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February 11, 2004
blending versus brush strokes
To put a figure down on a panel, or a canvas for the matter of that, convincingly you first have to find the shape - the outline if you like; then you dig into the form, getting in amongst the shadows and highlights.
An arm will go from very dark shadow in the fold of the pit, to an extreme highlight on the face of the biceps. The one surface goes from dark to light without the aid of an edge [such is the nature of roundy things] and there are two ways of achieving this transition.
One way is blending, which in all its states is crap: blended whiskey, coffee blenders and blended woollens. Blending is a process which knocks out the joy of both materials giving you the pleasure of neither of them.
The other way is the trick, the magic of paint, laying up colours next to each other in subtle shades and tints to produce the effect of light and shade. This way gives the eye a job to do, both in the excitement of the colours and in the nature of the juxtaposition which demands that the eye finds the form in amongst the colours. Once found all is delight.
Posted by john at February 11, 2004 12:01 PM
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