
this gan this painting with a sky wash
essential to transparent course; among them is an obliga- in which wet blended brushloads
tion to work the paper all over so of orange-violet streaked the
watercolor, helping or that you keep the entire surface area, suggesting veils of drifting
hindering you? in mind from start to finish. Nev- fog. When this lightest and most
ertheless, the naturalsequence of distant tone was dry, I added the
your creative responses must fre- shoreline to the right. While it
Critical Concern quently be ignored because you was still wet, I lifted out a few
You may find the title of this must always place a light on the strokes with a wrung-out brush to
chapter misleading, since no paper before you add a dark suggest wisps of fog. The silhou-
good watercolor is really "easy." next to it. etted boatsand their reflections
Yetin some transparent water- There however, situations
are, went in next in the middle-
colors, the relationship between in which the process of painting ground, and then I put in the
technique and representation is from light to dark is admirably slightly darker, warm grays of the
so close that it creates an effect of suited to your subject. This is wharf and shack to the left. In
and economy.
great simplicity true when you are painting the same drying time, I added
As commonly defined, a trans- darker foreground objects against some slightly darker tones, re-
parent watercolor is one in which a lighter background, and it oc- serving the pilings and ladders,
no opaque white pigment is used. curs often when your subject is in and painted the greenish reflec-
Rather than whites or lights indirect light (see Chapter 13), tion of the dock. Last, I set the
being added as positive, active such as in fog or on an overcast lobster boat and its reflection in
marks that cover darks, all light day. In such cases, the need for the foreground. I had to wait for
tones depend on the white paper reserved lights is greatly reduced, these colors to dry before paint-
and the pale-valued areas being and the painting sequence follows ing the darkest values in the
reserved, or This
left visible. the spatial "logic" of the subject. painting —the boat's interior,
means you must normally paint Itbecomes easiest to lay down portholes, and other descriptive
the lighter colors in vour picture your distant, pale tones first and details.
before you applv the darker your near, dark tones last. There are two aspects of this
areas that abut, overlap, or sur- You still do not generally have procedure that bear thinking
round the lighter ones. In other the choice (as does the oil about. One purely technical fac-
words, the transparent nature of painter) of painting your center tor is that direct light-to-dark
your paint dictates the sequence of interest first, but you can painting generally yields the divi-
in which you paint the various achieve a natural pictorial co- dend of fewer and more easily
parts of your picture. You might herence because the order in organized drving times. Morning
prefer to paint your picture in a which you paint corresponds to Fog required only three drying
particular sequence but be forced the order of the spatial planes. periods. The other point is that
to alter this sequence because of This is the "easy" picture for you the light-to-dark painting se-
the technical requirements of and for the viewer, who responds quence corresponds almost ex-
transparent watercolor. For ex- appreciatively to the ease with actly to the sequential process bv
ample, you may not be able to which the picture is organized. which the illusion of space is es-
Exercises
The essential problem posed by
thischapter can be divided into
two parts; the first is more or less
&£ MJ
makes the light-to-dark pro-
cedure impossible or undesirable,
consider Loring W. Coleman's
Quiet Afternoon (figure 4). Cole-
man faithfully records architec-
**
tural details and nuances of light, \
but the ease of the process is still
felt by the observer. Also note
chose to emphasize verticality and to focus in much closer so that I could the viewer with its sureness and
make the ell window the prominent center of the picture (see the discussion grace — for the appearance of
in Chapter 5). Photograph by David Stansbury. hesitation and insecurity destroys
and the dark strokes low on the ground-to-foreground principle. Nearer than the rock, light and dark are
needed to create the contrasts that produce visual excitement suggesting mo-
center rock define the slope of
tion. Photo bv W'oltz.
the wave. In the eddving surf it-
self, lights and darks are em- This chapter considers only one look anemic, as though it could
ploved largely to create linear aspect of this complex matter, never come to a strong and
patterns suggesting the water's unique —
but essential to trans-— healthv maturity. Have faith in
movement. parent watercolor. The light-to- the procedure —and in vourself
dark procedure can vield an al- and remind yourself that you will
6. Where vou have used the light- most automatic correspondence introduce some stronger darks
to-dark procedure, were vou con- between the painting sequence soon! Also try to avoid this situa-
sciously taking advantage of its
and the spatial illusion of the fin- tion by making preliminarv value
technical ease and the pictorial ished picture. We have also sketches, by introducing a few-
coherence it creates? observed that this orderly corre- darks deliberately out of se-
You may have been unaware of spondence, or basic coherence, is quence, and bv numbering your
what vou were doing, but you normallv achieved onlv when values.
have probablv achieved a sense of particular subjects are repre- In any case, you can increase
ease and coherence in these sec- sented. In its purest form, the the pictorial coherence in your
tions of your picture anvhow As .
method is unsuitable for many work bv thinking through your
we shall see. it is often in those watercolors. Nevertheless, it can painting sequence before you set
parts of a picture vou painted be emploved in parts of most pic- brush to paper. Keep the follow-
you can dis-
least consciously that tures. Its use will contribute both ing aims in mind as you do so:
cover vour most personal tend- —
coherence and because it is the (1) wherever possible, reduce the
encies as an artist. "natural" way to applv trans- complexitv of the painting pro-
—
parent watercolor an air of ease cedure; (2) minimize the number
Summary and sureness to a painting. of drving times; (3) avoid awk-
This chapter has introduced the The light-to-dark procedure ward edges, so far as you can. bv
basic problem addressed bv this has a drawback that may have eliminating the need to juxtapose
book: what are the simplest ways dissuaded you from using it. It lighter tones against darker ones
to integrate your technique with seems to prevent early realization already on the paper; and (4) in-
your subject to realize a coherent of your picture's value pattern. clude reserved lights in your
statement of vour expressive aim? The half-done picture tends to light-to-dark plan.
Stroke and
Wash
watercolorist's vocabulary, of and washes, or (4) in some or-
Are you clear about the course, but it may alsoencourage derly gradation or sequence of
the unwary artist to mix the two strokes and washes. The fourth
two chief ways to apply methods in a way so disorderly as method is most commonly
mulation of strokes; this has been they demand. But some of it can cation just described.My painting
true of most watercolors, as well also be a function of the mechan- isalmost entirely done by the
as works in fresco, tempera, and ics of applying the paint, which stroke method, while Eliot
oil. But transparent watercolor we recognize as the artist's "hand- O'Hara's is almost exclusively a
again differs from other media in —
writing" the very root of style. wash painting.
its capacity to flow over a surface, Indeed, it is through the basic or- For Stonehenge (figure 7) I se-
creating the effect called a wash. dering of materials that we recog- lected a smooth, hard-surface
We can define a stroke as the re- nize individual styles and are paper because it retains the direc-
sultof your control over the made aware of an artist's special tion and movement of each
brush, whereas a wash is the re- message. individual stroke. The sense of
sult of your control over the In Chapter 1 we saw that a pic- the brushstroke is visible even in
medium. ture can be tightly organized the sky and grass, where the
Although the wash is distinctive when the sequence of paint ap- paint handling comes closest to
to transparent watercolor, only a plication corresponds to the washes. The picture fully reveals
few major artists have used sequence of objects in space. Se- the interlocking strokes of which
washes as their primary tech- quence, therefore, may be termed the image and the paint surface
nique. Except in the hands of a a pictorial ordering principle. are made. Through this easily
genuine master, a picture made In transparent watercolor there perceived integrity of surface, as
exclusively of washes is apt to be are four fundamental ways of well as the unity of surface and
rather bland. Nearly all water- ordering paint application to image, you can grasp both the
colorists, however, incorporate achieve the surface organization wholeness of the world created
washes into their pictures, which necessary for pictorial coherence. by the artist and the magic of the
leads to opportunities and prob- You may apply the paint in the making.
lems particular to the medium. following ways: (1) exclusively in Dusk, Stojiehenge (figure 8) is
The availability of two different washes, (2) exclusively in strokes, painted on rough paper. The
modes of paint application (3) inan approximately equal paper's depressions retain water
strokes and washes —enriches the and regular mixture of strokes and allow the pigments to flow
while thev were wholly or par- Card's The Covey (figure 12), Figure 11
tially wet. Modulations of the where wet blending gradually de- The End of the Hunt bv Win slow
Homer. 1892. 15±" x 214" (39 x 55
yalues within these areas, es- creases from the picture's edges
cm), rough paper, courtesy Bowdoin
pecially the soft edges left bv toward the upper center. The College Museum of Art. Large wash
irregular drying, vary the washes weedy habitat of the birds is thus areas may be modified by playing
sufficiently to suggest foliage and played down; the quail blend with the drying time to create effects
similar to those produced by strokes.
reflections while preserying the with their landscape at the edges
Here, especially in the foliage at the
appearance of a worked surface. of the picture and are more visi-
right. \ou can see how Homer inter-
Because neither pure wash nor ble atits center. The gradual weaves genuine strokes and apparent
pure stroke appears in emphatic drying of the paper allowed the strokes that articulate his washes. In
form, the pictorial surface is both artist to increase descriptive detail addition, there is some use of
tightly knit and handsomely var- and to focus our attention by sequential organization as strokes be-
come clearer and more frequent in
ied. The world Homer creates is means of strokes.
the foreground.
coherent, full, and forceful. But wet blending is not the
Finally, you can achieve surface only way to obtain a coherent
consistency by utilizing some logi- surface by establishing a sequence
cal sequence from wash to from wash to stroke. Look back,
strokes. For example, vou might for instance, to my Stonehenge
treat all background areas with (figure 7). Although the skv is
logic in which wash means "dis- clear that the area is painted in
tant"and stroke means "near." strokes. But these strokes (like
Figure 12
particular mode of surface
The Covey by Judy Richardson Gard, c. 1973, 21" x 29" (53 x 74 cm), rough consistency, ask yourself the fur-
paper, collection of the Mercantile Bank of Springfield, Springfield. Missouri. ther questions listed below. These
Gard creates a coherent surface bv working with the natural order of diving. exercises will help you identify
Soft, broad strokes at the periphery of her picture give ua\ sequentially to
ways in which you may be realiz-
sharper, smaller, more descriptive ones in the birds at (enter. Added accents
ing surface coherence
of spatter help to keep the wetter parts of the surface visualh interesting.
incompletely. They will also sug-
and washes. On the other hand, ploy wet blending and many You will probably find some
your system may be right, but not other surface treatments ranging range of related surface organiza-
fully matured. Look again at from scraping to spattering. This tion methods.
Edges and
Reserved Lights
edges of washes or a sequence of sult of an inclination to add more
Are razor-sharp edges, brush marks to add up to a to- of anything that looks good. Un-
tally unplanned linear element fortunately, we generally do
unexpected edges, or that can often prove very difficult almost the same thing the second,
messy edges reducing to disguise or remove. Such un- third, or fourth time. In trans-
expected "lines" can alter your parent watercolor, unwanted
the surface coherence
composition and interfere with edges or lines slip in easily, es-
of your paintings? both illusion and surface integ- pecially as dark touches are
rity. Finally, there is the added in an attempt to enliven
overlapped or blurred edge al- potentially dead areas. A se-
Critical Concern luded to in the last chapter. Any quence of such darks can become
Edges present problems to paint- of these can decrease surface co- a fortuitous line if not carefully
ers in all media, chiefly because herence and cause the painting to controlled. When painting sea-
"there are no lines in nature." look botched and incompetent. weed on a beach, for example, I
We identify what we call dif- Let's think briefly about each have to refrain quite consciously
ferent objects bv perceiving their of these three problem areas. from overaccenting a sand slope
contours, but these are actually Few watercolor effects are as en- with these "helpful" darks.
only juxtapositions of color and trancing as the soft, wet-in-wet For the transparent watercolor-
value that vary from sharp to blending of color that is so spe- ist,however, the worst edge
scarcely visible gradations. Our cial tothe medium. But we trouble arises directly from the
drawing conventions, however, seldom recognize that the clean, light-to-dark procedure and the
render all these distinctions as hard edge of a wash or stroke necessity of reserving lights. If
lines, and the conventions neces- laid on dry paper is equally char- vou are not painting light to dark
sarily carry over to painting, since acteristic of watercolor. The and reserving you are ask-
lights,
the marks brushes make have dis- capacity of the fully charged ing for blurred edges. If you are
tinct edges unless the artist brush to form a precise, linear reserving lights, you know that
deliberately modifies them. edge, although enhanced by the placing a deep dark against a
For painters, then, the edge use of cold-pressed or hot- very pale tone poses few diffi-
problem is generally less one of pressed paper, is fully evident in culties because the coverage will
technique than one of either in- paintings on rough paper as well. normally be complete; but with
sufficient observation or The problem, then, is that even middle tones you must plan in
inadequate thought. For the though both blurred and precise order to avoid overlaps, for here
transparent watercolorist, edges are natural to watercolor, the darker of the two tones is
however, edges can be especially they are extremely different visu- likely to be quite transparent and
troublesome because of technical ally. A coherent painting nor- result in an unwanted seam or
complications. There is a poten- mally includes almost exclusively blur.
tial for inconsistency in the —
one or the other or a fairly bal-
contrast between the sharp, dry anced mixture of both (see color Illustrations
edges that watercolor seems to in- plate 17, Nursery by Susan When we speak of edges that are
vite at the borders of both strokes Heidemann). too sharp, we must speak rela-
and washes and the soft edges Unexpected edges or undesir- tively. The plethora of sharp
that wet blending produces. Also, able linear elements can occur in edges in The Ell bv Lonng W.
there is a sneakv tendencv for the all media. Thev are usuallv a re- Coleman (color plate 5), for ex-
, I
Figure 11 (above)
Flop by Carl Schmalz, 1975.
(detail)
12" x 19i" (30 x 50 cm) 140 lb. hot
pressed paper. Preoccupation with
sharp edges creates an overemphasis
on shapes in this non-picture. The
luminosity of the shed and cottage at
left is contradicted bv over-precise
detail in thehouse at right. There is
also aproblem in the lack of consis-
tency between the rather looselv
applied paint and the sharp edges of
the shapes that further diminishes
surface coherence. This paper is a
candidate for the trash can! Photo-
graph bv David Stansburv.
Figure 19
Hop (detail) by Carl Schmalz, 1974, 8f' x 11" (22 x 28 cm), 140 lb. rough
paper. This probablv was not going to be a painting anyway, but I made sure
of it bv losing interest and sticking in darks thoughtlesslv. Not onlv is there an
unpleasant line at the junction between ledge and shrubberv, but the shadow
darks among the lower rocks are also insensitive as well. Photograph by David
Stansburv.
cessive attention to contours — of down" thinking is required is, of cumstances. In short, unless you
buildings, their details, and shad- course, drawing (which mav be need very small lights for exam- —
ows. The pattern of shapes made why the English usually refer to ple, tiny flowers in a field or a
prominent bv these edges con- watercolors as "drawings" and glint of light along a wire or on
flicts with the light effect, dimin- mav further have contributed to —
an icicle vou will almost always
ishing the power of both. The the resistance, in some quarters, find it technically easier to re-
would-be-picture has a split per- to accept watercolors as paintings serve, for if you mask or use
sonality and fails as a coherent on a par with those in other opaque you will probably
white,
statement of either pattern or media). The need to reserve have to spend almost as much
light. lights calls for watercolorists to time fudging the marks to make
Although overemphasis on pre- think with special flexibility and a them appear reserved as you
cision of edges occurs frequently particular kind of planning. would have spent reserving them
in the architectural elements in a Let's orient ourselves by re- in the first place. There will al-
landscape, it can happen any- viewing a bit. We employ the ways be those special circum-
—
where in trees, clouds, and, of light-to-dark procedure because stances in which masking fluid or
course, rocks. Another of my at- the technical ease it allows opaque white may be the only
tempts flopped because of a rock emerges in the final picture as possible solution: in such a situa-
crack that is too sharp (figure 18). visibleorder (see Chapter 1). The tion, by all means use it. But be
Compare the central crack in this procedure is simple, and it cre- alert to how it may diminish the
detail with the one at the right. ates a natural coherence in the surface coherence of your paint-
Preoccupation with descriptive materials we are using. It follows ing, and be prepared to disguise
accuracy makes the edges of the that ifwe are to achieve the its use to restore that coherence.
center crack too dark and too vis- greatest economy of means, both A good illustration of superb
ible, so the crack fails to take its in the process of painting and in economy in reserving lights is
place within the more general the appearance of the final prod- Win slow Homer's famous Homo-
treatment of the rock face else- uct, we must anticipate the sassa River (color plate 6). Homer
where on the paper's surface. location and tone of our lights. always made a careful pencil
Faulty observation and technical In this way. we can let a surpris- drawing before he began to apply
overkill violate the coherence of ing number of lights do double his watercolor. He concentrated
the painted surface and destroy dutv, and we can also control the on the objects he wanted to
the pictorial illusion. kinds of edges we desire. stress, rarely setting down more
Unexpected edges, which are Before looking at some classi- than background notes. As a re-
generally lines or linear elements callymasterful examples of sult, the more distant areas in his
that appear bv accident, can be reserved lights, let's consider the watercolors are frequently "ad-
controlled simplv bv remaining question, "Why not use commer- libbed" and most clearly reveal
alert. You will find that thev most ciallv available masking fluid and economies. In this picture,
his
frequently appear as darks, often save all of this nonsense?" The Homer put in the grayed blue,
where vou are looking for answer is that sometimes you can still largely visible at the right,
shadow accents. An example is a do this very successfully, but after the skv dried. Observe how
detail (figure 19) in which I these times are the exception the value varies within itself from
thoughtlessly outlined the top of rather than the rule. You will be right to left. He used a very simi-
an exposed ledge with shadows using reserved lights, at least in lar value for the lighter tree
against the lighter jungle back- more practical thinking about ure 12), we observed how a
ground. Finally, this value reserving lights —a painting sec- gradation from wash to stroke
becomes darker at left where it tion. To begin, setup your focuses attention on the center
defines a palm trunk and masses pictures and look at the way you birds.This can also be seen as a
of Spanish moss. The effect of treat edges. gradation from softer to firmer
luxuriant growth, light, and dis- Ifyou are a wet-in-wet painter, edges.The same shift is com-
tance achieved by the judicious
is you have relatively few edges
will monly used to indicate a
use of essentially three colors, to check, since most will be softly movement from far to near in
some doing double duty. blended. Nevertheless, a study of the illusory space of a picture.
Although the edges of these your use of edges, especially the Are you using edges to help de-
colors are all sharp, notice how relatively firm ones, will help you fine space inyour pictures? Are
Homer uses a variety of edges in determine whether you are (1) re- you taking advantage of edges to
the picture as a whole, including lating edges to your main focus your composition?
rough brushing in the palm pictorial interest; (2) using edges Finally, the properly controlled
fronds and reflection, wet blend- effectively for representational treatment of edges based on gra-
ing in the background and water, focus and compositional empha- dation yields a surface coherence.
and a blotted-out light in the im- sis; and (3) exploiting the As with the stroke and wash,
mediate foreground. The possibilities of edges for surface there are two other principal
observer recognizes in this variety coherence. ways of achieving coherence of
an all-over ordering of edge Concerning the first point, a edges. One is through a consis-
types consistent with Homer's all- thought tells you that the
little tent use of the same type of edge
over balance of stroke and wash, sharpness of edges is a direct throughout the picture; the other
as discussed in Chapter 2. function of value contrast. For is through an even mixture of
In Maine Still Life (color plate example, the bare branches of edges. \l\ July 6, 1976 (color
7), I had many lights to reserve. leafless trees make striking pat- plate 8) is an example of the first.
In fact, the entire picture was vir- terns against a light sky, but Crisp edges, typical of smooth
tually painted "backwards" by grouped together, as at the paper, show everywhere except
comparison with the "easy" pic- border of a meadow, the separate within the larger washed areas,
ture. After a quick pencil branches are scarcely distin- such as the house at right, the
drawing, I painted the palest guishable because their value is distant foliage, and the shadowed
tones of the lilies, stems, and so nearly the same. So one of the trunks at center. In those areas I
weeds. As the light-middle value first places to look for overstated have sought variation by permit-
of the lobster pots went on next, edges is where tones close in ting colors to flow together.
I reserved the previously painted value abut. From the standpoint Andrew Wyeth's Bermuda
vegetation. This tone, which I de- of observation, these junctures (figure 16) displaysall types of
liberately varied to give a sense of offer one of your best bets for edges without regard for dis-
texture to the oak slats, covered softening edges, which will tend tance. Surface coherence is
the part of the pots in shade as to emphasize broad areas of maintained by distributing the va-
well as in light. I turned then to value, and hence value pattern, riety of edges over the entire
the modeling and detail of the in your painting. On the other surface, so some clouds have
lilies, finally setting in the deeper hand, you may choose to make hard or ragged edges, some rocks
darks, which I also used to define the edges of shapes close in value have soft ones, and the figure
details in the lobster pots. Wher- precise to clarify pictorially what and the boat, the focal center,
ever possible I let a lighter tone is visually unclear. In this case, share the general spectrum of
run under the edge that the you may want to soften some possibilities.
darker surrounding colors would strong contrast edges arbitrarily A consistent treatment of edges
overlap. This gave me almost for balance. This increases the leads to pictorial coherence as well
complete control over the edge I visibility of individual objects as surface coherence, in the same
wanted. Here I used sharp edges while minimizing value patterns. way that a consistent treatment of
almost exclusively, letting the So consider: does your use of strokes and washes does. Again,
"^
X '^ -"^
V
Figure 21
Small Point, Me. (detail) by Carl Schmalz, 1965, 81-" x 11" (22 x 28 cm). Fin-
ished painting 13" x 31" (33 x 79 cm) 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collection of
the author. The lights of the dead spruce trunks and branches went on with
the lights in the sky, the distance, and the grass. I reserved them when paint-
ing the darker foliage and later modified their color where appropriate.
Photograph by David Stansbury.
economy that is so often appar- darker background? distance that shift to increasingly
ent in Winslow Homer's painting; Study the subject for every pos- crisp ones in the foreground.
it is also essential to the technique sible opportunity to economize You can avoid unexpected
of many other artists. your procedure. Remember that edges chiefly by staying alert to
If you would like to try reserv- value is nearly always more tell- their presence, especiallv when
ing lights, select a subject (per- ing than hue: often a hue tells you are painting things that call
haps something vou sometimes the viewer more than is required for a series of similar brush-
shy away from) with plenty of and may contribute to a lessening strokes.
light-against-dark elements. This of color coherence (see Chapter Blurred or messy edges are
might be some birches or other 12 for more information about best controlled by planning your
light-trunked trees against ever- color coherence). A color that is painting process to take max-
greens; an architectural subject, not fully descriptive of the object imum advantage of the econo-
possibly including a picket fence; it represents may increase color mies offered by reserving lights.
coherence and, if the value is
Paint Texture
When speaking of paintings, the sible textures obtainable through very rough drybrushing and spat-
word texture may be confusing be- the use of tools other than the tering on top of a wash applied
cause the same term can mean brush, the use of materials other very wetly. The great difference
different things. Sometimes it sig- than paint, and special treatment between the two is clear, and
nifies descriptive texture, the of the paper before, during, or even though the effect is visually-
represented surface look of ob- after the painting process. arresting, you can see that such
jects such as rough stone or slick Many diverse surface textures effects have to be controlled or
glass. But texture also refers to offer the watercolorist a broad itself may become
the surface
the look of the paint itself, which range of opportunities for ex- more interesting than the picture.
may be dry or wet and flowing. pression. At the same time, Once more, a usual means of
Texture can also refer to the par- incautious selection may result in controlling contrast of paint tex-
tial or entire look of the painted an unnecessary variety of surface ture is by applying it in grada-
surface created by strokes or treatment or in the use of tex- tions or sequences. Bogomir Bog-
washes, as discussed in Chapter tures that contrast so violently danovic's Central Park (figure 26)
2,and sometimes these primary that they disrupt the coherence illustrates one way of doing this.
meanings can overlap. In Charles of the picture. In most sections of the picture,
Colombo's R.F.D. (figure 22), for paint has been applied wetly but
example, a generally rough paint Illustrations speedily enough to leave a num-
texture characterizes the whole The simplest wav to create strong ber of rough, brushed edges on
surface, including the grass, pictorial coherence through paint the rough paper. This creates a
metal boxes, and sky. In the mail- texture is to use pretty much the fairly equal mixture of wet and
box posts, though, this unifying same texture all over the paper. drv texture. But additional dry-
paint texture becomes descriptive Susan Heidemann's Striped Leaves brushed details build sequentiallv
texture as well. (figure 23) offers one example of from the background to the fore-
This chapter is less about de- this. Working on a fairly smooth, ground bushes and figures and
scriptive textures than about the hard surface, she employs a mod- the details of tree branches at
use and possible misuse of paint erately wet brush, so that the either side.The logic of the shift-
textures. Like the other factors paint dries with small "oozles" ing texture from wet to dry paint
that create the painted surface of within most strokes. The strokes allows the greatest contrast of
a picture, texture can enhance or themselves are organized by se- texture to emphasize the nearer
diminish pictorial coherence. In quences of size change, but large elements that are the focus of in-
transparent watercolor the "natu- or small, they have a textural re- terest in the picture.
ral" texture range runs from the semblance. Although entirely different in
PAINT TEXTURE 33
£
Figure 23 (right)
Striped Leaves bv Susan Heidemann,
1976, 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm), cold
pressed paper, collection of the artist.
This is fundamentally a stroke paint-
k*
ing. The strokes vary in size within a
controlled range, and all share a sim-
ilar fluid texture deriving from
their
initially wet application. Heidemann
does not tamper with her stroke once
it is set down, so the drying
often
tends to be a little uneven; this gives
both the strokes and the surface a
sense of loose aliveness.
Figure 24
Cattle by Charles Culver, 1947, 19" Figure 25
x 24" (48 x 61 cm), 90 lb. rough
a Ve
paper Texture Sample bv Carl Schmalz, 140
b Sh rOU
^XicL
overall picturere surft7 TH °" ^ Paper CTeateS a bristh ,ook
surface. The texture is reminiscent *
of the coarse hair of some
lb.rough paper. Utterlv different
cattle, so it not only helps textures tend to contrast so greatly
to unify the surface but it
also ennances
enhances the dc
he pie-
ture s expression. Photo bv that thev disrupt surface coherence.
Svlvester Lucas
Note that it is virtually impossible to
read the spatters and rough brushing
as behind the wet-blended strokes.
This is because they must actually
overlap the earlier washes due to the
light-to-dark procedure of trans-
parent watercolor. But the sharpness
of their edges also instructs us to
read them as near, as in the light,
rough-brushed marks at lower right.
The differences are so visible that we
cannot read a coherent paint surface
at all. Photograph by David Stans-
burv.
overall appearance, Gene Klebe's are taboo. On the contrary, they Figure 26
Wet Float (figure 27) illustrates a can be very effectively used, as in Untitled (Central Park) bv Bogomir
Bogdanovic, A.W.S., c. 1969, 22" x
similar system. There is a back- Samuel Kamen's Berries (figure
28" (56 x 71 cm), collection of the art-
ground-to-foreground shift from 28). This small black-and-white ist. Bogdanovic combines two ways of
wet to dry texture that corre- picture relies on crayon or pencil controlling contrasting paint texture.
sponds to a shift from general- lines to augment and vary the He mixes wet washes and drvbrush-
ized to specific descriptive texture relatively homogeneous texture ing fairh uniformly over the paper
surface; but he also tends to increase
as well. Note that the background of student-grade, machine-em-
drybrushing toward the picture's
water and much of the wet float bossed paper; and partly because foreground, where the trees and fig-
are treated quite broadly, as are of the prominence of the pencil ures are located.
unessential details such as the textures, we easily accept the tex-
ropes at left and the lower sec- tures of scratched-out lights.
tion of the lobster pot at right. Many artists enjoy using
Dry textures are largely used to speckling by splashing drops
render more precisely the surface from a brush, flicking bristle
textures of the baskets, rusted an- brushes, rubbing a toothbrush
chors, barnacle-covered pot through a sieve, or some other
buoys, and other bits that charac- method. This usually corresponds
terize the locale. best to the rest of the paint tex-
Most dangerous to pictorial tures when the entire painting is
PAINT TEXTURE 35
Figure 27 gral to the picture-making grinding that formed them; that
Wet Float by Gene Klebe, c. 1969, 18" process becausesome drops were is, the scratches profoundly ex-
x 28" (46 x 71 cm), rough paper, col-
spattered on when the washes press rather than merely record
lection of Mr. James J. Rochlis, D.
Wu Ject-Key Memorial Award, were wet. The texture of the the geological formation of the
A.W.S., 1969. Here two ways of con- splashes and drops matches the rocks.
trolling texture are also combined: (1) range of textures seen in the
overall distribution of soft and sharp strokes of the grave marker and Exercises
and (2) selected focussing of sharp
grasses. Similarly, one can imag- Excessive contrast in paint tex-
definition at a series of points of in-
terest around the picture surface and
ine Wyeth's Bermuda (figure 16), ture is one of the principal ways
in the picture space. The result is a with its free and vigorous han- of upsetting a painting's co-
tightly integrated work, full of tex- dling, augmented by purposeful herence. The best way to
tural interest. or accidental spatters. overcome excessive contrast and
Knifing another technique
is hence use texture effectively is to
commonly used to produce tex- work for similarity of texture, a
ture or lights. John H. Murray's balanced mixture of textures, or
Cranberry Island, Maine (figure sequences of texture change.
30) is an excellent example of a It is time to ask some more
29 (below)
Figure
Overgrown by Murray Wentworth, c.
PAINT TEXTURE 37
about these, but concentrate on
uses of textures obtained by
means other than the ordinary
materials and tools of transparent
watercolor.
Sponges onto the dry patch, you can ex- deed, the very richness and di-
plore various printing or versity of watercolor textures
Salt
Sand stamping techniques with the pose a central problem for the
veined backs of fresh leaves; cor- painter. Controlling these tex-
Knife
Single-edge razor blade
rugated board; pieces of rubber tures so as to use them effec-
flooring, door mats, or stair tively, while maintaining surface
Plastic scraper
treads: crumpled plastic wrap or coherence, poses an ever-present
Blotters (Kleenex)
paper; sponges; and other mate- challenge.
Cheesecloth
Plastic wrap rials. Remember also that you can The main principles to bear
use your hands and fingers to in mind to help integrate paint
Erasers (different kinds)
Old toothbrush modifv wet areas or dry ones by textures into the picture surface
Bristle brushes
printing. (See also figure 53. The are a balanced mixture and se-
PAINT TEXTURE 39
Figure 32
Kitchen Ell by Carl Schmalz, 1970, 23" x 17" (58 x 43 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed
paper, collection of the author. This chapter suggests that a simple approach
to composition is to identify what really interests you in a subject, put it near
the paper's center, and then design around that focus. Here, the window with
its flower pots attracted me. I cut my paper to a shape that almost duplicated
that of the window (3i x 24/79 x 6 cm), and placed the window just left and
below the middle of the paper. The rest of the composition fell into place
easily. For example, I mo\ed the central chimney slightly (compare with fig-
ure 5) so that its dark vertical shape continues that of the right section of the
window.
Designing from
the Center
tional artists the answer is its own organized world as well as
Do "rides" of good "Because I like it." "The sub-
or a translation of the represented
ject appeals to me." These are you must decide
things. First,
composition get in your rather vague answers, although what you want to repre-
thing(s)
way? we know pretty much what they —
sent what interests you. Center
mean. We don't often hear our- that and then see how the paper
selves saying something as context can be ordered to pro-
Critical Concern concrete "Because I think
as, duce both pictorial coherence
We know that since the sixteenth these angles and shapes will make and appropriate representation
centurv. and probably before that a great composition." And vet. of your chosen thing(s).
time, compositional rules were es- for many of us, it is just such a Often vou can identify quite
tablished to aid students of subliminal perception that sets us easily what the "thing" is: it will
painting. Many of these rules are to work. I have often been two- usually be the thing(s) that first
helpful. "Never put the horizon thirds along in a painting in caught vour eve. In Kitchen Ell
in the middle." for example, is a which I fullv intended to omit a (figure 32). for instance. I knew
generally useful obseryation. as telephone pole before realizing from the start that my primary
is "Don't allow a strong diagonal that the pole was essential to interest was the window with the
to run out of the corner of the what I saw as a good potential flower pots on the sill and the
object at the edge." leave vou picture is to identify what attracts shape proportional to the win-
with few places to put a large ob- vou most in a scene. You can dow, but I doubt that I thought
ject. In of composition
fact, rules then place that thing or things in much further before beginning
may be as bewildering as thev are or near the center of your paper the drawing. I worked from a
illuminating, and we mav do well and compose the rest of it to sup- sketch (see figure 5).
to approach the whole question port and strengthen that center The process of arranging a pic-
of pictorial design from another focus. ture is complicated, and I see
point of view. little gain in trying to simplify it.
This, in fact, is just what we've Illustrations Nevertheless, there are "natural"
been doing and what we shall Let's begin by noting that a pic- tendencies, physical and mental,
continue to do throughout this ture is not just "of" a thing or that you can rely on; and with
book. In this chapter we will group of things: rather it is of a conscious control, they help vou
focus essentially on how design- thing or things and their context, create an orderly design to sup-
ing lines, axes, and surface transformed by you into a new port your central "thing."
shapes affect compositions. —
context the context of a sheet of In Kitchen Ell, I placed the
Whv do you paint a particular paper of a certain shape and size. focal window to the left of the
picture? For many representa- The paper context must become vertical center of the paper. The
tom of the paper is strongly Another by-product of our the sequential lines and their
echoed in the lowest branch com- human urge toward order is the echoes.
ing in from the upper right. The likeness between the contour of
angle of the shadows makes it the distant hill and the fore- Exercises
clear that the shadow cannot be ground snow at the base of the Start this section withsome doo-
cast by this branch. Rather, it is a ell. The lower contour of the dling. Get out a sketch pad, some
product of my use of the human snow moves to the left in a curve half-sheet backs of old watercolor
tendency toward repetition. But that suggests a parallel of the un- papers, and a couple of large
even if it was unconsciously done, seen hilltop curve and so makes pieces of paper, if you have them
observe the result. Not only do I what is hidden almost visible. (newsprint will also do). You'll
gain a valuable compositional re- Two quite different wavs of de- need a pencil, crayon, brushes,
peat, but I make a statement signing the context around a and black paint.
about the similarity between tran- centrally placed focus can also be Take your usual painting posi-
sience and insubstantialitv (the seen in figures 33 and 34. In tion. Let vour mind become as
Figure 35
Afternoon by Robert W. Ducker. 1975. 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), 140 lb. hot
pressed paper, collection of the artist. The force of this picture derives from
clearly created and limited foreground space contrasted with the infinite space
of the sk\. The play between finite and infinite is stated thematically by the
central vertical of the porch support, which bounds the view of skv under the
porch while pointing to the unfettered space above and to the right.
paintings to see whether any of the center. Remember that you that interests you. Thinking
them contain a similar boldness, can rely on your natural ten- clearly and deliberately about
angularity, or other tendency dency to repeat parts of this main your subject helps but think —
you've noted. The chances are shape elsewhere in the design, with your pencil in your hand,
that vou will see in not all of your but you also need to think con- for a painter can only think visu-
paintings, but in some, the same sciously about the placement and ally about painting. Your doodle
propensity. And you may find visual emphasis of such repeti- exercises should provide you with
that these similarities to your tions. some clues as to the kinds of lines
doodles appear most often in Ifyour paintings seem to van and shapes that attract you.
those parts of your pictures a lot as to the kind of forms they Something in your subject that
where you feel most secure and display (especially if they vary reflects those lines and shapes
have to think least consciously. significantly from vour doodles), may provide a kev to \ our inter-
Check skies for instance, or back- and if the center of interest tends est in it.
grounds, or the periphery of to become lost or deemphasized, It is always possible that the
your pictures, such as the very you will probably do well to do central thing that interests you
near foreground at the bottom of the following when painting: (1) isn't a "thing" at all, but some
your paper. Sometimes your very try very hard to decide exactly eloquent space or gap, as in
choice of subject may reflect what interests vou most in a Robert W. Ducker's Afternoon
these preferences, as when a per- given subject; (2) place it near the (figure 35), for it is less about the
son who prefers curvilinear middle of the format; and (3) architecture of the cottages than
forms avoids architectural sub- look for similarities between vour about the infinity of sea beyond
jects, or a person who likes acute subject and its context that can be them. In a similar way. Robert
angles rarely undertakes pure used for both design and expres- Andrew Parker's Portrait of R.
landscape. sion in your pictorial context. Confer (figure 36) centers on the
space between the head and the
2. Have you been placing your
Summary trees, suggesting simultaneously
center of interest near the center
A simple, sound way to think that Mr. Confer lives among
of vour format? Is it still clearly
about composition is to deter- trees, is sitting in front of them,
the picture's focus? If not, can
mine what interests you most in a and is thinking about them. Yet
you figure out whether vou mis-
subject and put it near the mid- another alternative is that vou are
understood what your interest
dle of your paper. Vou can count drawn by a cluster of things
was, failed to emphasize the cen-
on human nature, as well as vour around the center, as in Wet Float
ter of interest sufficiently, or
own sensibility, intelligence, and (figure 27) by Gene Klebe. Re-
tried to place the main focus de-
experience, to create a composi- gardless of what you identify as
liberately off center? If you
tion inwhich repetitions and the focus of your interest, you
maintained the primary interest
sequences help form a good de- can begin to think about compos-
in your picture as the focal point
sign that may also enhance ing your picture by setting it near
of the painting and, even better,
expression. You will find that a the center of your paper.
few preliminary sketches will start
Using Similarity
/^^
'V
Cv(
f
The same phyj
Are you using logical tendencies ^ i
v £_, i he msis-
achieve composit ( ,
,, .
painting as an active balance of lines, shapes, sizes, are repeated in the grasses below
and intervals can also produce and in the bare trees at left, as
ordering principle well as by bits of architecture
boring pictures. Unless you con-
or merely as sciously seek effective and imag- within the porch. The pillars
USING SIMILARITY 47
merits, always connote change in
a purely visual way. It is the na-
ture of pjants to grow and
change. And weathervanes, so
prominent in the porch display,
have the express function of in-
dicating change. Kaep links these
ideas together in the stability of
horizontal/vertical contrasts, the
shifting of height and interval,
and the of near and far.
shifts
Just as the central weathervane
(an allusion to antiquity) states
— ^t the visual themes, it also states
the "narrative" themes, for the
changing direction of the wind is
opposed to the stability of the
compass points. Hence the sub-
ject of the picture is not just an
old porch, but fixity versus fickle-
ness. The wind becomes a meta-
phor for time, the passing of
Figure 38
Spain by Arne Lindmark, A.W.S., 1969, 22" x 28" (56 x 71 cm), which is inevitable but which
rough paper
collection of the artist. Simple, bdt highly effective, brings unpredictable alterations.
repetitions of size and
shape between the gables below and the arbitrary "clouds" Thus, because they are pro-
create
unity across
the picture surface. Notice that value contrasts foundly expressive, the similar-
and linear accents build se-
quentially toward the center of the painting, and
that the generall) horizontal and repetitions here are any-
ities
cluster of buildings forms a right angle with
the tower of birds.
thing but dull.
Arne Landmark's Spain (figure
38) illustrates a quite simple use
of similarity ofsize and shape.
The sky portion of the picture is
linked to the land portion by ga-
ble shapes that echo the real
gables of the buildings below.
Notice that the cloud and build-
ing shapes are similar in size, too,
although the clouds are tilted and
thus differ in axis. The birds, ar-
ranged more or less vertically just
to the right of center and de-
creasing in value as they ascend
the paper, help link the upper
and lower parts of the picture,
since the angles of their wings
are like those of the roof sil-
houettes.
William Zorach's White Christ-
mas, Robinhood, Maine (figure 39)
offers an interesting study in bal-
Figure 39 ance. Balance is rarely simple
White Christmas, Robinhood, Maine by
William Zorach, c. 1957 15" x 22" (38 symmetry, and here strong value
x 56 cm), cold pressed paper, courtesy
Mr. and Mrs. Tessim Zorach SimHari
ues of repetition, sequence, and contrasts at the side margins of
6 "" 31 Snd h0n
balance help to provide coherence
n C for ZT
KTe'Th
Pine ree Thrreis"
Tthe bare tree
u k- f
Cft
T
T^ **"*** ° f
.leff^^.^KT^
'^
wel1*
°f
^
tal HneS and 3XeS Ca
*™ d
" be found h ro ughout he
"" plcked U P bv the ce
™ ^^°
bal ances of value contrast
"^
n ln the bra " c hes
between that tree
the paper balance each other, al-
though the shapes they suggest
are very different.
trunks at left
The tree
balance the fence at
and the
i
building at right and between tree
trunks at left and fence a^ht right more symmetrically. It is
Exercises
Get out your picture collection
again. You have two things to
look for: the various similarities
themselves and the way and de-
cree to which vou have made use
of the similarities to increase pic-
torial coherence. Notice that we
are not now speaking of abstract
design alone, but rather of how
compositional repetitions rein-
force or enhance your expressive
intentions.
Let's examine these four as-
important to realize
2. It is also
that shape not limited only to
is
than one represented object, courtesy. O'Hara Picture Trust. O'Hara takes the St. Raphael billboard as his
often carry great visual force. central theme, its rectangular shapes echoed in the store windows in
tilted
perspective. Illuminationfrom shop interiors is diffused and then reflected in
Look, for instance, at the large,
the rainy pavements. The yellowish light pulls the whole lower part of the
generally dark shape of the water painting together. Much lower values and intensities of yellow appear in the
in my Fort River, Fall (color plate dark buildings above.
9) or at the dark island at upper
left and the light shape of the
beach in Indian Point (color plate
10). Despite variations of color
and value within them, these are
dominant shapes in the pictures.
USING SIMILARITY 49
quite distinct shapes can, of adjustments you- might have ing s corners, are you integrat-
course, be very nearly the same made to enhance compositional ing them with the rest of the
size. In fact, size is among the unity. It is much more probable paper by making them parallel or
most treacherous of pictorial that you are using these sim- perpendicular to other lines or
factors for this reason. For in- ilarities, but doing so partly or edges? In O'Hara's Chez Leon (fig-
stance, it is all too easy to pro- completely unconsciously. You ure 41), you'll notice that the
duce a foreground in which may also discover that you are arbitrary line at the lower left
rocks, bushes, and logs, although of line and
alert to similarities parallels the dominant oblique
varied in shape and color, pro- shape, but not to those of size angle of the St. Raphael sign in
duce a deadening effect because and interval. the center of the picture.
of excessive similarity in size. Having checked your pictures In John Smith's Beach (figure
the spaces between objects. The important question of how you lower left to horizontal at the
two-dimensional breadth or are using these elements. To do middle right. A suggestion of
height of an object itself con- this, ask yourself, picture by pic- such a sequence also occurs in
when I considered the placement you've noted. Do this systemat- are further linked by similarities
of the window in my painting ically, observing your use of of shape in the clouds and rocks
Kitchen Ell (figure 32). similaritiesof line first, then below.
You may not have to examine those of shape. Pay special atten- You may find that you tend
allyour pictures for these ele- tion to size and interval, for they to make the humps of cumulus
ments of similarity, but look are normallv the most easily over- clouds the same shape and size.
carefully at a minimum of six or looked of the spatial elements in This can often happen with rocks
eight paintings. Ask yourself first design. At this point concentrate and bushes, too. Dullness may be
whether you are even taking ad- on the similarities that seem to be compounded if all three are simi-
vantage of these elements. It is serving a purely compositional lar toeach other, for even
unlikely that you are not, since, function. though a metaphorical signifi-
as we have seen, they tend to ap- Consider how you are using ar- cance may be intended by these
pear- spontaneously. But should you
bitrary lines, for instance. If likenesses, the eye is quickly
you discover that you are ignor- like to "contain" your pictures bored by such repetition and is
ing them, consider what with lines that cut off the paint- unlikely to grasp your meaning.
Figurt 42
John Smith's Beach by Carl Schmalz. 1963, 10T x 22^" (27 x 57 cm). 140 lb. rough paper, collection of the author. A
sequence of directional changes in the waves helps to hold the distant headland together with the foreground. The same
end is served by shape likenesses in the clouds and nearby rocks.
three-dimensional integration of
vour picture. Nevertheless, vou
can strengthen vour work bv
using similarity as a support for
your expressive purposes as well.
In this way, vou introduce a co-
herence between what your pic-
ture is and what it says. This is
what vou must look at now
Recall the ways in which com-
positional structure supports and
emphasizes meaning in Kaep's
Antique Dealer's Porch (figure 37).
and use our analvsis of it as a
guide in vour assessment of vour
own use of similarity. As vou go
through vour paintings, vou will
discover that vou often have
done something good without
knowing vou were doing it. This
will, of course, continue to be the
interval —offer some of vour interval from the bottom to the base of the building equals that from the base
to the eave. As vou look up the picture, there is an A. A. B. A. B rhythm.
most powerful means for achiev- Both intervals are also repeated horizontally. From the left margin to the light
ing pictorial organization and architectural vertical just bevond the tree is A. B occurs in the openings at
coherence. Danger lurks in exces- lower right.
USING SIMILARITY 51
Figure 44
Deserted Dock h\ Gene Klebe, A.W.S.. c. 1968, IS" x 28" (46 x 71 cm), rough
paper, collection of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur K. Watson. Contrasts of both line
and value make this an arresting picture. Klehe tames the contrasts with se-
quential changes in the axes of the posts and hoards. Strong value contrasts
are spread faith evenl) over the paper, creating an asymmetrical balance.
Focal areas are pointed up through judicious use of descriptive texture.
Exploiting
Contrast
Obviously we cannot get along Contrasts of size and interval are
Is thoughtless use without contrast, but we must prettv straightforward, and value
of contrast violating
harness and tame it. To tame it. contrasts —black and white or
we can deliberately modulate it. dark and light are equally clear.
the coherence of your or we can use various types of
primary principle of differentia- line, shape, size, and interval among the posts and supports of
tion. Contrast is essential to our and in the elements of color the old pier. Nevertheless, con-
vision: we cannot separate the hue. yalue. and intensity. Here trast of directions is very strong,
simplest figure from its ground we will deal with spatial elements, for many junctions are almost
without some sort of contrast; but will include yalue as well, right angles. Klebe tames these
lack of contrast makes camou- since it provides one of the strong oppositions by relating
flage and protecti\e coloration in strongest types of yisual contrast. manv of the lines either sequen-
animals and birds work. It is not difficult for most of us tially or bv direct repetition. For
All drawing and painting begin to recognize similarity, but con- example, the two dominant posts
with contrast; it is the root of trasts can sometimes escape in the right foreground begin a
representation. Perception of dif- notice. Let's review some of the right-to-left tilting sequence that
ferences allows us to show a tree most common kinds. is picked up bv the short fore-
against a wall, a wall against a There are two types of linear ground post, which is paralleled
an ear against a head.
sk\. or can contrast in
contrasts: lines by the more distant leaning pile
Without contrast we could not position or in quality of move- at left and then neutralized
see: without similarity we could ment. The strongest contrast of among the entire group of piles
not order what we see. position is opposition, such as near the left margin. A similar
Precisely because it is so basic lines or axes meeting at right an- set of changing angles relates
to seeing, contrast is often a gles (either horizontal/yertical or some of the horizontal or nearly
cause of grief to artists. It is all at other angles). A strong con- horizontal elements. The long
too easy to oyerstate differences. trast in quality of movement piece of railing at top left is inte-
We have all been plagued bv the would be a straight line versus a grated into a sequence that in-
too-sharp gable, the too-big wavv line or a jagged line versus cludes the two major lines imme-
mouth, the too-sharp edge, the a curving one. Firmlv drawn lines diately below it and ends in the
too-dark, too-light, too-red, and also contrast powerfully with de- two long leaning posts at right.
so forth. These are of all sins liberately hesitant ones. In addition, the direction of the
well-meant, but oyerdone, con- Shape contrasts also varv: circles main joist of the dock at the up-
trast. We are painting what we contrast with squares or triangles, per left parallels the axis of the
see. isolated and exaggerated bv and all three geometric shapes boat below it.
contrast. contrast with non-geometric ones. Since the distant scene is al-
EXPLOITING CONTRAST 53
Figure 45 most obscured by the fog, one bilizes the design; the decoration
Pumpkins and Apples b\ Samuel might contend that this fore- on the jar and the base of the
Kamen. c. 1938, pi" x 6|" (13 x 17
cm), rough paper, collection of the
ground and middleground plav pumpkin at left echo each other
artist. The jar is similar to the of contrasts and similarities is almost exactly. The apples, sim-
pumpkins in size, but contrasts with really Klebe's subject. Sequences ilar in shape and size but varied
them in shape. The apples are simi- (or gradations), especially of line, in value, form a sub-theme,
lar in shape, but contrast in value.
very often carry the visual con- whereas the smaller whites create
The framed picture is similar in
notation of temporal change, as a visual counterpoint through
value (and pattern) to the left
pumpkin, but contrasts in shape. we saw in Kaep's Antique Dealer's their strong contrast and asym-
Kamen's use of contrast is completely Porch (figure 37). Here they pro- metrical placement.
controlled in this complex and re- vide an apt image of decav. In Berries (figure 28), Kamen
fined little painting. Photo by Peter
whereas the contrasts of direction clusters small whites in the upper
A. Julev.
indicate the original strength of left. This group of small accents
the structure. contrasts strongly with the larger
Two small paintings bySamuel white of the jar at lower right. A
Kamen provide interesting exam- subtle, but easily perceived, bal-
ples of contrast in shape and size. ance results. Both of these
Pumpkins and Apples (figure 45) paintings are designed with re-
displays a very sensitive balance markable elegance and reward
between shape contrast and size careful analysis.
similarity. The two pumpkins and An astonishingly bold use of
the jar vary in shape but are simi- interval contrast distinguishes
lar in size. They are arranged in Arne Lindmark's Side Street,
a tight inverted triangle that sta- Seville (figure 46). Approximately
EXPLOITING CONTRAST 55
4%&
w/it'jvA
Figure 47
Rocks and Sea by Clunk's Hopkinson, KU" x 22" (34 x 56). courtesy, Museum
of Fine Arts. Boston. Startling contrasts of value (and color), shape, and sur-
face handling contrive to project enormous visual excitement appropriate to
Hopkinson's dynamic subject. The picture is held together bv similaritv in the
brush strokes and, more subtly, bv similarity of the sizes of the areas. Note
also the sequences of directions in the water and rocks. This picture is very
different in treatment from Eliot O'Hara's .\lor>ii)ig Surf (figure 109).
EXPLOITING CONTRAST 57
Figure 48
Among Bare Maple Boughs by Loring W. Coleman, A.W.S. c. 1975, 28" x 20"
(71 x 51 cm), courtesv, Shore Gallery, Boston. At the intimate viewing distance
Coleman's super-realist approach invites prolonged enjoyment of the descrip-
tive textures he produces. His strong composition helps to tie together the
minutia of his observation so that the picture carries well and also rewards
inspection from the normal viewing distance.
Three Mewing
Distances
and "narrative" content of the a picture or pass by is deter-
it
distances from resistibly drawn farther forward, ing is the force of its major de-
the middle of the tree (and As you move back, now, for patterned paintings all pictures of
nearly the middle of the paper). another overall look, you know similar subjects? If the subjects
You can almost read it as the in- you have had a thoroughly satis- are different, it is possible that
tersection of the X. You notice fying experience. This is what all you are using a basic composition
how many times, and with what good paintings provide, and it is only through habit. Such habitual
subtle variations, the slight curves what you want vours to give. use of design is a good thing to
of the limbs are repeated; and nip in the bud: it generally
you observe the way the white Exercises means that you are not thinking
birch atieft and the larger trunk You will want to do quite a bit of enough about the "expressive"
to the right echo each other while moving around for this exercise, part of your art, and probably
picking up the branch shapes. so you might vour selection
limit not even enough about the "dec-
Perhaps you also enjoy the inter- of pictures to four or five. Pick orative" part. Variety for variety's
play of wedge shapes of similar what you think are your best sake is a step in the right direc-
size in the sky, background, ones and them up together at
set tion,but it is better when it
trunk, and foreground. one end of the room or in a wav springs naturally from your
Above all, however, you are that allows you to get well back thinking and feeling about your
now in a position to appreciate from them. (Take them outdoors, expressive purpose in each pic-
the artist's interpretation of his if the weather is good, but place ture.
subject. The huge-crowned maple them in the shade.) You max find Ideally, from this distance your
spreads its limbs all about it, but a note pad helpful. pictures reveal strong, varied
those to the right, away from the compositions. Wonderful! But do
sun, seem be dead or dying.
to 1. Distant Viewing. Station yourself the compositions provide clues to
Twigless, are these the "bare at least eighteen to twenty feet the design in detail and to the
boughs" of the title, so stark in away from your pictures. If possi- subject and meaning of each
contrast to the lively interlacing ble, try looking at them from work? Again, ideally, they do. Al-
of the small branches at left? You even farther away. Do you see most all of us, however, can
see that someone has cared about clear pattern or compositional profitably continue to work at
this tree: some dead limbs have structures in your pictures? If making this integration more
been cut off fairly recently. The not. your paintings do not "car- effective. Trial sketches can be an
birds, the wall, and the shadows ry" well. Not all pictures should. aid in helping you think through
point you to the right, however, Both the expressive aim
artist's your particular interest in a sub-
to the dead side of the tree. So and the purpose of the pic-
final ject.Painting a subject over and
you may sense that, although the ture affect the need or lack of — over will work, too. In both cases
imposing old maple has little time it —
for "carrying power" (see you give yourself an opportunity
left, it stands as a monument to Chapter 19). But if you are not to explore variations of design,
itself, a record of own com-
its deliberately seeking to make point of view, and color that will
your perception of the design to make much more forceful gether through your eyes and
parallel the artist's visual expres- value studies before you begin to hand, is making of the subject.
sion of his subject. paint and to get well away from You can then decide more easily
your work at least three or four on composition, color emphasis,
Intimate Viewing. By now you are times during painting to check on and the other variables in your
probably bursting to see how the the development of your com- bag of skills as an artist.
Knowing
Your Palette
understanding with which to which the spec-
circular scale in
Is your palette working judge the results of the exercises trum from breaking
that results
you will be doing next.* down white light is bent into a
for you or against you? Most of the colors we ordi- circle, joining the red and blue
narily perceive arecomposed of ends at purple at the bottom (see
three elements. These are value section B, color plate 1). Yellow is
Critical Concern (lightness or darkness), hue (blue- at the top, with the warm hues
Despite a multitude of books and ness, redness, greenness, and so (reds and oranges) at left and the
articleson the subject, color per- forth), and intensity (brightness or cool hues (blues and greens) at
ception is one of the least dullness). right. (Yellow and purple may be
understood elements in human Value can be measured on a warm or cool, depending on con-
Even painters do not
vision. scale of nine neutrals (colors with text.)
know much about how it works no hue or intensity), ranging Red, yellow, and blue cannot
(although over the centuries they from white to gray to black (see be mixed from other colors; they
have accumulated a good deal of section A, color plate 1). This are the primaries. Orange, green,
practical information about how means there are seven value lev- and purple can be formed by
to use it). Still, color is one of the elsexcluding white and black, mixing red and yellow, yellow
most powerful tools at your com- with level five being the middle and blue, and blue and red re-
mand, and vou need to know as value. Middle value contrasts spectively: they are called
much as possible about it. equally with white and black; secondaries.Each of these six col-
The color situation closest to level three contrasts equally with ors can be mixed with the one
home is your own palette. How white and middle; level four con- adjoining it to form six interme-
long has been since you really
it trasts equally with three and five, diate colors (red-purple, blue-
thought about what colors you're and so forth. green, and so forth): they are
using, much less about what The nine-value scale gives you often called tertiaries. These
other tubes of paint you have in a useful number of divisions and twelve hues are ordinarilv
) our box or drawer? Curious col- a wayunderstand an impor-
to enough for common description
lections of paint can turn up on tant relationshipbetween value and discussion of color, although,
an unexamined palette. Perhaps and hue. If you are accustomed any number of in-
theoretically,
now is the time to see what you to designing within a framework termediate colors exists.
have, what you can do with it, of fewer values than nine, this This division of the hue scale is
of some plastic trash bags, al- the hue scale differ in value. cover what you r palette is like.
though they are also green. The They are arranged so that yellow, Get out your materials and in-
difference, of course, is one of the lightest, is at the top of the clude a couple of clean, discarded
intensity (and perhaps value). On scale and would be at about value painting backs, some scrap paper,
the hue scale, the hues are shown two, while purple, the darkest, is a ruler and compass, and a fresh
at the highest intensity achievable at the bottom and would be at water supply, as well as your
by pigments at full intensity. about value eight. Orange and brushes and palette. Also, put all
You know that to dull a hue, green are nearly the same in the tubes of paint you own in a
you can mix it with its complement, value, at about value four, as are handy spot.
the hue opposite it on the scale. red and blue, at value six. Since Draw a circle eight inches in di-
Hence, full-intensity red and each of these colors is shown at ameter on one of your sheets.
green mixed in approximately the highest intensity achievable Mark the center; then mark off
equal proportions will yield a with paint, it follows that any the yellow and purple positions at
gray of a value about halfway be- change in them will lower their top and bottom and the red-or-
tween the values of full-intensity intensity. If you add black or ange and blue-green positions at
red and green, or about middle white to one of them, vou will left and right. Use your compass
value (five). The same thing hap- not only lower or raise its value to establish the remaining eight
pens with other mixed comple- but also lower its intensity. This is hue locations, and measure off
mentaries. because both black paint and two points, by eye, between each
If you add only a little green to white paper (the "white" of trans- of the four established positions.
your red, you will dull it (lower parent watercolor) are neutrals. Make three interior concentric
its intensity) much less. Similarly, Modeling, therefore, will inevita- circles one inch apart to repre-
ifyou add only a little red to bly involve some degree of sent the intensity scale. Label the
your green you will obtain not a intensity reduction. location of each of the twelve -
gray, but a relatively less intense You should also note that due hues— Y, YG, G, BG, and so
green. If we imagine middle- to the variation of value among forth —but do not paint them on.
value neutral at the center of the hues at highest intensity, the light The object of this exercise is to
hue scale, as shown in sections B and dark ranges of hues vary. For discover something about vour
and C of color plate 1, and then example, the possibility for dark palette's actual potential. Check-
imagine three steps each way purples is very small, as are the ing first to see that your paint is
from neutral to full-intensity possibilities for light yellows, a absolutely clean, take up a
green on one side and from neu- fact reflected in verbal language. brushload of one of your yellows.
tral to full-intensity red on the English has many words for light Put a dab on a piece of scrap
other, we can measure off inten- purples, such as orchid, violet, paper. While it dries slightly, try
sity: intensity (or neutral), 1/4 lavender, and none that I can to remember its tube name. (If
intensity, 1/2 intensity, 3/4 inten- think of for dark purples; you can't remember, don't wor-
sity, and full intensity, which are however, there are few words for ry.) Now look at the dab. Does it
the terms I will use here. These and many for dark
light yellows seem more greenish than "true"
terms provide a scale of inten- —
ones brown, mustard, gold .
yellow? More orangish? If it
sitiesthat will enable you to think To sum up, the diagrams and seems neither more green nor
more clearly about this most elu- their relationships in color plate 1 more orange than "true" yellow,
sive aspect of color. provide a means by which we can place a new patch of it outside
For example, if you mix blue describe, discuss, and think about your circle at Y. Otherwise, place
and yellow produce green, this
to color with reasonable accuracy; the patch to the right or left of Y
combination will produce a green and the terms used here will be at a distance that seems to indi-
of about 1/2 intensity; whereas, if those employed in the following cate about the degree to which it
you mix yellow-green and blue- chapters. Be sure that you under- appears green or orange. (In art,
green, the green yielded will be stand them because they will be color is a psychological as well as
greater than 3/4 intensity. Hence used in later considerations of a physical phenomenon. Each of
you can derive this general rule similarity and contrast of color. If us will, therefore, have a slighdy
for color mixing: mix full- you are interested in pursuing different notion of what a "true"
intensity hues that are closer to the subtle characteristics of color, hue looks like. So use your best
the desired hue for higher inten- I recommend that you read Color judgment and don't think you
sities; mix hues farther from the in Art (see the Bibliography). are establishing absolute hues for
1 WHITE
YELLOW-ORANGE YELLOW-GREEN
ORANGE GREEN
GREEN MIXED
FROM BLUE-GREEN
3 LIGHT AND YELLOW-GREEN
RED-ORANGE BLUE-GREEN
RED BLUE
5 MIDDLE
RED-PURPLE
FULL-INTENSITY
GREEN
7 DARK
3/4
1/2
NEUTRAL
1/4
1/2
D.
CADMIUM YELLOW PALE
Color Plate 1
CADMIUM ORANGE
A. Value Scale. B. Hue Scale. C. In-
tensity Scale for Red and Green. D.
Location of Pigments on Hue/Inten-
sity Scale. This is a hue and intensity VERMILION
map of the colors ha\e regularly
I
IND
used on my palette for the past few
years. I add phthalocyanine blue and/
or green occasionally. CERULEAN BLUE
ALIZARIN CRIMSON
GOLDEN 'COBALT BLUE
THIO VIOLET
FRENCH ULTRAMARINE BLUE
COBALT VIOLET
THALO PURPLE
BRILLIANT ORANGE #1
CADMIUM YELLOW
MEDIUM
CADMIUM YELLOW
ALIZARIN CRIMSON PALE
GOLDEN
THALO YELLOW
GREEN
PHTHALOCYANINE
GREEN
COBALT VIOLET
CERULEAN BLUE
THALO PURPLE
PHTHALOCYANINE
BLUE
DIOXAZINE PURPLE
COBALT BLUE
FRENCH
ULTRAMARINE BLUE
FRENCH
ULTRAMARINE BLUE
COBALT BLUE
THIO VIOLET
CERULEAN BLUE
DIOXAZINE PURPLE
THALO YELLOW
GREEN
INDIAN RED
ENGLISH RED
LIGHT
RAW SIENNA
BRILLIANT BROWN
LIGHT
RAW UMBER
RAW SIENNA
SEPIA
BRILLIANT BROWN
DEEP
RAW UMBER
Color Plat, 2.
Transparency/Opacity Tests. Column A shows the relative transparent:) of ltf colors selected from m\ own palette and a
few from the palettes of m\ students. The extreme right ends of these color samples have been exposed to 350 to 400
hours of direct sunlight. Note that only one shows an) change. This, marked with an asterisk, is vermilion light, which
has darkened slightly. Column B shows similar colors, with phthalocyanine blue and green added. The right ends of
these colors have been sponged off. he phthalocyanine blue, a student grade, washed off as completely as the cerulean
I
blue. Indian red. a ver) opaque color, stained deeply. Surprises like this illustrate the importance of running these tests
on am new color you acquire, even on the same color made bv different manufacturers. These tests also reveal that
artist-grade colors are far more reliable and predictable than student grades.
CERULEAN BLUE
COBALT BLUE
ORANGES
VERMILION THIO VIOLET
PURPLES
VERMILION THIO VIOLET
COBALT BLUE
Color Plate 4 (above) all time!) Write the abbreviated sects the relative intensity circle.
Band Concert bv Maurice Pren-
tube color name near the patch if Label the tube name as before
dergast, c. 1909-10, 13^" x 9f (34 x
24 cm), rough paper, courtesy, Am-
you can. Go through this same and continue with all the neutrals
herst College Collection. Prendergast process with all full-intensity col- on your palette. This will pro-
unifies his surface principally b) ors on your palette and try to duce a "map" of your palette
keeping brushstrokes relatively small label thoseyou are unsure of by similar to that of mine in section
and about the same in size (and often a process of elimination. D, color plate 1.
in shape). He breaks up larger areas
Your next step is a little more You are now prepared to take
arbitrarily to avoid excessive contrast
between them and the areas articu- difficult. Estimate both the hue a good analytic look atyour pal-
lated by obvious strokes; therefore, and the your more
intensity of ette as a working tool. You may
the sky here is treated as a discon- neutral colors (such as burnt si- want to set up your paintings
tinuous wash. He also employs color along with this schematic map of
enna, Payne's gray, yellow ochre).
patches for surface coherence.
In the same way as before, paint your palette.
Color Plate 5 (opposite page)
a patch on scrap paper. Consider
The Ell bv Loring YV. Coleman, 1. Consider firstyour palette's
first what hue (or, if it is very low
A.W.S. 1976, 20" x 40" (51 x 102 cm), balance. Do you have a lot of col-
cold pressed paper, courtesy, Shore in intensity, its hue family for — ors grouped in one part of the
Gallery, Boston. Thekey to surface example, reds) most closely ap-
it
hue scale? Sometimes this exer-
coherence is not a particular kind of proximates. Next, checking the
edge, but consistency in the handling cise reveals a painter with, say,
patch against the full-intensity
of edges. Coleman treats all edges one lonesome yellow. Often you
colors outside the periphery of
here with crisp clarity. Concern can recognize in your palette
with accurate descriptive textures su- your circle and against the center
map the same preponderance of
percedes emphasis on paint texture gray, if you have one, judge
colors that you can see in your
and is the basis of a unified surface which of the intensity lines inside
that can include the smooth blue sky pictures. If you are not al-
your circle most closely corre-
as well as the grassy foreground. The together happy with the overall
reds of door and chimney relate, and sponds to the intensity of your
color tonality of your pictures, it
the blue window shade forms a tri- sample. Then paint a patch of it
is easy to see what to do about it.
angle with the reds. where the appropriate hue inter-
Suppose, for example, your pic-
Transparent
and Opaque
relative transparency/opacity of paints are made are often lakes.
Are you aware of the your colors so as to use them These are man made pigments
effectively. produced bv dying powdered
options of transparent alumina hvdrate or some other
and opaque pigment Illustrations inert base. In general, inorganic
that your palette offers? For the ordinary artist it is diffi- pigments tend to be opaque,
cult to find out exactly how whereas organic ones tend to be
watercolor paints are made and transparent.
what makes various colors behave Although the precise recipes
Critical Concern so differently. We have all for colors vary considerabh . wa-
Artists working in all media have watched some astonishingly ag- tercolor paints are basically made
long been aware of the different gressive color "invade" still-wet from a mixture of pigment and a
effects that result from the rela- colors already on the paper. We binder of gum, glvcerine, and
tive transparencies of their also know that a smooth wash of other substances, including ox
paints. Tempera painters of the low value is impossible with some gall, a "wetting" agent. Apart
thirteenth and fourteenth cen- colors, and that relative trans- from the inherent transparencv
turies treated the more trans- parency and strength in mixtures of the pigment particles, their
parent red madders in ways quite vary greatly. Here is a general particular refractive index affects
distinct from their handling of explanation of why some of these their transparencv when made up
vermilion, which is fairly opaque. things happen.* as paint. The closer the refractive
Oil painters of the seventeenth Pigments are tiny substances index of a pigment is to that of
century, notably Rubens, also ex- that absorb some light rays and water, the more transparent that
ploited the varying transparencies reflect others. For example, co- watercolor paint will be. Some
of paints. balt blue absorbs nearly all rays heat-treated earths, for instance,
To the transparent water- (or wavelengths) except blue are far more transparent than
colorist.however, this variability ones, which it reflects, making it their raw counterparts (for exam-
offers perhaps even greater op- look blue to our eyes. These sub- ple,burnt and raw umber)
portunities. Especially at the stances van in molecular struc- because their refractive index has
intimate viewing distance, the ture, which causes them also to been changed. With some pig-
play between the limpid clarity of vary in particle size, in inherent ments, relatively little colorant is
a wash of transparent color and transparency, and in refractive needed to make a satisfactory
left bv more
the granulation index (a measure of the power to paint. This also increases that
opaque pigments can be a lively absorb, transmit, and bend light). paint's transparency. Converselv.
source of pleasure for the viewer. There are two main classes of the synthetic organic paints very
In addition, the behavior of the pigments — inorganic (mineral) often contain proportionatelv
two types of pigment in mixtures and organic (vegetable). Today more colorant, which is also often
is distinctive, and all these varia- the latter are nearly all svnthetic. stronger than most inorganic pig-
tions can be used for particular and those from which artists' ments. Hence, synthetic organics
effects, some descriptive and tend to stain the paper.
some more exclusively for pic- *l am
deeply grateful to Mr Murray Among the inorganic pigment-
torial coherence and expression. Greenberg. Chief Chemist at M. Grum-
based paints, some settle otit. or
bacher. Inc.. for providing much of the
important, therefore, that
It is
following information, and clarifying granulate. This is the result of
you acquaint yourself w ith the much else their "grind," that is. the size of
second row. Hold the paper mask finest artists' colors produced by
down well and, with a small a reputable firm. This is a light-
sponge, wash as much as you can fastness test (column A, color
off the exposed ends of the plate 2). Using a heavy opaque
stripes. You won't need much board, cover all but one-half inch
water, but must be clean.
it of the left end of your stripes.
Depending upon the make and Fasten the paper and board,
quality of your paints, there will paint side out, against the glass in
be some surprises here, too. (I a south window (or east or west,
tf Mm 4HL 4 r "
I
Color Plate 12 ifyou have no southern ex- more. You also know which
SaltMarsh, June by Carl Schmalz, posure), and leave it until you opaques are most easily removed.
1976, 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm), 140 lb.
calculate that is has received be- You can now decide which blue
hot pressed paper, collection of Polly
Bain. This painting "carries" because tween three and six hundred to use for a sky that you will
of color contrast. Value contrast is hours of direct sunlight. With need to wash color from for
minimal, but the color is relatively in- good paints, you should find little lighter yellow-green foliage. You
tense. Color design is based on change. Some reddish purples know which colors not to use be-
yellow-green/red-purple and orange/
are still not very fade resistant, neath a glaze.
blue complementaries. The surface is
unified overall by strokes which vary and vermilion will occasionally Similarly, you have identified
in size within a reasonable range and darken and lose its brilliance. your transparents and know
by deliberately courted granulation Overall, you should discover that which lift most completely.
obtained from opaque colors. your paints are remarkably per- Transparents are good for any
manent, but you should probably glazing or overpainting, and
abandon, however reluctantly, those that stained most are excel-
any color that fades markedly lent for underpainting. Trans-
under treatment.
this parents are also your best bet for
Apart from ridding your pal- keeping dark areas lively. Those
etteof any impermanent colors, that are naturally dark are par-
what can these exercises tell you? ticularly good.
Most importantly, by identifying Finally, in mixing,you know
your opaque colors, you acquire which colors to reach for to pro-
the knowledge necessary to use duce a clear, luminous wash (of
them well. Surely you were al- whatever size) and which will
ready aware of some opaques, produce the lovely granulations
but you have probably found mentioned earlier. Almost any
and Thalo yellow green. The depends on the degree to which and splashes of intense color at right.
background interest in Ebbing you understand it as a tool. You Overall, the paper illustrates a se-
quential ordering of brushstrokes,
Tide, Kennebunkport (color plate should know it as profoundly as
from the quite broad strokes at the
16) derives largely from this type possible —where it is flexible;
edges to the small, fine, descriptive
of mixture. where it is obstinate; when, how, ones near the center. The movement
and why you must augment it; implied by sequential ordering helps
Summary when you can limit it. It is as to emphasize the breezy quality of
the representation.
A rule of thumb forjudging much an instrument of your will,
transparency/opacity is this: met- wish, and feeling as your brushes.
als (for example, cadmiums, The colors you employ and the
cobalts, iron oxides, manganese, mixtures that express your ideas
vermilion) tend to be relatively are only as rich as your palette's
opaque, as do mineral earths; capacity. So don't take that array
organic colors, including synthet- of paints too lightly!
ic organics, tend to be relatively
1
r-*i<
*
m
mm
'/
: *
Color Plate 14
Landscape, Bermuda by Charles Demuth, 1916, 8"
x IOf (20 x 27 cm) hot
pressed paper, courtesy, Amherst College
Collection. Demuth organizes his
color m this little landscape chiefly in terms
of a hue sequence from blue
through the greens to yellow. The viewer senses
strongly the family resem-
blances of these colors. Played off against
them are high-value, low-intensity
complements-pale purple and pink-in small amounts.
The interlocking of
snarpedged shapes of about the same sizes unifies
the picture's surface
Color Mixing
Critical Concern
is ordering —ordering all of your cyanine green toward yellow, add
visual means according to your cadmium yellow lemon, pale, or
As were Chapters 9 and 10, this
personal sense of priorities. It is light, rather than cadmium
chapter is more about the essen-
your intellect, eyes, and hands yellow medium.
tials of color than about criticism.
employing your materials to im-
It is a necessary preliminary to Most of you are so familiar with
pose a visible structure on your
Chapter 12, "Color Design," these rules that you scarcely think
emotions. Selecting among the
however, as well as to some of of them anymore. In fact, you
millions of color possibilities your
the concerns of later chapters. probably have developed a num-
palette affordsis one of your
Since brilliance one of trans-
is ber of shortcuts for graying
most powerful means of ordering
parent watercolor's primary colors. Most commonly, shortcuts
your perceptions.
attractions, it is easy to forget involve mixing a color you want
that the reflection of white paper togray with one already low in
Illustrations
through a pigment layer, which is intensity,such as raw umber or
For the representational painter,
what produces watercolor's lumi- burnt sienna. An equally good
the principal usefulness of color
nosity, is also responsible for but less frequently used shortcut
mixing isreduce intensities, or
to
some of the subtlest effects in all is mix hues distant
deliberately to
to gray colors. This is because the
painting. Using pure color, or from your intended hue. That is,
world we see normally shows rel-
colors only slightly mixed, en- where phthalocyanine green and
atively few full intensities, and
courages brilliance; but you also cadmium yellow lemon will yield
those usually in small quantities.
need to know how to create softly an intense yellow-green, a neutral
Apart from the blue sky (and its
luminous tonalities. This means yellow-green can be mixed from
reflection in water), birds, but-
understanding the color mixtures cerulean blue and cadmium or-
terflies, flowers, fruits, and
your palette can provide. ange. This neutral yellow-green
berries are typical sources of nat-
The simplest color mixtures will be quite distinct from one
ural high-intensity colors, which
are "double" —that is, one color
is why fall foliage is such a de-
mixed from phthalocyanine
added to another. If your palette green and cadmium yellow lem-
light.
contains eighteen colors, those on, and grayed with, say, alizarin
The other function of color
you add
possibilities total 153. If crimson, although they can be
mixing is to alter the hue of a
the variations in value and pro- very close in hue and intensity.
paint. Your palette, no matter
portion of each double mixture, The usefulness of color theory
how copious, is hue-limited. The
your number of possible colors of any
in predicting the results
particular yellow-green of a field
becomes astronomical. given mixture must, of course, be
in sunlight usually must be
Actually, you choose to use augmented by experience. Unless
mixed. The simple rules of these
only a few of these possibilities, you are using a scientifically pre-
two types of mixing are:
and only a few of the customary pared spectrum palette which is —
triple and quadruple mixtures as 1. To
gray a color, add its com- uncommon among watercolor-
well. You should try to be as plement. ists —you know that few of your
COLOR MIXING 79
80 WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY
*
^A'-
TO
Color Plate 15 (above left) Color Plate 16 (left) Color Plate 17 (above)
Winter's Workby Carl Schmalz, Ebbing Tide, Kennebunkport by Carl Nursery by Susan Heidemann 1976, ,
1965, 13" x 30f (33 x 77 cm), 140 lb. Schmalz, 1976, 15" x 22f (38 x 57 22" x 30" (56 x 76 cm), 140 lb. rough
hot pressed paper, collection of the cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collec- paper, collection of the arust. Heide-
author. Virginia Beach Boardwalk tion of the author. This is a pretty mann selects an unusual subject and
Show, Frank Dewolf Award for Tra- standard "easy" picture, modified treats it with and subdety.
skill
ditional Watercolor, 1965. A only by the need to reserve whites Strokes organize the surface in a
sequential reduction in value and for the boats. I chose to use my most beautifully knit pattern. Her color or-
value contrast depicting the cloud- opaque colors in the sky and dis- ganization is based on the triad
shadowed distance is especially visible —
tance cerulean and cobalt blue, yellow-orange/blue-green/red-purple
in the right third of the picture. indian red, Thalo yellow green, with accented areas of red-purple's
Color design is due in part to sim-
ilarity of one-half to one-quarter
—
etc. painting them on very wetly to
insure maximum granulation. This
complement, yellow-green. This is an
interesting variation on the red/
intensities, the hue range being adds paint texture interest to other- yellow/blue triad of primaries. Re-
nearly complete. The nearby clutter wise unmodulated areas. Notice that member that there are two other sets
and strong value contrasts of the boat there is a rough correspondence be- of triads that can be useful as a basis
at left balance the drive into space tween the darker foliage at left and for color organization.
along the right road, which is stop- the boat at left, and between the two
ped by a third boat. boats at right and the foreground
posts. This occurred spontaneously,
and is an example of the human ten-
dency toward order mentioned in
Chapter 5.
COLOR MIXING 81
Color Plate 18
Wind Blown Iris bv William Preston, 20" x 14" (51 x 36 cm), rough paper,
courtesy, Shore Gallery, Boston. This painting beautifully illustrates an overall
balance of sharp, ragged, and soft edges, as well as skillfully reserved lights.
Note especially the foliage at lower right. To augment the drawing, Preston
accents the intensity contrast between the weathered shingles and the leaves
and blossoms, creating a strong sense of intervening space. Though the
blossoms are massed to the left of center, the intensity and complexity of the
leaves balances them effectively. For an interesting contrast of technical han-
dling compare w ith Color Plate 7
this •
pigments fall exactly on "true" that your hue scale provides a Color Plate 19
hues. This makes accurate pre- handy reference to the relative Lawn bv Fairfield Porter, 1969, 1 15-" x
diction difficult, but is actually a hues of the paints on your pal- 15f (29 x 39 cm), 140 lb. rough
paper, collection of the author. This
great advantage because it per- ette. Remember to label all your sketch is both strong and delightful:
mits all kinds of wonderful mixtures. strong because of telling value con-
maverick mixtures; these you trasts, delightful because of richly
simply have to learn. 1. Begin by making simple double modulated color. Mild overcast
mixtures, approximately half and masses the darks and softens colors
so that nuances of hue and intensity
Exercises half, of the intense hues on your
are more perceptible. The shapes of
These exercises are designed to palette that are most nearly com- low-value touches in the foliage de-
give you some systematic under- plementary. Where you do not scribe different kinds of trees.
standing of the mixing capabili- have an exact complement, use Color —overall about 1/2 to 3/4 inten-
ties of your palette. You will need the hue closest to a complement. sity —organized around a red/green
is
COLOR MIXING 83
Color Plate 20 up with at least three pretty good mars crimson and
violet, alizarin
12:15, Cape Porpoise bv Carl grays, though, including red/ terre verte. You might
also mix
Schmalz, 1976, 14£" x 21J" (37 x 55
green, red-orange/blue-green, neutral complements such as
cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collec-
tion of the author. Color organiza-
and orange/blue. Fewer than lamp black (bluish) and burnt si-
tion in this picture is based on blues, three suggests that you may find enna or yellow ochre and mars
greens, and yellow/greens at rela- it helpful to rethink your palette, violet.
tively high intensities and values and substituting another paint for
in large quantities, accented bv reds 2. Now try altering hue with the
something presently there, to
and purples at very low intensities For
least possible intensity loss.
give vou increased complemen-
and in small quantities. Small darks this you can make a continuous
plaved against the larger, more tary graying strength.
graded wash changing from, say,
broadlv handled areas, enliven the Consider this with care, how-
surface and focus attention. They re-
lemon yellow to phthalocyanine
ever. You may be graying largely
sult naturally from strong top green. This will show you the
with natural neutrals, such as In-
lighting. Notice that this also pro- range of hue changes and indi-
dian red with phthalocyanine
duces emphatic reflected light in cate how much, if any, intensity
shadows. green; or you may be graying
reduction results from the mix-
very satisfactorily with black.
ture. Do this with all your intense
Both are perfectly acceptable
hues, going around the hue scale,
ways of graying colors, although
mixing each color with the one
many painters use little or no
closest to it. For example, you
black because they feel other
might next mix phthalocyanine
mixtures have finer undertones.
green with phthalocyanine blue,
To complete the complemen-
phthalocyanine blue with ultra-
tary mixing exploration, you can
marine blue, ultramarine blue
make samples of intense colors
with alizarin crimson, and so
mixed with their neutral comple-
forth.
mentaries. These might include
ultramarine blue and burnt si- 3. Next, to determine the range
enna, cadmium yellow lemon and of your palette in both graying
COLOR MIXING 85
Color Plate 22 yellow-green, and blue-purple; Most watercolorists agree that a
Enclosed Garden bv Carl Schmalz, orange, green and purple; and good basic palette is the "double-
1976, 15J-" x 2 If (39 x 55 cm), 140 lb.
hot pressed paper, collection of Mr.
yellow-orange, blue-green, and primary" palette —that is, have a
and Mr. Constantine L. Tsomides. In red-purple. warm and cool version of each
this painting the preponderant darks primary. For example, I have
function in a passive way, defining Summary vermilion light and alizarin crim-
areas lighter than themselves. This is Knowing the mixing capacities of son golden; cadmium yellow
very clear in the picket fence, and
your palette is necessary to your deep and cadmium yellow lemon;
only slightly less so in the leaves and
the clarification of the blossoms. Nev- using it intelligently. A series of ultramarine blue and cerulean
ertheless, I tried to vary the shapes testssuch as you have made will blue.Such a palette allows con-
and sizes of these darks to help dis- also help you identify any further siderable flexibility in mixing
tinguish the different kinds of foli- lacks your palette may have. If secondary hues. Many artists also
age. One further note: the shadows
you have discovered any serious like good intense secondaries,
on the picket fence were painted be-
fore anything else, in continuous gaps, you can remedy them at too, such as cadmium orange,
strokes across the paper. They were your nearest art supply store, for phthalocyanine green, and Thalo
then dry when the time came to the colors available today cover purple. The only tertiary color
paint over them to define the pickets the spectrum pretty thoroughly. not available today is blue-purple;
with darker colors.
In case you have concluded that the others have been purchasable
your palette requires a really for decades, except for Thalo
drastic overhaul, here are some yellow green and Thio or Acra
suggestions. Remember that they violet (red-purple), which have
are not prescriptions! recently come on the market.
Tertiaries are normally unneces-
sary except for their ability to enna, raw sienna, yellow ochre, 23
Color Plate
add interesting new transparent raw umber, sepia, and lamp Beinn Tangaval, Barra by Carl
Schmalz, 1972, 15|" x 22" (39 x 56
and opaque colors to your pal- black. You won't need all of
cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, cour-
ette. them, and again, their relative tesy of Mathew N. Schmalz. I chose
Therefore, in addition to the opacity may help you select which the classic middleground focus for
double primaries and, perhaps, will work best for you. this study of the empty landscape of
the intense secondaries, you may Some other useful colors are the Outer Hebrides. Three cattle and
three birds, all in the middle space,
wish to consider the transparent- Cobalt Violet (a weak mixer with
animate the bleakness; and the lower-
opaque characteristics of your nice opacity),Thalo yellow green ing sun warms it. The plainly painted
palette. The same colors by dif- (very intense and opaque), cobalt sand and mountain frame and con-
ferent manufacturers can vary blue (as nearly "pure" blue as we trast with this zone of life. Color
quite widely in relative opacity, so have), manganese blue (not as organization is based on orange and
blue, plus yellow/green, which lies
you may have to shop around a strong as cerulean and a little
halfway between them.
little. Hansa yellow will give you a greener), burnt umber (a good
good transparent yellow to play warm brown and a low-intensity
against your cadmiums. Cad- yellow-orange), and ivory black (a
mium reds are opaque against warm black and a good mixer).
the alizarin colors, and phthalo- Sixteen to eighteen colors
cyanine blue, in addition to being should provide you with ample
cool, is highly transparent. range and flexibility for most
You will need some natural painting. You can always add a
neutrals, too. Among the most color for special subjects.
useful are Indian red, burnt si-
COLOR MIXING 87
Color Plate 24
Meditation, Warwick Long Bay by Carl Schmalz, 1976, 15£" x 22" (39 x 56
cm), 140 lb. hot pressed paper, collection of the author. This distant-focus
picture is somewhat modified by the figure in the middle distance; but the
real center remains the oddly sculptured Bermuda rocks farthest from the
viewer. I left brushstrokes in the sky to give it a "painted" look. Some of the
strokes also parallel the foot tracks on the beach. Color organization runs
—
from yellow/green, through the cool colors, to purple and red/purple all at
fairly high intensities. Low intensity orange, the complement of blue, occurs
in the sand.
CHAPTER 12
Color Design
ters 6 and 7). These ordering the West and the East have ac-
Isyour use of color principles apply equally to your cepted paintings in monochrome,
use of color. Understanding them normally absolute neutral
enhancing your range gives you a handy, organized way (grisaille, sumi ink), and drawings
of expression and of dealing with color problems in in low-intensity orange (sepia ink
planning a painting, as well as a and bistre wash). Usually,
pictorial coherence?
sound means of analyzing and however, Western artists have
making critical judgments about elected to use more than one
your paintings. hue.
Critical Concern Similarity of hue can be ob-
The importance of color as an Illustrations tained by using analogous colors
expressive factor in painting is The most basic form of color (colors in the same hue family,
equaled only by its significance as similarity is, obviously, the use of such as three adjacent hues on
a means of attaining pictorial co- only one color, a monochromatic —
the scale red, red-orange, and
herence. And, as with spatial picture. The simplest mono- orange, for example). The ex-
elements, in the best pictures chrome is that using no hue, just pressive tone and pictorial
color serves both functions simul- black, white, and grays.Samuel coherence of this sort of arrange-
taneously. Kamen's Pumpkins and Apples (fig- ment are very perceptible, but,
Most disregard
artists rightly ure 45) is such a picture. Notice because it lacks contrast, it per-
"rules" of color coordination as that in eschewing both hue and mits the representational artist
they appear in home economics intensity, a monochrome painter very little descriptive scope, even
courses and household tips, not must rely only upon value con- when you admit intensity and
because there anything inher-
is trasts for representation, design, value variation. Nevertheless, it is
ently wrong with them, but and expression. (We have already occasionally used, most often at
because they are normally too pat discussed how Kamen uses both low, rather than full, intensities.
for a painter's use. Although per- paint texture and spatial elements Similarity of intensity is one of
fectly sensible, these rules do not to achieve impact.) the more common methods of
encourage the flexibility and sub- The main difference between a creating color coherence while si-
tlety that artistic expression completely neutral monochrome multaneously setting the emo-
requires. Part of the restriction of (using black) and one using a hue tional tone or mood of a picture.
these rules stems from the fact of whatever intensity is in the Karl Schmidt-Rottluffs Landscape
that they deal almost exclusively overall "feel" of the painting. (color plate 11) is an excellent ex-
with hue relationships (such as This one indication of the ex-
is ample of similarity of high
analogous, or neighboring, hues, pressive power of color. For intensities. Red, orange, yellow,
or complements) but ignore val- instance, if you imagine Pumpkins green, and blue all occur at or
ues and intensities. and Apples painted with a neutral very near their fullest intensity.
You will recall that line, shape, warm such as Indian red, its Because these colors cover a
size, and interval —referred to as effect would be different from fairly wide value range, the com-
spatial elements in painting the original neutral version as bination maximizes your aware-
were discussed interms of sim- well as from the same picture ness of the different hues and
ilarity, sequence, and balance and painted in an intense cool such as adds visual excitement to visual
were set against the discriminat- phthalocyanine blue. order.
ing factor of contrast (see Chap- Tradition and custom in both Similarity of relatively high in-
COLOR DESIGN 89
tensities used to organize color occur next to each other around is,red-orange and the colors near
and suggest the sparkling bril- the hue scale (analogous colors) iton the hue scale contrast with
liance of sunlight was an as already mentioned. Schmidt- blue-green and its neighbors. Psy-
Impressionist invention. It is ex- Rottluff s Landscape (color plate chologists and physiologists have
emplified in the watercolors of 11) is again an example, since it done little work that suggests why
Childe Hassam, Maurice Pren- consists of red, orange, yellow, this contrast should be so signifi-
dergast (color plate 4), and green, and blue. Charles De- cant. The most relevant research
Dodge Macknight, among other muth's Landscape, Bermuda (color was done by Edwin Land more
Americans. plate 14) also illustrates a sequen- than a decade ago, in preparation
Much more familiar today are tial scheme: varying intensities for the Polaroid color camera.
pictures ordered by similarity of from blue, blue-green, green, His work indicates that the
middle or low intensity. These yellow-green, to near yellow are human eye has a tremendous ca-
are a result of what is frequently set off by low-intensity red. pacity for distinguishing subtle
called a "limited palette." I prefer More common in representa- differences in relative wave-
to name all such deliberate plan- tional painting are sequences of lengths quite apart from identi-
ning of color a "controlled" intensity, frequently accompanied fying the particular wavelengths
palette, recognizing that every by corresponding value se- that we name orange, green, and
palette is to some extent control- quences. (This is often because of so forth. Possibly it is this ability
led by the artist who selected it. the regular decrease in intensity that makes us so sensitive to the
For example, if you intentionally that results from raising or lower- warmness or coolness of color.
use Indian red, burnt sienna, raw ing value; see Chapter 9.) When Whatever the cause, warm ver-
sienna, terre verte, Payne's gray, objects are modeled from light sus cool is basic to hue percep-
and mars violet, you will make a into shade, for example, se- tion, and the color organization
painting easily marked by sim- quences of decreasing intensity of many paintings is rooted in
ilarity of low-to-medium intensity. and value occur. In Winter's Work this distinction, which we seem to
You have all six major hues and (color plate 15), the background appreciate as balance. As warm/
a full value range, but you have is shaded by clouds. You can see cool contrasts become higher in
created color coherence by sim- the gradual intensity reduction intensity, so that individual hues
ilarity of intensity. In the same into the background at right. are clearly discernible, we refer
way, you might select burnt Similarlv, atmospheric perspec- to most of these contrasts as com-
umber, raw umber, and lamp tive decreases intensity and raises plementary. (Yellow and purple,
black to yield a picture ordered the darker values as more distant although complementary, are nei-
by similarity of very low intensity. colors gradually approach the ther warm nor cool until, by
Murray Wentworth's Bell House color and value of the atmos- further contrasts, we make them
(color plate 13) comes close to phere itself. It was this kind of so.) Complementary hues exhibit
this. Very low intensity yellows, sequential ordering that you cap- similarity through opposition or
oranges, and blues are set off by- italized on when you painted the balance. Hence in this case, con-
tiny, brighter splashes of the "easy" picture in Chapter 1 (see trast performs an ordering
same hues. color plate 16). function. Complementary hues,
For the representational Otherwise, value, as you know, therefore, often provide a basis
painter, achieving order in color is most often employed as a con- for pictorial color organization.
by establishing similarity of value trast element in painting. Indeed, The burnt umber/raw umber/
does not ordinarily work very in the usual representational lamp black scheme that was men-
well. When at least some such painting, value (and various of tioned earlier as an example of
order is feasible, rather strong the spatial elements) provides similarity of low intensities is, of
contrasts in hue and/or intensity contrast, whereas likenesses course, also an example of warm/
have to be used for both descrip- among the spatial elements, hues, cool (that is, hue) balance. Maine
tive differentiation and visual and/or intensities provide sim- Still Life (color plate 7) is a warm/
stimulation. My Salt Marsh, June ilarity. With color, as when cool painting in which relatively
(color plate 12) exemplifies near dealing with spatial elements, art- high intensity oranges and
similarity of value. Only a few ists generally set the integrating yellow-oranges balance larger
darker and lighter accents inter- principle of similarity in one or amounts of relatively low inten-
rupt a surface that is at value more elements against the dis- sity blues and blue-purples.
levels two to three overall. Con- criminating principle of contrast In Salt Marsh, June (color plate
trast of hue and intensity in others. 12), I saw a subject that I had
substitutes for value contrast. Apart from value, the basic painted before and which con-
Sequential relationships in contrast in the color elements oc- tinues to interest me. In this
color generally involve colors that curs between warm and cool; that particular version I organized
teresting. deal more freedom, especially useful in the skv. which needed articulation
because of the relatively large proportion it occupied on the paper surface.
A simpler picture based on
color balance is m\ July 6, 1976
(color plate 8). Thisis a green-
COLOR DESIGN 91
Most of the yellow-oranges are considerations. What does your evidence of this tendency, resolve
high in value and very low in in- response to the subject demand, to number your values for a
tensity, but they pervade the how does it make you feel? What while, to try and obtain a better
picture. The red-purples are also can your palette deliver? What proportional relationship between
of high value and low intensity, principles can you impose on the values of nature and the
so the colors we are most aware both to make the best possible much narrower range of values
of are the yellow-greens and translation? your palette can produce.
blue-greens that define the nurs- Ordinarily, you want to decide Because of the value limitations
ery plants. on some basic principle of color of your palette, it is sometimes
While contrast of hue creates a organization and then modify it desirable to push the values at
balance that can act as a basis for to suit the particular circum- one or the other end of the value
color ordering, value and inten- stances. You think about both the scale together arbitrarily. In my
sity contrasts act predictably as similarities and the contrasts that Overcast Island (figure 51), for ex-
differentiating agents. Contrasts are most suitable to your ends. ample, the darks are all low and
of intensity are frequently used You recognize that some organi- close in value, giving me extra
to focus visual attention and/or zational principles and some leeway for variation of value
augment spatial description; in kinds of contrast or visual excite- from level six up. Compression
the absence of contradictory evi- ment are inherent in your of the light values strengthens
dence, an intense hue always subject. In fact, they may even be William Preston's Machiasport
appears nearer than a less intense one reason for your interest in Marsh (figure 52). The lighter
one. In William Preston's Wind- the subject and should be taken values are all pushed toward
Blown Iris (color plate 18), the advantage of in your painting. white, allowing the artist a wider
blossoms attract our eye partly Doing this, you will be freed range of darker values to detail
through their relatively high in- from the boring artificiality of the varying rich colors of the
tensities. Notice that they are rules that require you to put an marsh, buildings, and trees. The
balanced effectively by the in- arbitrary dab of any color you same device is used by George
tense yellow-green of the turned use in two other places on your Shedd in his Maine Gables (figure
leaf at right. paper, as well as from the inad- 53). The object of these pro-
The powerful visual excitement vertent production of pictures cedures is to retain the force of
of value contrast is, as we have that are all similar in color. light7dark contrast while extend-
seen, principally employed for ing as much as possible the value
the descriptive differentiation Exercises range one end of the scale.
at
fundamental to representation. It is time to get out your painting Check to see whether you are
(We will consider this further in collection again. Spread the pic- using this device in your all-over
Chapter 15.) But artists can use tures out and get comfortable. "light" or "dark" pictures. Con-
some sort of equalization of value Your primary purpose in this ex- gratulate yourself if you are!
contrast over the picture surface erciseis to discover how you are Since value is primarily useful
to produce order, as well as use using color well and where you to you for contrast, examine the
such contrasts to focus attention. could improve. way in which you are exploiting
Color, as all other aspects of it. Do your contrasts of value oc-
pictorial language, is relative. 1. Start by analyzing your use of cur at points in your pictures
The color elements are relative to value, since this is usually easiest where they tend to support or
each other, of course, and to the to see. Do your paintings re- emphasize meaning, or are they
spatial factors in design. The size semble each other in overall merely creating unnecessary vis-
of color areas is especially signifi- value or in value pattern? That ual excitement? Value contrast is
cant, since a large area of intense is, are they all generally light or so powerful a tool that you want
color attracts your eye much dark; or do a lot of them have a to use it as effectively as you can.
more than a smallone (see color dark in, say, the lower right cor-
plate 22, where the developed ner? Probably not, but if so, you 2. Hue is very important in rep-
blossoms are far more visible may be using value in a habitual resentational painting. It tends to
than the buds). Even more im- way rather than adapting the discriminate areas, so you must
portantly, color isrelative to your power of value to your expressive control it to avoid producing a
expressive needs. This means that requirements each subject.
in coloristically chaotic surface. The
to achieve effective color de- As you know, watercolor dries two most usual ways of doing this
sign —
ordering of color you — lighter than it goes on. One re- are by selecting a limited number
must ask yourself what you are sultof this is a common tendency of hues, ordinarily related bv
aiming to express as you begin a toward pictures rather uniformly similarity or complementarity,
picture. This involves three main pale in value. If you notice any such as yellow, yellow-green, and
of high intensities;
Fairfield Porters Lawn (color
organized by sim-
A \
plate 19), organized by similarity
of 1/2 to 3/4 intensities; as well as
pictures painted with the better
known "limited" palettes such as
PaYne's grayand burnt sienna.
Another option is the use of a
fairly full range of hues with
varving restricted intensities. My
12:15, Cape Porpoise (color plate
20) shows an organization based
on blues and greens at fairly high
intensities and in relatively large
quantities, played against reds
and purples at low intensities and
M
Figure 53
in small quantities. Maine Gables by George Shedd, c. 1972, 94" x 12§" (24 x 32 cm), 72 lb. rough
Look your pictures to see
at paper, collection of the author. Here Shedd, like Preston, compresses the
lights. All are unmodulated white paper. The full value range is thus reserved
what you are doing with hues. Do
for description of variations within the middle and darker colors. Extra tex-
you have some color preferences? tural unity was achieved bv crumpling the entire sheet of paper before Shedd
Probably you do. As with value, began painting. You can see the effect in the sky and the foreground grass.
though, you want to be sure that
your selection of particular colors ing to understand its use by might ask yourself.
and combinations of colors is not taking refuge in the assertion, Am I using overall color —and
just reflexive, but represents "Color is personal." Well, of intensity —for expressive effect,
thoughtful purpose on your part. course it is; but so is every aspect creating a similarity of, say, hue
Try to figure out whether you of picture-making. not only for a coherent design,
are exploiting the different "feel" L sing
T
color as intelligently as but also for unity of design and
of hues and hue families; using you use the spatial elements in content?
high intensities as much as you painting requires only that you Have I been as adventurous
might; playing off warm and cool appreciate its three dimensions and imaginative as I might be
as effectively as possible — all with and their relationships. Although about selecting colors, not just to
reference to the expressive pur- you may find that planning color be different, but to enhance my
pose you envisioned for each before you paint is inhibiting if meaning?
picture. done in detail, you will certainly Do my pictures really hang to-
If you like medium to low in- discover that a general color plan gether coloristically, or are there
tensities, consider whether you is easier to think about when you places where a too-strong value
are using as full a range of hues understand color well. And contrast or a too-strong intensity
as you might. Also, could your whether you plan your color at contrast seems to jump off the
pictures be visually richer and ex- all, knowing how color works paper?
pressively more forceful with helps enormously when you as- Is there an overall balance or
occasional high-intensity touches? sess your efforts after completing sequence (usually toward the
a picture. focal point of the painting) in the
Summary To aid you in color analysis of visual interest of color in my pic-
The purposes served by color are your own work, here are some tures?
so varied that we often avoid try- additional sample questions you
COLOR DESIGN 93
Figure 54
Maine Morning by Carl Schmalz,
1973. 15" x 22" (38 x 56 cm). 140 lb.
hot pressed paper, collection of the
author. Cast shadows, especially the II
longer ones that usually result from
side lighting, aid you in explaining
the three-dimensional shape of the
forms on which they fall. Here the
lawn bank at right is so described as
well as the peculiar hump of the
road. On the central house, the
angle of shadows on wall and roof
help to clarify their planes; and, to
!T?
v*l t
m \t
the left, the cylindrical tree trunk is
defined by shadows cast upon it.
Figure 54 A
White River at Sharon bv Edward Hopper, 1937, 19|" x 27|" (49 x 70 cm), rough paper, collection of the Sara Roby
Foundation, New York. The revelation of three dimensionality afforded by side-lighting is clear throughout this picture;
but it is especially evident on the tree at center right. Notice how Hopper emphasizes the shadow contour. Cast shadows
help to define spatial planes in this area. One falls on the rock in front of the tree, another sneaks down behind that rock
and the others to the left. A bit of illuminated ground then establishes the distance between the center rock and the tree
behind it. Notice, also, the way in which shape similarities link the feathery clouds and the foliage shapes below them.
Photo bv Oliver Baker.
Lighting
more or less from the side. When maintain high hue intensities, it
Are you fully exploring you are painting nearby objects, was necessary "model" with
to in-
you can often change the light tense hues, so that darks were
lighting possibilities? you see by moving yourself or painted with reds, blues, and
the subject around to produce purples — the naturally dark hues.
more or less direct side lighting, White River at Sharon (figure
Critical Concern
or even a different kind of light- 54 A by Edward Hopper, is an
),
Light is one of many representa-
ing. excellent example of the way side
tional elements in painting. Like
Artists in the Western tradition lighting emphasizes three-
the spatial and color elements, it
have tended to prefer side light- dimensional solidity. Notice es-
can emphasize either similarity or
ing to all others because it most pecially the trees, tree trunks,
contrast. Visual perception de-
pends on light, and the amount,
emphatically reveals the three- and rocks. My Maine Morning
dimensional form of objects and (figure 54)shows how cast shad-
kind, and color of the light fall-
the spaces between them. In side ows reveal the form of the areas
ing on objects alter their appear-
lighting the strong value contrasts on which they fall. Shadows in
ance. In antiquity, and since the
of direct light create dark shad- the foreground show the con-
Renaissance, Western representa-
ows that provide visual clues to tours of lawn and road; and on
tional painters have appreciated
an object's form. Hence, in addi- the house in the center, shadows
the enormous power of consistent
tion to the profiles you see at the of leaves accentuate the vertical
light to unify a picture, so the di-
edges of an object, you also see a plane of the facade and the pitch
rection of light is also important
shadow contour on the object that of the roof. The strong value
to artists. Clearly, a systematic
confirms or modifies the profile contrasts of both pictures are a
understanding of the ways you
edges. The shadow contour gives typical result of side lighting.
represent light will be valuable to
you 50 percent more information
you.
about the surface shape than the Top Light. This is direct light
two profiles alone as it reveals the from above. It occurs outdoors at
Illustrations
solidity or mass of the object. or near noon and commonly pro-
There are two fundamental pos-
Side lighting also creates rela- duces a rather flat effect that can
sibilities in painting ordinary
tivelylong cast shadows, which be very useful to artists. If you
daylight: direct light and indirect
are useful in orienting yourself in think of it as a kind of side light
light. When the unclouded sun
a world of space and solids. Cast from above you will realize that
sheds its white light on objects,
shadows conform to the shape of the three-dimensional form of
they are in direct light. For art-
the surfaces on which they fall. objects is not concealed by it, but
ists, there are four primary kinds
This helps to indicate the dis- revealed in a relatively unfamiliar
of direct light side light, top light,
tance between objects as well as way. Nevertheless, because cast
back light, and front light. Here are
the shape of the ground or other shadows are short and small, a
some of their characteristics, ad-
objects on which they rest. great deal of light from sur-
vantages, and disadvantages for
With side lighting, as with most rounding illuminated surfaces is
you as an artist.
direct light, value contrasts tend usually reflected onto the shadow
Side Light. This is sometimes re- to be high and to overpower sides of objects, lightening them
ferred to as cross lighting and more subtle color relationships. and generally reducing the mod-
occurs when the sun, or any Both Impressionist and Expres- eling. Especially in regions close
other light source, strikes objects found that to
sionist painters to the equator, this results in a
LIGHTING 95
powerful effect of immateriality.
Since the sun always shines
down at a slight angle, except at
the equator, top lighting nor-
mally offers the artist a choice of
viewing a scene from a relatively
illuminated or a relatively shad-
owed point of view. As in side
lighting, strong value contrasts
often characterize top lighting
and thus reduce subtle hue rela-
tions.
To sum up, the opportunities
offered by top lighting are: light
and dark shapes not encountered
in the more normal side light; a
tendency toward flattened forms;
a reduced sense of physical sub-
stantiality; and the visual stimulus t
v mi
of sharp, often small, darks.
David Campbell's Tall Weeds
and Houses, Gloucester (figure 55)
is a morning picture, done a bit
of top lighting. Note how strokes bushes. The shape is repeated shapes of the shack's openings and
modulate the skv. preventing it from throughout the picture, even in the the value contrasts between interior
appearing too different from the clouds. Many sequences into the dis- of the shack and the distance.
landscape below tance, including the cloud shadows,
are prevented from becoming too
strong by the concentration of inter-
est at the center crossroads. Dark,
differentlv shaped elm trees farther
back also prevent the viewers atten-
tion from escaping too far into space.
LIGHTING 9^
back-lit subject in which descrip-
tive textures in the relatively dark
foreground contrast with the
deep darks of the shack's inte-
rior, which in turn contrast with
the relative lights of the sun spots
and background.
Although technically top lit, my
Tuna Flags (figure 58) shows
many characteristics of the back-
lit By stationing myself
subject.
on the shadow side of the fisher-
man's shed, I was able to dram-
atize the simple shape of the
building against a light back-
ground and emphasize the
shapes of lobster traps, barrels,
and other illuminated parapher-
nalia in the foreground. The
light in EliotO'Hara's Brigus,
Newfoundland (figure 59) is much
the same, creating a zone of spar-
kling light and dark silhouettes
Figure 58
across the center of the picture.
Tuna Flags by Carl Schmalz, 1975, 15" x 22f (38 x 57 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed
paper, collection of the author. This picture illustrates very simply the use of
dark shapes to announce a representational theme from a distance. The darks Front Light. Illumination from be-
of the shack, the lobster car at right, and the barrels and boxes can be read hind the artist falls on the front
clearly from afar. They are justified by the same kind of shadow values of objects and is. often termed
against light that often occur with back lighting. down-sun lighting. It is used by
artists less often than the types of
lighting already discussed, but
should not be overlooked, for it
LIGHTING 99
Figure 61 mountain at right. Laurence Sis- A preference for either is, of
The Osprey Nest Laurence Sis-
b\ son's The Osprey Nest (figure 61) course, perfectly all right; neither
son, 1973, 24" x 36" (61 x 76 cm),
emphasizes dramatic value con- is inherently better than the
rough paper, courtesy. Shore Gallery.
Boston. Light is greatly reduced un- trasts among the low-intensity other, and sometimes particular
der heavily clouded skies, which hues characteristic of light under personal expressive needs are
simultaneously reduce intensities; heavily clouded skies. much more responsive to one.
hence, here we tfend to perceive value However, if you have not yet
contrasts as primary. Sisson exploits
Exercises made a conscious decision as to
value contrasts to create counter-
movements in the light wedge of Get out your picture collection the general kind of light you use
water and the sweeping clouds. Photo again, make yourself comfortable, predominantly, you will probably
by George M. Gushing. and start thinking. There are two find that about two-thirds of your
main categories of questions to pictures are painted in direct
deal with here: (1) How effec- light and one-third in indirect
tively are you using both the light. This proportion does not
unifying and the expressive pos- reflect the weather in your part
sibilities of direct light? (2) Are of the world, but indicates that
you taking sufficient advantage of watercolor landscapists seldom
the opportunities for coherence paint in rain and snow! A sub-
and expression offered by indi- stanially different ratio of sub-
rect light? jects painted in direct or indirect
It may be easier if you divide light may indicate a semicon-
the first question into the lighting scious or unconscious preference.
categories just discussed, but first Try to figure out why you paint
take an overview of your work to subjects in the light you seem to
decide whether you appear to prefer. Is it accident, or do you
prefer direct or indirect light. actually feel better on sunny
1. Side Light. Are vou making Reflections bv Eugene Conlon. 15" x 21^" (38 x 55 cm) rough paper, pur-
chased bv the Junior League of Springfield, Missouri and donated to the
good use of the unifving effect of
Regional Girls" Shelter, Springfield. Top light (like side light) falling on any
direct light bv carefullv indicating irregular surface will produce manv small shadows that can often be used to
the consistencv of the light add excitement to a painted surface. Reflections is largelv articulated bv the
source? (This question applies varied repetition of the clapboard shadows and paint texture, and repre-
equallv to other direct lighting sented texture is used with equal skill.
LIGHTING 101
Figure 63
Mexican Bus bv Carl Schmalz. 1946, 13" x 19" (33 x 48 cm), 90 lb. rough
paper, collection of the author. This was painted from the memory of waiting
for a bus to start late at night. Though I had no notes and was working six
months after the experience, the vision remained in my mind sufficiently
clearly for me to reconstruct it. One small incandescent bulb provided the
only light source, accounting for the very dark shadows; there is almost no
reflected light. Light diminishes very rapidlv away from the source, so that
the right side of the picture is relieved only by the glint on the metal pole.
Colored
Light
Illustrations your task as a representational
Do you understand The first thing to remember artist is to edit color constancy to
about a tinted or colored light serve your pictorial ends. In ordi-
the theory and uses
source is that it is incomplete light. nary light you want to learn to
of colored light sources White light contains all wave- see the actual color, the bluish
in painting? lengths of the visible spectrum gray, so as to paint it. But in col-
from the long reds to the short ored light, color constancy can be
violets. A colored light source is extremely useful, since it permits
Critical Concern deficient in some wavelengths. you com-
to avoid painting a
Although the occasions for using Firelight, for instance contains monochromatic picture.
pletely
colored light sources in water- virtually no short wavelengths, To go back to the example of the
color painting are rather few, at whereas moonlight contains al- firelight scene, color constancy al-
least in practice, they are fre- most no long ones. This means lows you to include some low-
quent enough to justify your that you cannot see blue by fire- intensity blues and greens, rather
being aware of both the special light or any red by moonlight. than paint only black for cool col-
problems and special oppor- Everyone has probably had the ors. The same phenomenon also
tunities they present. experience of seeing lipstick and usually gives you the opportunity
Conditions under which you other reds go black under mer- to employ some low-intensity
can expect colored (or perhaps cury vapor street lamps. We can- warms in a moonlight picture.
only tinted) light include sunrise, not see reds by this light because Because colored or tinted light
sunset, moonlight, firelight, and there are no red wavelengths in it is incomplete, it is usually quite
light from nearly all artificial to be reflected back by the pig- weak compared with sunlight.
sources. Hence any night scene, ment that appears red in ordi- Hence, it generates or no
little
interior or exterior, will almost nary daylight. When complete reflected light, so shadow areas
surely involve colored light (white) light falls on something tend to be very dense. Silhouette
sources. that looks red to us, it appears effects are frequent, and shapes
The primary artistic advantage red because the surface has on or are prominent because contrasts
of subjects illuminated by colored in it a substance that absorbs of value are strong. These offer
light is its strong tendency to most other wavelengths and re- you splendid opportunities for
unify the scene by similarity of flects only the red ones. powerful, dramatic paintings.
color. This can also, of course, be It follows that in a firelight Eliot O'Hara's Sunset between
thought of as the disadvantage of picture, all colors will be warm or Santa Fe and Taos (color plate 21)
color limitation. But a more im- black. Since the human visual ap- is a fine example of the unifying
portant reason for relatively few paratus is remarkably adaptive, effect of tinted light. Apart from
watercolorists using colored light however, we actually perceive a the blues, the colors range from
sources may be that such subjects surprisingly wide range of hues yellow-orange all the way around
frequently produce pictures that in colored light. This capacity is the warm side of the hue circle
are dark in overall value. In called color constancy. Because of it through the reds and red-purple.
transparent watercolor, large we see the shadow side of a white Even the snow picks up a red-
areas of low-value colors can be building as white, even though it purple reflection from the clouds,
tricky to handle effectively. may be bluish gray. Much of and the most distant mountains
and emphasize the forms of the tions you might ask yourself so much, but also because the
mountains. about them. amount of One
1 I painted Mexican Bus (figure dle,
light varies.
such as Georges de la
can-
Tour
1. Ignoring for a moment the
63) many years ago, before my often painted, provides a single
kind of colored light that may be
personality as a painter was de- weak, warm source in which
involved, have you made full use
veloped, but remains a picture
it forms are potently relieved
of it as a unifying factor? Have
of considerable interest because against extreme darks. Sunset,
you overemphasized the unity of
of the telling value pattern and however, often produces fairly
the way the strong light/dark con-
color — is your picture too ex-
diffuse, but still quite strong,
clusively pink, orange, green, or
trasts are unified by the pervasive warmly tinted light. Moonlight is
whatever? If so, you may have
yellows from the incandescent bluish or greenish and, after you
disregarded the factor of color
bulb. More importantly, the low adjust visually, it appears single
constancy.
intensities and generally warm and strong. Actually, it is ex-
I once painting an up-
recall
colors help reinforce a mood of tremely weak light, which ac-
coming summer storm at dusk
tranquil, late-night waiting. counts for its inability to create
that turned out all pink, gray,
Chez Leon (figure 41), O'Hara's reflected light.
and black. The drawing and
mildly abstract Paris night scene,
painting were fine, but the pic-
A typical late-twentieth-century
has some of the same expressive interior includes multiple light
ture lacked coherence for an
qualities. It, too, is a low-intensity sources, often of different tints.
interesting reason. It was purely
picture in which value contrasts If you have tried painting a con-
representational except for the
are fairly strong and are respon- ventional living room, for exam-
color, which reminded me of a
sible for most of the accented ple, you have faced quite compli-
Hollywood bathroom or a young
shapes. Light comes from several cated problems. But let's take
girl's carefully planned party cos-
sources — the various shop fronts
tume. Because the color scheme
sunset as an example. Did you
—and is reflected in the wet
read as abstract, it conflicted with
paint up-sun (subject backlit),
street surfaces. The architectural which is customary, for the sun-
the rest of the picture. Color con-
clarity of the painting helps make set color is in that direction? You
stancy is not just an excuse for
it quite serene. It depicts a far- lose two things painting that way:
broadening your palette in col-
from-nasty night. the pronounced modeling that
ored light situations; it is an in-
Jonee Nehus's Polly's Piano (fig- results from low light, and the
herent perceptual faculty in all of
ure 64) treats a night interior transformations of greens and
us. To overlook it may result in
with great sensibility. Value con- blues that would result if your
an unnatural-looking, hence in-
trasts of lightand shade are un- subject were illuminated by such
coherent, picture.
derstated. Nehus reserves her deeply orange light.
darks for shape accents across the 2. Have you capitalized on the
3. If you chose cross light, did
picture surface and exploits the value contrasts that figure so
limitation of warm incandescent prominently in most scenes il- you achieve warm neutral greens
range of muted, in trees and grass? Again, have
light to create a luminated by colored light? In an
middle-intensity colors of great interior scene with a single light you utilized the long descriptive
subtlety. These empha-
visually source such as my Mexican Bus shadows? Have you made your
size the auditory harmony sug- (figure 63), the strongest value
whites sufficiently pink or orange?
gested by the piano, and the var- contrasts, as well as the most tell-
4. If you looked into the light
ied darks strike the eye in much ing silhouettes, tend to be located
(up-sun), did you get sufficient
the way separate piano notes near the middle of the picture. A
color into the silhouettes? Did
would strike the ear. The whole moonlit scene, on the other hand,
you color the sky enough?
evokes a palpable mood of the may not arrange itself so easily.
delight of music in a quiet room Outdoor, sunset, or night subjects 5. Finally, whatever type of col-
at night. must be as carefully thought out ored light effect you painted, are
as any scene in sunlight. For in- your darks dull and lifeless or
Exercises stance, have you used the best glowing and vibrant? As you
The chances are excellent that angle to take advantage of long, know, the very nature of trans-
among your selected pictures descriptive cast shadows? parent watercolor is hostile to
you have none that employ s col- The tvpe of colored light illu- large areas of extremely low
ored or tinted light. In fact, the minating what you have painted value. Since the luminous quality
chances are pretty good that makes a significant difference in of the medium depends on light
you've never painted such a pic- the pictorial problems and pos- reflecting from the paper's white
pressed paper, collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Chew. Xehus understates
the darks here: thus the viewer onlv slowlv recognizes the significance of the
dark windows. More important at first is the plav between muted color and
the accents of dark, as thev build a convincing image of the absorbed pianist
and her instrument.
To minimize the chance of object in the picture. Objects that herence on the subject which —
deadness in extreme darks, you are cool in color will therefore contributes to pictorial co-
must use the most transparent tend to be more intense than —
herence the problem of
darks on your palette. These may warm-colored ones. The latter painting lively darks may dis-
include sepia, alizarin crimson, should also be painted considera- courage more artists than it
red-purple (such as Thio violet), bly darker than they appear in needs to.
purple (such as Winsor or Thalo daylight, for little cool light can In addition, virtually all col-
Drawing, Pattern,
and Darks
tance of understanding how they sharply relieved by a generally
Are you seeing and function cannot be stressed too light background.
much. Taking advantage of strong sil-
using dark shapes houettes includes using the shad-
effectively? Illustrations ow contour, the revealing edge
Although there is some overlap, on Chapter
objects discussed in
for clarity's sake let's divide the 13. It is especiallyimportant in
Critical Concern Hopper's painting because it re-
use of darks into four categories
Virtually all painting is drawing,
that we can consider more or less veals the cylindrical volume of
but this is particularly true of di-
separately. These might be: (1) the lighthouse tower. It is also
rect painting where you apply one of the main ways in which
characteristic silhouette, (2) shad-
colors with relatively little pre-
ow patterns, (3) reserved lights, forms are specified in Murray's
liminary preparation. And, as
and (4) design or composition. Buoys (figure 34) and Preston's
noted in Chapter 2, among the Wind-Blown Iris (color plate 18).
forms of direct painting, trans- Characteristic Silhouette. The point
Selection of telling darks is as
parent watercolor is preeminently of view from which you approach
necessary in diffused as in direct
drawing. Recall again the likeness a subject and the lighting condi-
light. Bell House by Murray Went-
between pen or pencil drawing tions surrounding it alter the
worth (color plate 13) is a case in
and watercolor. In both, you placement of your darks. Because
point. Relatively light in overall
work on a white (or light) surface of the role these options can play
value, it nevertheless packs a wal-
and apply tones gradually in a in attaining descriptive clarity,
lop because of the shape and
general light-to-dark sequence. you need to be aware of them as
placement of darks. The large
Since you do not normally add you begin painting.
window, slightly to the left of
any lights, the darks have an es- Edward Hopper's Highland
center, anchors the palely lit
pecially important function: they Light, North Truro (figure 65) is
structure and helps define its
must describe the shapes of both interesting because, as far as we
pyramidal form. The opening in
dark things and lighter ones, can tell, he had an unobstructed
the bell's base is another signifi-
while also providing visual excite- view of the subject from any di-
cant dark shape. The straps and
ment or giving sparkle to the rection. It is instructive to think
bolts that hold the bell are ac-
image. why he chose the angle he did.
cented darks, as is the glimpsed
The chief differences between You'll notice that it is almost, but
underpinning of the house itself.
what is usually called drawing not quite, directly up-sun. He
Details of dark weeds proliferate
and transparent watercolor are achieves here maximum back
to the right of center, their small,
that you work in color in water- lighting, with its pungent revela-
spiked shapes attracting the view-
color, you work with washes as tion of characteristic silhouettes
er's eye by contrast.
well as strokes (which tend to be in the gable shapes and chim-
somewhat wider than drawing neys, and sacrifices very little of Shadow Patterns. An inescapable
strokes), and you normally can- the volume revealed by cross necessity in working with trans-
not erase your darks, as you can lighting. In addition, the late parent watercolor is acquiring the
with pencil or charcoal. morning light creates relatively skill to see and paint the patterns
Because darks serve so many small cast shadows, so that the —
of shadow areas both the shad-
purposes, and because they are generally dark pattern of the ow side (and shadow edge, or
largely ineradicable, the impor- whole complex of buildings is contour) on objects and shadows
darks is, of course, not the point. ify lighter shapes, they have a trast also announces the pictorial
Rather, the idea is to observe the negative or passive function. theme. This can be quite simply
shadow shapes of
characteristic Therefore, in addition to think- done, as in Mary Kay D'Isa's A
commonly encountered trees and ing about drawing shapes in Brush with Winter (figure 70).
shrubs. These shadow patterns shadow areas, you must consider Here the central mass of dead
can then be employed, in addi- this self-effacing but vital role of weeds and bushes contrasts
tion to typical silhouette and darks. strongly with the surrounding
branch structures, to identify Dee Lehmann's 405 Hill Street —
snow the fundamental theme of
non-representational, as in the mann emplovs reserved lights defdv and with an understanding of their
left foreground of D'Isa's A Brush profound contribution to economy as well as to the viewer's sense of the ease
u'ith Winter; or it may be more of picture making. Notice here the manv places, in the foliage as well as the
architecture, where a shape is defined bv the darker color around it. The
closely associated with representa-
picture is also interesting as composition. The pale triangle shape at center is
tion, as in my Enclosed Garden repeated in varied ways throughout the house (it even appears, modified, in
(color plate 22), Dodge Mack- the shadow on the foreground grass), and the building is enclosed bv yellow-
night's First Snow-Winter Land- green and green foliage at near right and at more distance at left. A sensitive
scape (figure 71), and Nicholas symmetry is set up that unites the picture surface with the illusory space.
Exercises
Drawing is first of all the accurate
seeing and recording of shapes.
This does not necessarily mean
recording with scientific exacti-
tude, but rather with an eye to
revealing inherent patterns.
Drawing is also recording the il-
dark-value areas and indirectlv bv buildings with the organic patterns of the trees. But what interested me most
was the opportunity to develop the trees simply, bv planning reserved lights.
darks that define light-value
areas.
The trunks were painted at the same time as the foliage lights modulating —
color. Darks were introduced, also with modulated color, to serve as interme-
Arrange your selected pictures diate colors in both foliage and trunks. Only three drying times and some late
now and prepare to examine dark touches were required.
1. Do your
Characteristic Silhouette.
most im-
silhouettes, at least the
portant ones, usually emphasize a
characteristic, readily identifiable
aspect of the object drawn? In
modeling objects, do you often
use the shadow edge or contour
to give extra information about a
subject's shape?
Resolve to study these possibil-
ities more consciously in the
•*'"*•
future if you feel that you could >.2i; v*
better utilize them. Eliot O'Hara's
Llamas, Cuzco (figure 73) is an ele- . it- "^
notice that the spatters are both drv artist conveys a precise sense of the left against the cruise ship moving
and wet. linking the areas at lower day. Notice, too. how he uses cast right. Small value contrasts in the
left. Further, the color intensities are shadows to define the snow surface, clouds, boats, and water create visual
extremelv low. so that strong sim- the sleighs ruts, and the depressions which is balanced bv the
interest,
ilaritv of intensity and litde hue around the bases of trees. "worked" skv above. Note that the
contrast make the picture cohere nearbv strokes in the water are about
while underlining its expressive the same in size and direction as
thrust. manv that describe the boats in the
middleground. Photo bv Robert A.
Grove.
The more ways you can make drawing because clarity, preci- exaggerated example should
any given stroke or color count, sion, and expressive pungency of warn vou what to look for.
Figure 76
Landscape with Trees and Rain by
John Marin, 1914, 14" x 16" (36 x 41
cm), rough paper, collection of the
Colby College Art Museum. Paying
virtually no attention to light effect,
Marin states as directly as possible,
through his technical means, the ex-
perience of being in rain. He is less
interested in the appearance of a
rainy day, than in the feel of one.
The intermingled wet washes are ar-
ticulated by strokes that suggest trees
and falling rain. Pictorial coherence
isincreased by the use of rather low-
intensity colors with few sharp value
contrasts.
> ~**& lh
<>v. Hrf»'» <
Coherence
Without Light
the dvnamic forces of nature, as tance is suggested chiefly b\ the
Are you aware of your is often the case with Marin, to sizeof the islands and their hori-
the almost cubistic excitement of zontal bottoms (which tell the
options regarding city activity, as in Dong King- viewer that they are verv near the
representational man's New York Cits at Daybreak high horizon). Second, represen-
(figure 77 1. tational accuracy is played down
painting without the
Despite what vou seek to gain in favor of general shapes. Fi-
unifying power of light? bv giving up light effect, you are nally,vou notice a number of
losing a formidable tool for creat- arbitrary marks in the picture
ing pictorial coherence. You must that seem to have little to do with
Critical Concern therefore raise your other means actual appearance.
About 1900, many progressive to a new significance (many art- Rather than concentrating on
artists deliberately gave up the ists enjoy this challenge for itself) the look of nature, Marin has
long-standing and powerfully to achieve integrity and unitv in suggested something of the feel
unifying agent of light, while re- vour pictures. These other means of spring rain. The wet flow of
maining essentially representa- include surface, spatial, and color softlv neutral blues, greens, and
tional in their painting. This pos- elements. They also include manv grays over all the surface speaks
sibility was quicklv picked up bv representational elements: but directly of our experience of
watercolorists. John Marin (figure with little or no light effect, these rain. The same
experience is
76) was among the of them,
first must often be used differently. then stated symbolically by the al-
but Maurice Prendergast often Gene Matthews*s Hill (figure 75) most calligraphic rain lines at
eschewed the effects of light in is an example. upper left and center. These
works executed before World form an important visual focus,
War I, and Karl Schmidt-Rott- Illustrations as they contrast with the rest of
luff's Landscape (color plate 11) is John Marin's Landscape with Trees the picture surface. But other,
an early example. Later, Arthur and Rain (figure 76) offers a good similar signifying (rather than de-
Dove and Charles E. Burchfield starting point for this discussion scriptive) lines prevent this con-
continued to explore the pos- because it is a picture done on trast from disrupting the total
sibilities of this kind of non- the kind of dav when considera- visual statement. For example,
naturalistic representation. A tions of light are minimal. If vou the casual, almost clumsy quality
largegroup of watercolorists to- normally take light into consid- of the lines found in the spruce
day work primarily in non- eration, this should help vou trees and in the foliage marks in
illuministic styles. You may be remember that you have already the right foreground helps us ap-
among them, or vou may want to faced some of the problems ad- preciate the lines as similar to the
experiment in the mode. If so, dressed by this chapter manv "accidental" (natural) flow of the
this chapter will discuss some times. wet-in-wet brush marks. The pic-
things vou should consider. How, does Marin's pic-
in fact, ture holds together; it is a small,
The chief reason for eliminat- ture differ from a "normal" delicate recording of coolness,
ing or in some way modifying treatment of rainy weather? First, moistness, and the felt power of
light effect is you wish to
that value (and color) relationships be- earth's fecundity under the fertile
emphasize something else. The tween foreground and back- rain.
expressive concern you are pur- ground do not allude exclusively This deliberate linking of
suing may range from a sense of to atmospheric perspective. Dis- courted accidents and symbolic
spotting of intense colors. Surface co- some that model forms and oth- Look at Richard Yarde's Parade
herence depends also upon similarity ers that break it up. Value con- II (figure 78). The picture is
of rectangular shapes that recur in a trasts are very strong, and so is "about" a group of people, pre-
broad sequence of sizes. The picture
color intensity. Space, however, is sumably only a segment of a
expresses in direct visual terms a
sense of urban early-morning bustle. again of relatively little concern: longer line, who move erratically
the surface pattern sets up a field along a pathway. We do not
of stimulating visual excitement know whether it is a street or
that communicates directly to the where the line is. The people are
viewer a sense of the city waking forever frozen in their slow, but
to traffic noise and activity. King- somehow purposeful, progress, as
man uses not light but the sharp though a news film had been
value contrasts it creates to fash- stopped. Yet there a sense of
is
washes. Overlapped edges are cession. notice how sensitively Yarde se-
created deliberately so that the It is in the freedom of color or- lects characteristic shapes in both
viewer can never quite forget the ganization that we most clearly darks and lights to tell the viewer
surface or the paint. The sense of see the direct result of liberation succinctly about the varieties of
gently controlled, loose paint per- from unity of light, as is the case human form represented in this
vades the paper. Its coherence is in Prendergast's Band Concert parade. Also observe how he bal-
very strong. (color plate 4). The color areas ances narrow dark-against-light
Yarde uses the spatial elements vary between fairly neutral and shapes at the right border with
ingeniously. He plays the "pic- very intense, jewellike, trans- light-against-dark ones at the left.
ture" shape against the horizontal parent passages. They are not The amount of contrast is similar
rectangle of the paper so that the wholly "naturalistic" either. By enough to achieve visual balance,
marchers turn gradually down- abandoning the effect of natural but the different terms of the
hill, while the slope hovers be- light, Yarde, too, is free to treat contrast prevent monotony.
tween an increasing curve and a the colors of objects with a good Autumn Bluff (figure 79) by
diagonal. This ambiguity marks deal of latitude. In figure 78, you Daniel Peterson, also a non-
—
the picture as a whole it is its can see that this freedom dramat- illuministic picture, illustrates a
visual, representational, and ex- ically affects value. Check only very different expressive aim.
pressive theme. one example, the woman just to Once again we note ambiguous
Most of the color patches are the left of center: although some space and a fragmented light
similar in size, and many share a darker tones in her skirt help re- effect, but here the artist seems
resemblance in shape as well, re- duce her contrast with the deep to "reconstitute" space and light
calling the logical order of mo- darks around it, the upper part to emphasize the energy they in-
Figure 78
Parade II by Richard Yarde, c. 1976, 16" x 28" (41 x 71 cm), rough paper, courtesv of the artist. Like Kingman, Yarde
employs light arbitrarily and abstractly; like Prendergast (color plate 4), he breaks up the surface in patches of wash that
have somewhat the force of strokes. Space and atmosphere are not as important as color and shape relationships on the
picture surface. Ambiguities of value and color set a theme that places the scene in a mysteriously present past.
foggy, the tide is low, and colors are very low in intensity. I flooded on opaque mixtures to
increase the surface interest caused bv the sediment and the granulation of pigment.
, I *4 /,, * I 7
Figure 81
Fisherman's Morning bv Carl Schmalz, 1975, 15£" x 22£" (39 x 57 cm), 140 lb. hot pressed
paper, collection of the author. As in figure 80, this is also a demonstration painting, but done
on a very different day. Bright sun and nearlv full tide are external factors that differentiate
this picture from the former one. But there are many internal differences, too. The design
here is horizontal with vertical accents rather than about evenly balanced horizontal and verti-
cal axes. I used many more transparent colors to achieve the high intensities I wanted. Surface
interest is in brushstrokes instead of granulation. Although the basic subject is the same, this
picture is "about" a man out early for fishing while the earlier one is "about" mood.
Subject
Selection
Illustrations was. in fact, never completely
Are you trapped Probablv the first and one of the overcome, even during the last
most insidious subject constraints third of the centurv. when Im-
by custom or are you
facing you is the weight of tradi- pressionism exerted its influence
selecting subjects freely tion in representational trans- on watercolor painting.
and deliberately? parent watercolor. All of you Although Winslow Homer was
have been to manv watercolor never truly an Impressionist, his
shows and have felt there the work does reflect the intense con-
Critical Concern drearv redundancy of subject cern with light effect that lay at
From the most insignificant idea matter. Frequently as many as 90 its heart. John Singer Sargent's
and from the first
to the greatest, percent of the subjects shown are later watercolors are very close to
glimmer of the idea to the final predictable. There are small Impressionism, both in subject
framing of a picture, there is no shifts, to be sure. New England choice and handling. And many
choice in painting that is not an barns are currently seen less than other Americans, including
intensely personal one. Among they were in the 1950s; but fish- Hassam and Macknight, worked
your first important choices is se- ing boats and shacks remain in the Impressionist mode.
lection of a subject. highly favored, and abandoned The twin heritage of Romanti-
As pointed out before, the farm machinerv has recently cism and Impressionism remains
picture you paint is a separate been very popular. with us, influencing profoundly
and self-defining world. It is your This extreme conservatism in the subjects of transparent water-
creation, and you are responsible subject derives from at least two color. The force of tradition is
for its order, its wholeness, and sources. The first is watercolor's seen in subjects that are over-
its meaning. Clearly, the more as- historv as a medium over the last whelmingly landscape, often with
pects of vour picture over which two hundred vears, and the sec- expressive overtones derived
vou exercise conscious choice the ond is public expectation based from Romantic preferences, such
better job you will do. No aspect on that historv. (broken-down evi-
as nostalgia
is more fundamental than the ini- Watercolor first began as a dences of earlier habitation) or
tial choice of subject. The freer commonly used sketch medium anthropomorphism (the persever-
vou can be about this basic deci- (just as Diirer employed it ing tree deformed by wind). It is
sion, the better. around 1500) during the early seen also in the dominant con-
There remarkable number
is a nineteenth century. It was a cern of watercolorists for
of subject constraints on contem- quick way of making color notes emphasis on the total effect of
porary watercolorists; you may and was largelv employed for illumination.
not be fully aware of many of landscapes. Turner, Constable, The American watercolor-lov-
these. As with all other aspects of and other European artists ing public has become deeply
painting, some constraints are ex- worked in the ambience of Ro- attached to these subject choices
ternal and, to a greater or lesser manticism, which tended to and treatments. National exhibi-
degree, bevond individual con- infuse nature with human senti- tions have, on the whole, tended
trol. Some are internal, and most ments. In the work of the later to reinforce them, and private
of these are subject to your per- English watercolorists, traces of galleries, out of economic neces-
sonal decision. this Romanticism lingered on. It sity . have largely catered to this
of conscious choice?
this a result
Throughout this book, the aim is
to control as many decisions in
painting as possible, and subject
selection is among the most im-
portant.
Exercises
If you have not already been
tempted to glance at your picture
collection, get it out now and
spread it around so you can see
all your paintings easily.
of subject (see Chapter 18). washing machines and driers, mixers, vacuum cleaners. New stoves may not
be as quaint as old ones, but they can provide as good a painting subject.
This kind of analysis organizes
your sense of what subjects in
general are interesting to you
and gives you an opportunity to
reflect on the degree to which
your conscious choice has been
operating in subject selection. It
may also encourage you to con-
sider trying some different
subjects or different approaches
to familiar themes.
Summary Figure 85
The subject of a representational The Hock by Adaline Hnat, 1976, 14" x 20" (36 x 51 cm), 140
lb. rough paper,
subject and treatment. The economy of handling and the almost "unfinished"
able elements that specify the
look of the birds help to express the birds' motion. Most of the characteristic
meaning of the materials that subjects of Chinese and Japanese painters have also been explored bv Western
make up the picture the brush— artists, but insects are little used by us and bear investigation. From attractive
marks, colors, shapes, lines, and moths and butterflies to less immediately appealing creatures such as hornets
values. The subject is also usually and spiders, insects offer a wide range of barely explored subjects.
the source of the artist's first
germ of an idea about the mak- your art, to give yourself the it is modeled. Sketch at every op-
ing of the picture, so it is the amount of free-
greatest possible portunity. Figures and faces will
beginning and the end. Its im- dom to paint and say what you yield to a similar, vigorous attack.
portance is central. want. Your scrutiny of your own Take the bull by the horns.
For watercolorists, subject se- work shows you pretty clearly There is only one way to learn
lection has been circumscribed by whether or not you are presently new ways; that is to try them
tradition, and although the tradi- free to range as widely as you'd again and again. Put out some
tion has probably exerted consid- like over the gamut of subjects new colors and give a really
erable influence on which artists available to all alert painters. bright painting a try. Take a
become watercolorists, it is still Should you conclude that you —
weekend trip not necessarily-
possible, and probably desirable, would like to acquire greater very far away, but somewhere
to extend the range of watercolor range, look again at your picture you've not painted before. If you
subjects. Certainly the individual collection. Try to figure out what are a non-driver, or otherwise
artistcan benefit by increasing his is inhibiting you. If it is a reluc- housebound, look around you vet
or her breadth of subject, if only tance to draw buildings, go get a once again. There must be views
to enlarge drawing capacity and book on perspective from the li- and corners out of which you
technical skills. Even more impor- brary and practice, or take a could squeeze a different picture.
tant, pushing out toward new course —but learn. You can over- In short, adopt an actively seek-
subjects widens and deepens come any limitation of mere ing attitude, look everywhere for
one's imaginative power and technique. The same thing ap- subjects, draw as much as possi-
nourishes sensitive perception. plies if you are uncomfortable ble, and put down every picture
The main reason for seeking drawing "pure" landscape. Prac- idea that crosses your vision.
subject variation, however, is to tice trees and foliage, look for the Never turn off the painter's eyes
increase control and masterv of structure of the land, notice how vou own.
of creation.
Figure 81 (right) fl
The Latch by Larry Webster. 21" x
30" (53 x 76 cm), collection of the
artist. Webster exploits the fore-
ground focus to emphasize both
painterly and descriptive texture.
Notice that he combines them, using
a sequence from periphery to center
that parallels the increase of descrip-
tive texture toward the center.
f&V'i Hi . .<
Focal Distance
and Space
case in point. The old sewing ma- eye over it?
Are you capitalizing chine, with its archaic complex- No matter what your prefer-
itiesand its continued utility, be- ences, the spatial organization of
on your options comes a metaphor for the wealth your picture must be consistent
for different focal of human knowledge and social in itself and congruent with sur-
evolution. It is a good subject, face design and expression if
distances and spatial
well handled as a close-up. your painting is to attain the
constructions? The least-used, and least-un- complete coherence that makes it
point is the foreground. This can at and into it? If your focus is in erations of orderly arrangement
be an emphasized, even an exclu- the middleground or distance, do in the illusory third dimension.
sive, focus. It allows the near and you prefer to give the fore- Middleground focus usuallv in-
the little to become large. Lucile ground approximately equal cludes deep space, presenting
Geiser's Seams, OK (figure 83) is a interest, or to vault the viewer's you with the classic foreground
Figure 89 (below)
Broadway, Newburgh, N.Y. bv
Childe Hassam, 1916, 15f x 2U" (39
x 54 cm), rough paper, courtesy,
Colby College Art Museum. One of
the true American Impressionists,
Hassam was among the few who
worked much in watercolor. He de-
^•4
veloped a technique of extreme
fresbness and lucidity, seen here in a
top-lit scene. The middleground
—
focus tree, windows and flags is—
embraced and characterized bv
strong verticals and horizontals.
,
thing. A
few zigzags take the
viewer through the foreground
to the dunes, modeled and col-
ored by the afternoon light. The
mountain is a coda in the dis-
tance, modeled by delicate hue
and value changes. As for surface Figure 90
design, it is the simplest: the Torment, Puerto Rico by Henry G. Keller, 1926, rough paper, collection of
dunes and cows are the subject. Mr. William M. Milliken. Keller, a near contemporary of Marin, worked in a
modified Expressionist mode. His color is relatively intense, his designs bold,
They are near the center, and
simple, but subtle. Notice how the dark foliage that enters this composition at
they place in perspective the lower left exhibits a sequence of more and more agitation at its upper contour
otherwise unsealed foreground as it moves into the picture. By this device Keller prevents the viewer's eye
beach and more distant mountain. from straying out the corner.
A different example of
middleground focus is Childe
Hassam's Broadway, Newburgh,
NY. (figure 89). Even in black
and white, it takes but a moment
to realize that the focus here is
on the dark tree, windows, and
flag at the center. The rest of the
painting merely enfolds and
qualifies this center, and most —
—
important guides us there. Ob-
serve how difficult it is for the
viewer to get out. Strong verticals
at left and dark ones at right,
strong horizontals above that stop
the perspective of the street, and
the powerful brush activity at
center all contain a middle-
ground its whole en-
that gives us
vironment in terms of Hassam's
brush and color.
Note that the "foreground
problem" has been taken care of Figure 91
by a dark at left that describes Corner Shadows by Murray Wentworth 20" x 30" (51 x 76 cm), smooth paper,
perspective. The same thing hap- collection of the artist. Well used, the vignette is simply a kind of sequence: it
is a gradation from less to more representation from the edges of the picture
pened in color plate 23, and
to the focal center. Wentworth uses it deftly here, so that foreground detail is
Henry Keller employed essen- actually found mainly deep into the picture space. The foreground — treated
tially the same solution in in the same sequence as the rest of the painting — is largely paint texture.
earth, section of the picture that duces a ground plane tilted into Edward Hopper's Universalist
challenging the focus on the dis- background, one can often in- that view can be used to monu-
tant buildings and tree lines. I clude little or no sky, so the mentalize almost any subject.
used color intensity, color con- ground plane becomes the sub- Larry Webster's Dock Square
trast, and highly visible brush- ject. If the view is seen head Florist (figure 101) illustrates an-
strokes, but tried to avoid much on, horizontal and vertical axes other sort of spatial organization,
specific descriptive detail. frequently order the surface, as the simple center placement of a
One variety of spatial organiza- in Sidney Goodman's Towards the main feature with more distant
tion that has been much favored Perns' (figure 97) and my En- things falling away at the sides.
by watercolorists in recent years closed Garden (color plate 22). This greatly reinforces center-
is the flat, head-on view of the Seen at an angle, such views pro- focused design by adding spatial
wall of a building or other wall- duce a network of diagonals on emphasis to it. A similar strength-
like subjects. An excellent exam- the surface. This is the basis of ening occurs with the opposite
ple of this is Phoebe Flory"s Wall spatial organization in William
treatment of space, in which spa-
tial depth is greatest near the
Pattern, Venice (figure 93).Mary Preston's August Wild Flowers (fig-
Blackey's Morning and Snow (fig- ure 98) and Eliot O'Hara's center of the painting. Charlie's
ure 94) illustrates a way of Gargoyles over the Seine (figure 99). Lane bv Al Brouillette (figure
ordering trees in this manner. Notice that whereas Preston's pic- 102) is a good example of this.
to
Si *
•4»-r
^r-
1
'
FzgT/r? 97 (left)
ma
„
T T
he chimney shadows at
P ^
t
?
aJ IeS and ex
tHe *"* r M,f and eaves
'
diagonal lines on
"
'" Perspective
right. These lines are at right
subliminal wav. restore the right-angle
angles to
to look up, out,
down and in?
always tend
and around? Or
From above? From
buildings that is distorted by the
regufr Lof the below? At a centered object? At a
artists viewing position
centered space? Or, since we
Summary
This chapter clearly does not
cover all possible types of spatial
organization in representational
Figure 101
painting. Its purpose, rather, is to
Dock Square Florist bv Larry Webster, 1968, 28i" x 30^" (72 x 77 cm), 300 lb.
suggest a few ways of categoriz- cold pressed paper, collection of the artist. Obrig Prize for Watercolor, Na-
ing treatment of depth in order tional Academy of Design, 1970. This painting is a variation of the head-on
to simplify your task of thinking wall type of spatial organization: but here, the recession at the sides gives a
Paper Size
and Shape
you usually paint on Imperial washing machine in the cellar.)
Are you thinking about half-sheets or full sheets? (There The size and shape of a picture
are other habits as questionable.) is, in part, a function of the pur-
how size and shape If so, I'd bet that your honest rea- pose it is to serve. Paintings made
are related to your sons are mainly practical. That is, with only one purpose in mind,
you have mats, glass, frames, and namely exhibition, will be suitable
expressive intent
crates already fitted for your for living rooms or other large
and the purpose to usual sizes. By now these sizes spaces, but they may not work in
be served by your and shapes may seem to be your halls or smaller rooms. You will,
"natural" way of envisioning a of course, want to continue to
picture? picture, but can you stop a mo- produce exhibition pictures, but
ment to consider what an perhaps not to the exclusion of
insidious inhibition you are im- other possibilities. Not only do
Critical Concern posing on yourself? most homes have places for small
For just over a hundred years, It is true that we have to deal paintings, they also have places
the art of painting has been with the world as it is. But we for high, narrow ones, low, wide
adrift. Those of us who paint do don't have to refuse to change it. ones, and round or oval ones.
so because we recognize that we And the first thing to do, of Each of these formats offers you
make a vision new for ourselves course, is to change ourselves the exhilaration of new composi-
and for those who respond to put our intelligence, imagination, tional challenges as well as the
our work. Most of us have no pa- and art to work. opportunity to broaden the range
tron with whom to share our of usefulness of your "product."
thinking about the values and Illustrations Look at Larry Webster's Quarry
purposes of each picture. In- Raphael did the designs for the Fragment (figure 103), for exam-
stead, we face free-market paintings in Pope Julius IFs bath- ple. This might easily —
almost
competition in which our "unnec- room; and small pictures still automatically —have been a stand-
essary" product enjoys no have a place in less grand homes. ard Imperial 22" x 30" (56 x 76
advertising campaigns. As it is, Some of you cannot, for impor- cm) picture. The composition
our only route to financially tant reasons —
your special vision, would have been stable and satis-
backed appreciation is the exhibi- your economic circumstances, fying. Instead, Webster sets up
tion. There are two types of
—
your health produce large pic- lively tensions among the verti-
exhibitions, although they are not tures. Good, then! Make small a and dynamic
cals, horizontals,
seriously different; one is the virtue. Be realistic about where diagonals of the rock face and
public show, open or juried, and people live and what they do: their enclosing circle. The con-
the other is the gallery show. The some of the greatest prayers in excitement
trast creates a visual
former bestows prizes, publicity, the Judeo-Christian tradition are that the "standard" format would
and renown; the latter, endorse- about washing hands. Why have lacked.
ment, sales, and renown. Both should you not say to the world Similarly, Phoebe Flory's Wall
are extremely expensive for the that you have wonderful pictures Pattern, Venice (figure 93), with its
artist because both are dependent for over the sink, the bathroom tall, permits em-
vertical shape,
upon profit for their existence. wall, even the vacuum cleaner phasis on the varied shapes and
There is a serious purpose to closet? (I keep a serious and sizes of the windows at the same
this familiar litany of woes. Do much-loved tiny painting by the time that it reinforces the sense
Figure 105
Landscape by Samuel Kamen, 6" x 8" (15 x 20 cm), rough paper, collection of the artist. Kamen's little black-
and-white painting carries a lot of punch for its size, partly because of his knowing use of value contrast and
partly because of the surface integration provided bv textures of paper, paint, and manipulated surfaces. In
spite of its smallness, it is a picture that would demand considerable space on a wall
As a transparent watercolorist, pose. Schepens-Kraus has a refined there isgood deal of variety,
a
sense of the relationship between the
however, you know that a large ask yourself why. Have you al-
size and the function of a painting,
painting is not just a medium- and she beautifully anticipates the tered the shape and size of some
sized one blown up. Several fac- uses to which her works may be put bv judicious surgery? Have you
tors contribute to the difficulty of by adjusting the scope of her subject been parsimonious with vour
large watercolors. A basic one is
and the subtlety of treatment to the paper, or are you given to em-
dimensions of each work. Here, for
finding paper in dimensions ploying scraps as best you cam-
example, she focuses on the delicacy
greater than Imperial (22" x of color and form in a painting to be
There is nothing wrong with anv
30756 x 76 cm). Few art sup- viewed up close. of these practices, of course. But
pliers stock Double Elephant the variety they produce is almost
(26|" x 40767 x 102 cm) or Anti- ger squeezes of paint, and accidental:it is not the result of
quarian (31" x 53779 x 135 cm), brushes larger than you could af- planned, thought-out congruence
the two traditional sizes larger ford, if they were made. When between the subject of the paint-
than Imperial. Hence, many art- painting, you often wish your ing and an intended purpose
ists such as Webster have used arms were longer, too! Stroke other than exhibition. Important
illustration board
as a surface. painters will, in general, have though exhibition is, it can be
This is easily obtained in a 30' x fewer difficulties of this sort than thought of as an incidental func-
40' (76 x 102 cm) size and can be those whose method is based on tion of a painting. Pictures made
purchased in 40' x 60' (102 x 152 washes. In either case, the secret for other purposes can, after all,
piece together watercolor paper member that a successful large painting, despite the realities of
glued on a fiberboard base to watercolor is a real tour-de-force, our time. Some serious thought
make any specific shape and size. and keep trying. about the way a picture of a
The primary problem with a The purpose of a large paint- given subject might be used bv a
large picture, however, is the ing in our current market purchaser can lead to greater co-
technical one of getting enough situation is normally as an exhibi- herence between the finished
paint onto extensive surfaces in tion piece. Nevertheless, such work and its ultimate purpose.
one drying time. This requires a works can fit into homes, and be- Ideally, of course, this sort of
larger palette than normal, big- cause of their size, they can also coherence is attained by painting
If your paintings are nearly all comfortable plateau in our work. Summary
the same size and shape, ask Perhaps a little aggressive out- Congruence among subject, size,
yourself whether this results from reach would open new pictorial shape, and the ultimate function
unexamined assumptions, the adventures to you. of a painting is a source of pic-
pragmatic reasons discussed ear- If, on reflection, you think that torial coherence that is often
lier in the chapter, or a deliberate your pictures are similar in size overlooked today. Because we
artistic decision on vour part. and shape for pragmatic reasons, paint chiefly for exhibition, the
It is quite possible that you you might re-examine the neces- final function of our pictures is
have simply not thought about a sity of this self-imposed stricture. usually unknown to us. We paint
relationship between size, shape, Could you, for instance, retain in a void, with only a vague no-
and pictorial purpose as it affects your selected format for some tion of the use to which our
your artistic decisions. If so, ex- portion of your work, so that pictures may be put.
amine your pictures again and your standard mats, frames, Nevertheless, with some imag-
consider what format changes crates, and so on continue to save ination you can think more
might be desirable. Do you have you trouble and expense, while clearly about the possible pur-
a painting that looks as though it you also make a deal with your- poses of your work and create
could be larger? Would it be self that would permit special paintings suitable for a consider-
more effective if it were smaller? framing for an affordable num- able variety of uses. Even this
Is there one that might have ber of more exploratorv, even little clarification will allow vou to
been vertical rather than horizon- eccentric, sizes and shapes per adjust size and shape to meet
tal? Could one be even stronger year? particular needs.
as a circular or oval composition? You might look at your paint- You can also consider actively
How do you visualize your pic- ings oncemore to discover seeking commissions, even
tures in homes? Can you see whether you show any sign of though this is presently unusual.
them comfortable only in living falling into compositional habits. This would mean that you could
or dining rooms, and perhaps oc- This is a real danger that springs see the room your picture would
casionally in a bedroom, library, from working on the same size hang in, talk with the potential
or den? Would any of them make and shape of paper. It is de- owner about his or her feelings
good kitchen pictures or go over pressingly easy to develop three about it, discuss subject and
a telephone table? Could they or four basic designs that you un- color, and set about solving a
hang on a stair wall, in a front consciously repeat with variations. very particular and personal ar-
hall, or in a dressing room? What The shock that comes only from tistic problem. For some, such a
about public spaces? Do any of dealing with a different paper situation appears to offer more
your pictures have the panache shape can help set you back on than tolerable constraints, but
to affect a bank or a theater the road to growing as an artist. other artists could well enjov its
lobby? How might they look in a You may owe yourself this kind special pleasures and challenges.
of opportunity.
Figure 109
Morning Surf bv Eliot O'Hara, 1936, 57 cm), 140 lb. rough paper, courtesy
15" x 221" (38 x
O'Hara Picture Trust. This painting, of O'Hara's earlv maturitv, was probablv a
in the stvle
class demonstration painted in forty minutes or less. Its air of dashing bravura is based on the
artist's intimate knowledge of his tools — —
brushes, paints, paper and a delicate sense of timing.
The dramatic back lighting on the spume allows O'Hara to silhouette it against the lighter sea
and gives him fine dark shapes as well. Perfect estimation of drving time makes possible the
knifed-in swirls of foam.
Painting
\burWiy
for worse — in the visible structure grounds^ —those parts of pictures
Are you looking for of your painting. This is why self- where you were most confident.
criticism is so difficult; it is you Here you may unexpectedly find
and developing what is
having a discussion with you. fluid brushwork, economy of rep-
"right" in your pictures This book has inserted itself into resentation, delicacy of color, or
the middle of that conversation, a similar evidence of your talents
or are you bogging down
third voice providing some of the and preferences that you may
in what seems "wrong"? objectivity and detachment that have overlooked in your pursuit
will help you see yourself as of more obvious aims. These can
clearly as possible in your pic- give you an index of capacities
Critical Concern tures. You need to know your that you may not have even con-
By this time you may have de- painting personality so you can sidered: certainly they can
cided that your pictures are see what to abandon and what to suggest some reliable facets of
pretty good, or you may never build on. your painting personality.
want to look at your group of se- Identifying the best in your
lected pictures again! Never- Illustrations work may also involve accepting
theless, as you've examined them Have you ever said to yourself or the "worst." To the degree that
from one point of view after an- a friend, "Gee, if I could only you honestly put yourself on
other, you have doubtless been paint like so-and-so!"? Probably. paper in your pictures, you ex-
identifying and thinking over We all have. It's silly, of course, pose your weaknesses all of
your preferences in technique, for as we paint better and better, them. These can range from
design, color, and subject, as well we can only paint more like our- shakv drawing and clumsv execu-
as inmany smaller aspects of pic- selves. But it is a phrase that can tion to a host of insensibilities
ture-making. You have also betray a kind of wrong-headed- and biases. Okay. We can't all be
begun to differentiate your pref- ness. A person who would like Michelangelo or Rembrandt, but
erences from those practices that to make skies like Adoph Dehn, the Jan Steens and Alfred Sisleys
are merely habits. The distinction for example, is saying tacitly, of this world have their place and
is a significant one, for preferences "There's something I don't like purpose, too. In any case, the
are the foundation of your style, about my skies." He is con- one thing that you can count on
while those things that you do centrating on what he feels fails as impossible is seriously altering
through unexamined habit are its in his work and looking at the yourself. This is a fundamental
enemy. While skilled habits may stylesof other artists for exam- reason for building on the things
yield a coherent picture, it will ples of healing suggestions. Such you do best, trusting that they
have little content or expressive a procedure is certainly not all will eclipse your weaknesses.
purpose, which can result only bad. But why not build from Some problems, especially
from a thoughtful selection and strength? Identify the best in those of technique, representa-
exercise of preferences. your pictures and try to improve tion, and design, can, of course,
Your preferences are the rec- those aspects of your painting. be remedied. As we noted in
ognizable tips of the deeper As mentioned previously, this Chapter 17, courses, books, and
elements of your personality that may mean looking carefully at practice will help you overcome
form the essential you. This is the ways you've handled "insig- many of these deficiencies. Sup-
the you who paints and who nificant" parts of your work pose, however, that you balk at
leaves an imprint —for better or distances, corners, perhaps fore- the amount of time required to
ably her own. despite the force of Marin's presence. Broad and vigorous and changes precisely because it
those elements in picture-making style's sake, you risk shallowness ments artists have chosen to use
thatmost suit our own tempera- and imitation. The only style that and how they have put them to-
ment, preferences, and expres- counts is the one that develops gether to form their different
sive aim. In the end, the final out of your own painting person- coherent picture worlds.
kind of pictorial coherence is ality. You must also recognize August 17 by Bill Tinker (figure
congruity between artist and that although a style is liberat- 111) is not an "easy" picture, al-
painting. This unity of subject ing — in the sense that it permits though he has made econom- it
transformed into the visual and you to create your own coherent ical by placing darker, modeling
physical order of paint produces picture world — it is also limiting, washes over lights in many areas,
that wholeness of the picture for it can be responsive only to a by reserving lights, and by main-
world that is called style. particular set of possibilities. The taining loosely crisp edges. It is
About style, however, a word world of dynamic natural forces basically awash painting in which
of caution is in order. We live in created by Susie in Haunted Island surface coherence arises in part
The composition is a modified tectural details. 29f x 36f (76 x 93 cm), collection of
the Springfield Art Museum, Spring-
center-focused design: the couple The subject is absorbing, for it
field, Missouri. In this large
with the child are placed at the is a visual encapsulation of time. wash painting, Tinker kaleidoscopes
below the
vertical center just Probably working from old pho- objects as figures of memory. His
horizontal center of the paper. tographs, Tinker assembles a style, in certain technical ways, re-
sembles that of DeWitt Hardy
Its visual richness derives from virtual collage in which spatial
(figures 10 and 113), but style is not
the complex interplay between contradictions and strange jux- just a way of handling paint or de-
similarities and contrasts of line, tapositions of objects and styles signing compositions. Finally, it is the
shape, and size, as well as con- suggest the jumble of visual re- way we see; it is our personal vision,
trastsof value. The large value collection. Time does not just ordered and structured in our own
way. Tinker and Hardy each give the
pattern of lighter areas from stand still within the picture's en-
viewer a valuable, though very dif-
lower right to upper center con- framement, it telescopes. A large
ferent, visual statement about their
trasted against middle tones painting, its size is fully justified human experience.
creates an attractive thematic by its subject.
statement from a distance, while How
does he make this bizarre
smaller darks create flickering assemblage work? By means of
contrasts at normal viewing dis- the artistic devices mentioned
tance. above, he presents viewers with a
Tinker has relied heavily on coherent idea and gives them
the force of his design for pic- clues to it. For example, the pres-
torialcoherence because he chose ence of the cars tells viewers to
an essentially non-illuministic think back to the late 1920s or
kind of representation. Notice, early 1930s, and the clothing
nevertheless, how effectively he styles support this. The late-
ecution over the entire surface. brought within through the vase the shape framed by her legs.
This liveliness informs the whole of flowers. This is picked up and inverted in
scene and lets the viewer see it as Goodman looks perpendicu- the table legs at right. As we
perennially filled with light and larly toward the room's back wall study these changing shape rela-
life. It radiates affirmation. and lets the sofa push directly tions, we see how the reader's
Finally, let's compare two into his vigorously created space. head also inverts the sofa arm
paintings that in a terse catalogue The arrangement creates strong curve and how her head is picked
description might seem to have vertical/horizontal contrasts on up by the mirror above. As in
exactly the same subject: a girl the two-dimensional surface. Hardy's painting, it is not the
lying down, reading. A quick Hardv's space is less emphatic, overt subject, but the interplav of
glance at Sidnev Goodman's stressing a very different two-di- these shapes and their meanings,
Eileen Reading (figure 112) and mensional pattern. Vertical and that provides the artist's expres-
DeWitt Hardv's Studio Interior, horizontal here form a contra- sion.
Fall (figure 113) shows that the puntal theme played against two Both pictures are about intro-
pictures could not possiblv be interlocked arcs in illusory depth. spection and reflection and about
confused, an observation that One is relatively light, moving privacy and the weakness of one's
dramatizes the fact that paintings from the reader's feet, along her defenses against invasion of it.
are couched in terms of visual not body and left arm, out through Both express this in terms of
verbal, organization. They are the light of the window. The woman's vulnerability and hence
self-defining and, ultimately, self- other, darker, extends from the both carry erotic overtones. Be-
sufficient. table and books at foreground cause of the painters' very
But how different are thevr right and along the blanket to the different approaches and their
And hou are they different? Here
1
very differently. luminated by light reflected from and structure. Only then can it
Goodman emphasizes strong dif- her paper. The circular shapes aspire to meaning or beauty. And
fuse light to model forms and that Goodman plays against his on the way remember: nothing
bleach awav the reader's exterior architectonic structure are em- that works is wrong! Good luck.
Albers, Joseph. Interaction of Gombrich, Ernst. Art and Illusion. Mayer, Ralph. The Artist's Hand-
Color. New Haven and London: Bollingen Series XXXV 5. New and Techniques.
book of Materials
Yale University Press, 1971. Ex- York: Pantheon Books, 1960. An 3d ed., New York: Viking Press,
amples and discussion of rela- interesting discussion of the pro- 1970. London: Faber and Faber,
tionships among pure colors, size, cess of picture-making from the 1964. A complete compendium
and shape. point of view of both history and of materials and their uses.
the psychology of perception.
Evans, Ralph M. An Introduction to Pope, Arthur. The Language of
Color. New York: John Wiley 8c Gregory, R. L. Eye and Brain, The Drawing and Painting. New York:
Sons, 1948. A thorough discus- 2d ed., New
psychology of Seeing. Russell and Russell, 1968. An ex-
sion of optics and the physical York and Toronto: McGraw-Hill cellent introduction to drawing,
behavior of light, with good ma- Book Company, 1963. A history, painting and color.
terial on vision. and discussion of the present un-
derstanding, of human visual Ross, Denman W. A Theory of
Fisher, Howard T., and Carpen- perception. Pure Design. Boston: Houghton
ter, James M. Color in Art: A Mifflin Co., 1907. An early publi-
Tribute to Arthur Pope. Exhibition Grumbacher, M. Color Compass. cation, outlining an analytic
Catalogue, Fogg Museum, Har- New York: M. Grumbacher, Inc., theory of design.
vard University, Cambridge: 1972. A concise summary of
1974. A complete presentation of color as it affects the artist. On Drawing and Painting.
the Pope color theory, with ex- Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
amples of its use in analyzing Hill, Edward. The Language of 1912. An introduction to the
works of art. Drawing. Englewood (Miffs, N.J.: principles of design and their ap-
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966. A plication to representational art.
Gettens, Rutherford J., and provocative and illuminating
Stout, George L. Painting Mate- analysis of drawing. Shahn, Ben. The Shape of Content.
rials. New York: D. Van Cambridge: Harvard University
Nostrand Co., Inc., 1942. Land, Edwin H. "Experiments in Press, 1957. A description by an
London: Dover, 1966. An es- Color Vision." Scientific American, artist of an artist's working pro-
pecially thorough treatment of May, 1959. (Available in separate cess as well as other thoughts on
pigments and supports. reprints.) A report on some inter- the artist's place in society.
esting possibilities regarding
human color vision.
Above Lexington Avenue, by Eliot Colombo, Charles, illus. by, 32 Force Nine, by James A. Elliott, 23
O'Hara, 12 Color, constancy, 103; mixtures, 79; illus., 22
A Brash with Winter, by Mary Kav D'Isa, primaries, 63; secondaries, 63; terti- Fort River, Fall, by Carl Schmalz, 49
110-111; illus., 112 aries, 63 illus., 74
Afternoon, by Robert W. Ducker, 45; Color in Art, 64 405 Hill Street, by Dee Lehman, 110
illus., 43 Complements, 64 illus., Ill
Allred, Osral B., illus.by, 126 Conlon, Eugene, illus. by, 101
Among Bare Maple Boughs, by Loring Contrast, 53, 57; linear, 53; sharp, 53 Garden Market, by Ruth P. Hess, 133;
W. Coleman, 59; illus., 58 Corner Shadows, by Murray Went- illus., 132
Anchorage, October, The, by Carl worth, 132-133; illus., 131 Gargoyles over the Seine, by Eliot
Schmalz, 110; illus.. Ill Covey, The, by Judy Richardson Gard, O'Hara, 133; illus., 136
Antique Dealer's Porch, by Louis J. Kaep, 2;'illus.,20 Geiser, Lucille, illus., 125
47-48, 51, 54; illus., 46 Cranberry Island, Maine, by John H. Gentle Surf, by Carl Schmalz, 21-22;
Apple and Five Leaves, by DeWitt Murray, 36; illus., 38 illus., 21
Hardy, 18; illus., 18 Culver, Charles, illus. by, 34 Goodman, Sidney, illus. by, 135, 148
August 17, by Bill Tinker, 146-147 Government Wharf, Carl Schmalz, 122
August WUdflowers, by William Preston, Demuth, Charles, illus. by, 78 Granite Coast, Carl Schmalz, 144, 146
133; illus., 135 Gene Klebe, 52-54
Deserted Dock, by
Autumn Bluff, by Daniel Petersen, Detail, by Carl Schmalz, 110 Hardy, DeWitt, illus., 18, 148
119-120; illus., 120 D'Isa, Mary Kay, illus. by, 112 Hassam, Childe, 90; illus., 130
DiStefano, Domenic. illus. by, 18 Haunted Island, by Susie Wass Thomp-
Band Concert, by Maurice Prendergast, Dock Square Florist, by Larry Webster, son, 146
119; illus., 68 133; illus., 137 Heidemann, Susan, illus.; 34, 81
Beinn Tangaval, Barm by Carl ,
Doodling, 44-45 Hess, Ruth P., illus., 132
Schmalz, 131; illus., 87 Dove, Arthur, 117 Highland Light, North Truro, by Edward
Bell House, by Murray Wentworth, 90,
Ducker, Robert W., illus. by, 43 Hopper, 109; illus., 107
Dusk, Stonehenge, by Eliot O'Hara,
109; illus., 77 Hill,by Gene Matthew, 117; illus., 116
Bermuda, bv Andrew Wyeth, 28-31, 36; 17-18; illus., 16
Homer, Winslow, illus., 19, 70
illus., 24 Ebbing Tide, Kennebunkport by Carl ,
Homosassa River, by Winslow Homer,
Berries, by Samuel Kamen, 35, 54; 27-28; illus., 70
Schmalz, 77; illus., 80
illus., 37 Hopkinson, Charles, 56
Edges, 25-32
Blackey. Mary, illus. by, 133 Eileen Reading, by Sidney Goodman, Hopper, Edward, illus., 49, 94, 107,
Bogdanovic. Bogomir, 33, illus. by, 35 11, 149; illus., 148
130, 136
Brigus, Newfoundland, Eliot O'Hara, 98
Ell, The, by Loring W. Coleman, 25-27;
Hue and intensity scale, 65
Broadway, Newburgh, N.Y., by Childe illus., 69 Hues, 63, 92-93; cool, 63; relation-
Hassam, 131; illus., 130 Elliott, James A., illus. by, 21, 22
ships, 89; warm, 63
Brouillette, Al, illus. by, 137 Empty Barn, bv Charles H. Wallis, 133;
Buoys, by John H. Murray, 43, 109, illus., 134
Indian Point, Carl Schmalz, 49, 74
illus., 42 Enclosed Garden, by Carl Schmalz 110, In May, 1938, by Charles E. Burchfield,
Burchfield, Charles E., 117 illus. 96 96'
111; illus., 86
Burns, Paul C. illus. by, 124 End of the Hunt, The, by Winslow Intensity, 63; scale for red and green,
Homer, 18, 19; illus., 19 65; location of pigments on, 65
Campbell, David, illus. by, 96 Interior, by Larry Webster, 141. 142
Central Park, bv Bogomir Bogdanovic, FirstSnow-Winter Landscape bv Dodge , Interior, New Mexico, by Edward Hop-
33; illus., 35 MacKnight, 111; illus., 112 per, 62; illus.61
Charlie's Lane, bv Al Brouillette, 133; Fisherman's Morning, by Carl Schmalz,
illus.,137 122 John Smith's Beach, bv Carl Schmalz,
Chez Leon, by Eliot O'Hara, 50, 104 Flock, The,bv Adaline Hnat, 127 50-51; illus., 50
Cobbler's Cove, by Glenn MacNutt, Flory, Phoebe, illus., 132 July 6, 1976, Carl Schmalz, 28, 73, 91
96-98, 129; illus., 97 Focal contrast and "sparkle", 110-111,
Coleman, Loring W., illus., 13, 58, 69 115 Kaep, Louis J., illus. by, 47
INDEX 151
Kamen, Samuel, illus. by, 37. 54. 140 O'Hara, Eliot, illus. bv. 12. 15. 16. 50. Small Point. Me., Carl Schmalz, 30. 31
Keller. Henry G., illus. by. 131 136.144
51. 98, 99. 114. Snowbound, bv William Preston. 13
Kingman. Dong, illus. by. 118 Oregon Shore, by Eliot O'Hara. 15 Solovioff. Nicholas, illus. bv. 42. 113
Kinstler, Everett Raymond, illus.. 134 Osprey Nest, The. Laurence Sisson. 100 Spain, bv Arne Lindmark. 48
Kitchen Ell, by Carl Schmalz. 40. 41, 50 Overcast Island, bv Carl Schmalz. 92; Squash and Onion, bv Helen Schepens-
Klebe. Gene, illus. by, 36. 52 illus.. 91 Kraus, 141
Overgrown, bv Murray Wentworth, 35; Stonehenge, bv Carl Schmalz. 17. 19
illus.. 37 illus.. 16
Landscape, bv Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Striped Leaves, by Susan Heidemann.
59. 89, 90,' 93. 117. 148; illus.. 75 Paper, sizes of, 141 33; illus.. 34
Landscape, bv Samuel Kamen. 141; Parade II. bv Richard Yarde. 118. 119 Studio Door, bv Paul C. Burns. 125-127;
illus., 140 Petersen. Daniel, illus.. 120 illus.. 124
Landscape. Bermuda, bv Charles De- Pigments. 71-72 Studio Interior. Fall, bv DeWitt Hardv.
muth. 90; illus.. 78 Plaza Borda, Taxco, by Eliot O'Hara. 51: 149; illus.. 148
Landscape with Trees and Rain, by John illus.. 51 Style, 145-146
Marin, 117; illus.. 116 Polly'sPiano, by Jonee Nehus, 104. 105 Sunset Between Santa Fe and Taos, bv
Latch, The. bv Larry Webster. 129; Porter, Fairfield, illus. by. 83 Eliot O'Hara. 103. 113; illus.. 85
illus.. 128 Portrait of R. Confer, bv Robert Andrew Surface coherence, creating. 20-23
Lawn, by Fairfield Porter, 98; illus.. 83 Parker. 15; illus.. 44
Lawn Chair, bv Andrew Wyeth, 29 Prendergast. Maurice. 90 Tall Weeds and Houses. Gloucester, by
Lehman. Dee, illus. by, 111 Preston. William, illus.. 13. 82. 91. 135 David Campbell. 96
Light, back. 96, 101; front. 98, 101; side Pumpkins and Apples, bv Samuel Tender. The. bv Osral B. Allred. 126,
95, 101; reserved. 110. 113-115; top. Kamen. 54. 89; illus. 54 127
95. 101 Texture Sample, bv Carl Schmalz, 34
Lighthouse and Building, Portland Head. Quail's House, bv Nicholas Solovioff. Thompson, Susie Wass. illus. bv. 146
by Edward Hopper. 131; illus.. 130 ^43; illus.. 42 Tinker. bv. 147
Bill, illus.
Lindmark, Arne. illus. by. 48. 55 Quarry Fragment, bv Larry Webster, Torment. Puerto Rico, bv Henry G. Kel-
Llamas, C.uz(o. bv Eliot O'Hara, 113; " ler. 132; illus.. 131
139; illus.. 138
illus., 114 Quiet Afternoon, by Loring W. Cole- Transparencv/Opacitv tests. 66
man. 13 12:15, Cape Porpoise, bv Carl Schmalz.
93. 96; illus.. 135
Machiasport, Marsh, bv William Pres- bv Fugene Conlon. 101
Reflections, Tuna Flags, bv Carl Schmalz. 98; illus..
Matthews. Gene, illus. by, 116 Sargent. John Singer, illus. by, 9 Wash. 17
Meditation. Warwick Long Bay, by Carl Schepens-Kraus. Helen, illus. by, 141 Watercolor Lessons from Eliot O'Hara. 14
Schmalz. 133; illus., 88 Schmalz. Carl, illus. bv. 8. 10. 14. 16. Watercolor. transparent. 11
Mexican Bus. bv Carl Schmalz, 104; 21. 26. 30. 34. 40. 50. 62. 72. 73. 74. Webster. Larry, 128. 137. 138. 142
illus.. 102 76. 80. 84. 86. 87. 88. 91. 94. 98. 102. Wentworth. Murray, 37. 77. 131
More Snow, bv Eliot O'Hara. 99-100; 108. 110. 111. 115. 122. 140. 144 Westerly, bv Carl Schmalz. 62. 137
illus.. 99 Schmidt-Rottluff. Karl, illus. bv. 75 West Point', bv Carl Schmalz. 140. 141
Morning and Snow, by Mary Blackev. S-curves. 60 Wet Float, by Gene Klebe. 34. 36. 45
133 Sea-Belle, Falmouth, bv Carl Schmalz. Wet-in -wet. 28
Morning Fog. bv Carl Schmalz. 11-12. 115 White Christmas. Robinhood. Maine.
'
99; illus., 10 Seams, OK. bv Lucile Geiser. 127. 129: 48-49; illus.. 48
Morning-19th St.. by Everett Ravmond illus.. 125 White River at Sharon, by Edward Hop-
Kinstler. 133; illus.. 134 Secondary Mixing Exercises. 67 per. 49. 95; illus.. 94
Morning Surf, bv Eliot O'Hara. 146; Shack at Biddeford Pool, by Carl Windblown Ins. by William Preston. 92.
illus.*; 144 Schmalz, 8 109, 127; illus.. 82
Murray. John H., illus. by, 38, 42 Shadow patterns. 109-110. 113 Winter Seas, bv James A. Elliott. 23;
Shedd. George, illus. by, 93 illus.. 21
Side Street, Seville, by Arne Lindmark, Winter's Work, bv Carl Schmalz. 90.
Nehus, Jonee, illus. by, 105 54-55; illus.. 55 80
110; illus..
Neutrals, 63 Silhouette, characteristic, 109. 113 Wyeth. Andrew, illus. bv. 24. 29
New York City at Day Break, bv Dong Simplon Pass Mountain Brook, by John
Kingman. 117, 119; illus.. 118 Singer Sargent, 9 Yarde. Richard, illus. bv. 119
Nursery, bv Susan Heidemann. 25, Sisson, Lawrence, illus. by. 100
91-92: illus., 81 Sketch for Kitchen Ell, Carl Schmalz, 14 Zorach. William, illus. bv. 48. 128
ISBN 0-8230-5685-6
WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS
1
CONTENTS OF WATERCOLOR YOUR WAY
1. The "Easy" Picture 11. Color Mixing
2. Stroke and Wash 12. Color Design
3. Edges and Reserved Lights 13. Lighting
4. Paint Texture 14. Colored Light
5. Designing from the Center 15. Drawing, Pattern, and Darks
6. Using Similarity 16. Coherence Without Light
7. Exploiting Contrast 17. Subject Selection
8. Three Viewing Distances 18. Focal Distance and Space
9. Knowing Your Palette 19. Paper Size and Shape
10. Transparent and Opaque ,
20. Painting Your Way
i Free Catalog
ue for
TSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS, 1515 Broadway, New York, N.Y 10036