It's All About Relationships....

"Last Ski Day at Squaw Valley"
Oil on Linen
10x10"

“When the student begins to see each color in true relationship to the rest, he becomes a painter… Everything begins and ends here”. 

                                                                                                                 Sergei Bongart

Do you know what Sergei was saying here?  I am certainly still learning but I do believe that we need to continually compare every shape, value and color relationship as we paint. 

The basic relationships that we are comparing to each other are value first, color, color temperature, edges and texture. The order after value are not so important in order of significance, it will depend on the order of thinking that the artist follows.

So, thinking, is the key word here. We must think through each step as we paint. One of the most important things we think about is relationships.

If painting were easy, everybody would do it. But it is not easy. It takes a lot of dedication, practice and study. We have to LEARN to THINK LIKE AN ARTIST as we paint. 

I like to start a painting using the rule of simplicity by squinting and sketching a notan or three in order to simplify the design. I will break the subject down into 3 to 5 shapes. This is where I will compare values. 

Which shape is darker? Which one is the lightest shape and which one is more of a middle value. At this point you will need to decide which value will be dominant. From here everything is compared to what it is next to, but also you must step back and compare the values as a whole. Or you can do this in your design while sketching out your notan.

Here are some examples of a notan design:

In this case I used a couple of gray value brush pens to quickly mass in the shapes. I was looking for the most pleasing design. Our eyes will see the design more accurately in a small sketch. This sketch must have a border in order to contain it - this is the first and most important element in design. The border must match exactly the proportions of your canvas.

I liked the third option best, it is middle value dominant, the light is secondary to the middle value and the dark is the smallest shape. This is the a very important element of design, and one we want to work out before we begin our painting.

Now you have the basic design for your painting. How great is that? If you keep this design as you work through the thinking process of comparing in a step by step manner, you can't go wrong.

Please let me know what you'd like to talk about next regarding the painting process and what area gives you the most trouble. I love talking about this stuff.