Saturday, July 04, 2009

Finished Enough___a lesson


"Andrea"_____9 x 12 oil on canvas---sold a while ago
I forgot to shoot today's painting, but I used this image of an old painting to make a point about edges. This painting has mostly soft edges, and another artist (Gordon Fowler) who was painting with me MADE ME stop at this poit. I had planned to really put some edges and detail in there!...It's hard to describe this lesson...better to SHOW than to "tell", but I will, here.
Artists are familiar with the "usual" elements of art and how important they are: LINE, SHAPES, VALUE, TEXTURE, COLOR, NEGATIVE SPACE...but there is an element that is often overlooked:
EDGES. It's one thing to block in a painting with basic shapes . A model's head might be an oval with other shapes blocking out the details of the face. A rectangle for the forehead, a triangle for the nose, etc.....then those parts are painted with a shadow side and a light side. BUT, both have VERY different treatment of the EDGES between the light side and shadow side! HERE's how:
Foreheads turn gently from light side to shadow. there would be a soft edge.
Noses generally turn quickly from light to shadow, so the edge would be a little harder.
Michael Jackson's latest nose had very hard edges, compared to his original nose, which had softer edges....no disrespect intended, but it was a topic that helped the kids understand. I demonstrated it with a simple painted sketch...let me know if you want me to post it, and I will tomorrow.

4 comments:

dominique eichi said...

Thank s for coming to check it. I'm sorry it did not work for you. I would suggest you try again below on that post there is a big button (triangle) to click on it, it say's play. Hopefully you will be able to hear with out problem this time.

Art with Liz said...

Oh yes please post it. And thanks for the reminders on lost edges - this painting of Andrea is really beautiful.

k and c's mom said...

Michael Jackson's nose would get MY attention in a lesson.

Connie said...

Yes, please post. Thanks.