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OF' TH' "'E P"AI'N'" "T' ER""

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A'N'D' T'H' 'E 'ELE~M' "EN' TS 0" ,'. F -8' E'AU" ""TY

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Prologue

I Seehlg wi t h the Painter's, Eye u ·'Wha.t ShaHl Paint?~"

1 :1

HI Unity

[V Simpliei ty and How to Achieve It v Design

v [ Proportion VII Color

VI I [ Rhythm

35 53 62

/1

84 1.01 108 114 121 '1.2,6

135 138

[X ... -Orin

X] Values of Ligh l xu Beauty of Su bj eel: xm Tech Ili que

IL' LU' ' S"'T- -"'R' ArT: '10:'-' N' "IS

" ",<_.'.', ,'n,1 ,_,<.:

The G'Mlf Strearr.~ I Winslow Horner

,M 0 Vi" Jn€ ru, Sk y and Sea! John :M arin 'T hi n king A fcj'tad J' Y asuo 'K U fa iyosh i 7The Bull Fight" Francisco Goya Figure .~'Uh Shaw], George Grosz Storm, Dean Fausett

Pears and P f'Wl er r, Luigi L ucion ~ Egg Beater II r. Stuart Davis White Canadian Barn, No, 2;

Georgi a 0' Keeffe Pigeon '- Zoltan Sepesh y Ele phants, R, usse II Cow les S um n1.~!tl .J oh n Koch

Tile Roo], Charles Burchfield

City tnierior 19_-:;6, Charles Sheeler The. OU'pOJd ~ William 'Than Trouble AhtZad~ Margery Ryerson Q~ir:t Evening, Hobson Pittman Winter in the CaukiU"i; Doris Lee' Lilacs, Ernest Fiene

[5 t6 17 22-

26 33- 37 38

.39 42 43 44 45 46 48 49 50 51 51

Shed t 11 the ,S Wtll1'i{J! C ha rlc 50 B u rehfield Road whh Cypresses, V ineent Van Gogh NlaT.f!{€" at iN agen«, Raoul Dufy

.J 'he ,Vir~in with Saint Ines and Saint Tecla,

£1 Greco

The Lawyers, Honore Daurnier

The ,W)frul,hcun Sisters, John Sil1ger Sargent V psi de Dc,niJn T abie and lvta.r~k.

Yas uo K,~~ n iyoshi

Ex pee; I at i:Ol1 ,r F rederic 'T n u bcs

Young 11'tJ1UY Ford I' Norman Rockwell V fHU£ of Cirene

Music, Eugene Berman

raJsage dN lvlidi. Andre Derain

82 92

(I. ~~~ )!'~'

9:'1,

n£, ~·u

97

l09 [,1,0

117 1 H~ ~ 19 122

B lack Lace ,Paf€,LSlJI! Morris Kantor 54

William .Rush C'(lt~dng A fl.egorical f-"~gMf(!, OJ

the, ,;;~'chuytk lit R. iver, Thomas Eaki 1]8 56

Portrait S!1J:,d}', Raphael Seyer :5 7

Seed Con? I Andrew \Vyeth 59

D{lngerr. Thomas Benton -64-

Bre-e',zin.g Up" Winslow' Horner 66

y Ot4 11 g W oman ~ I sahel B ish op 67

R eh earsal On the S I age ~ Edga r De gas 68

Su . imbering Fields, William Palmer 72

Easr River, Dong Kingman 13

.1':1 Slag at Sh(~"rk.ey~sr George Hellows 1(1

Prophetic Plane. Mark Tobey 17

POt"/rdh oj A theft Wo Iff r Jules Bastien-Lepage 78

La Fe ml'ne a la Pede ~ Jean Corot '79

The f"ish Kite, Robert Vickrey S 1

. ,

Les Mouettes, Henri' Matiss.e 12.3 Fruit Dish (;,hJJR.s and Newspaper, Juan Gris 124

The Pearl Necklace, Jan Vermeer 127

M'an with a Magn~:f.Yhlg Gluss Rembrandt 1 32

The Tlcvelfth N iglu F east ~ Jan Steen 133

Ven/H and A donis, Peter Paul Ruhens 136

Portrat: of Madame Monet arid ,fj'ar.iile.

Claude M on et J 4 I

A t the ,\>I'oHlin Rouge"

COLOR PLA'TES

Thft: Cafe at N igJu ~ F ollowing page 1.04

V':u ncen t Van Gog h

Early Sunday ,Mornif1,{j) Edward 1 Iopper Lfght in A ur.umn, \\;i'i l'~i~Ul] Then

'The Helicopter, Dong Ki.ngu·!an

Egg Beater J III' SnH~ r'[ Davis

Portrait of ali Old Man, Andrew LOO'in is

The Covel Andrew Loomis

F ollowlng page 128

9

PR' O":'LO':"'GUE

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There can be little doubt that the chaodc conClition 0'£ art today has ea used confusion in the minds of artists, young and old. We are all a sting: By what q uallties, according to present standards, can a painting be judged'! Is there sit-ill a solid fcundation on w h ich to 'base the teaching of art?' Is art deteduraUng.~ or is it. being revit a 1-· iz'ea by new concepts?

It would seem that the most important problerns now facing the artist are to achieve a cleat personal understanding of 'what art is; to' hew a _ path wa y for his. own ere a ti veness, and to concentrate his efforts toward individ UBI go~ls. He must realize tim t s.n en n no longer be bound. by _ theories other than individual theories; that is, it cannot be pigecnholed into 'prescribed method and prac tice, Art is. having' its growing pains. At long last! art has ,flung open its doors to individual creativeness in a way it has: never dome before. It has become a broader means of individ ual ex pression,

If we choose to become practicing artists toda y We]11 ust widen the scope of art itself to take in all forms of creative expression. A-rt is no longer limited to traditional forms of painting and sculpture; It must be. made an integral part of life as it is lived in the pre~~en.t and will be in the future. Art is, also architecture, ceramics, industrial design, weaving, and. textiles. It is a means of expression closely related to a new way of life.

Let us at once clear our minds of the concept that art is an "ism" or a cult. Such things e.xi~l

wlthin the: complete concept but are only Iacets of a whole rncvement, When we can gra~.p the idea that art is an illlte,~r,aJ part of mankind .itstllf~ 'we need only to loo'k back to' see that it has existed since the dawn of intelligence. We find it

in all 1 A-'· . f .... 1....: d'

m a pe'Op' res. ~ irt 18 an expre-fits[on 0 ' mankin '_S

effort to makea better woe ld, and to 'bring beauty into Hie. in one form or' another. I~ ls a. creati ve force, and as such will naturally align itself with the condition s and circumstances of the 'world mn. which mau '~nds himself at any time, The pres= ent revolution in art is ~l logical result of a period of genera 1 rev 01 t agains,t trad i,tions of all kinds.

At the bottom of the national and politiea 1 crises today is the struggle fox individual liberty and freedom ,of expression. It is therefore 'no coincidence that art has moved 'with the tunes, and given the artist more freedom. of expression than was ever known. in the history of a 11.

There is always the danger that freedom can be abused. In art this means that the man without knowledge or ability is granted the same freedom as 'the skilled te ehnic ian, F reedom is

,

based on the as sump don that the individ ual is

morally and: socially responsible, and to' grant it to irresponsi bility .~ s li ke opening [he doors to everyone who ever perpetrated a crime against society. The new- found freedom in art has set the pend UIUIU of creativity swinging widely, Th ere are pain ters wielding the brush who do not 'possess one iota of tbe Iundamentals of art" We have "art" that would make the old masters jump back into their graveS;t were they to see it.

1.3

PR"OLOGUE

The good seem s almos t hopelessly ,rrdx'ed w lth tl1 e bad, Yet in spite of all that, art is. now in a healthier sta te than it would have been if nothing had changed, ,A rt cannot an d should not stan d. still. That is sts,gl1a.d.on" There is little danger that art will perish; only forms of art die, Confudon will eventually give way to order, and here and there new con cepts of u nquestionable value will develop, Meanwhile, instead of throwing out all the concepts and procedures of the past, let us search them for values that can. 'be p~t to use today. Let us assern ble a whole stock of know ledge g,j,e,a,ned from the. past and. add newer concepts~ and in turn join these to the concepts that will COllU~ 0.11 t of the future. Let us ,give. art the benefit of the techniques of sclentific exploration. The scientist does not throw a,w'ay a theory unti i. it has be-en proved false or valueless, To condemn the past because it is not part of the presen f \VOU ld be. as short-si gh ted as to stick only to the past for the sake: of tradition, It 'would be short-sighted no! to 1K': alert. '[0 any new truth to add to our stock, Because certain form s of art can become p a sse! there. is no reason to believ e that basic know ledge Is passe also!

Why not loot ,fti t art as a stream, flo-wing by us like a river? SOIne has passed by, some 1S passing now, and there j s still plenty t hat ha 8 not reached us, We might th ink of a single: picture as one c up of wa t er frcm this stream, - reflecting in .~ ts is U rface S01l1C beautiful image, or re.prese ntation of tmth.

There are two satisfying and ba sic concepts by which artists have always worked and prob-

bl 1- - ·111 T' .l· • 1 t .

a-'r.y. a. w',ays \VIr ... wo-uirnensrona ar ===,arr rcn-

dered en a fiat plane-s-will survive as oruamentation of one kind or another, Three-dimensional art will seek be-auty or Ierm, If we. concede that ornamenta lion is the proces.s of beau tifyi ng; then we find that beauty is. the basis of both concepts. Mankind has from the beginning sought beauty, and by dcg Ices added it 10 his environmen r. O ue lTI a n has the 11 rg c t 0 create bea uty, another t he desire to seek it or own it, ,~ desire which evi-

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dences itself every d a.y in 'the se ection of ·our possessions, in self-ornamentatlen, and in the. beautifying of our surroundings. Whether it is creative or possessive, there is. an innate desire for perfection, which 'broadly speaking is the basts for nll progress. We seek to improve upon the- e.ffort s, accompli shments, and worldly goods. of 0 UI' neighbors . For the crea tive man 'there is; instinctive. pride ln doing something 'better than others 11 ave done. On the. possessive side, man W8! nts the better product, the best er aftsmanship, the better home! the beautiful wife. His desires in this. di rection seem to be Ji mired only by the POW(;I' to acquire, or the wherewithal to purchase, This drive toward creating beauty or possessing it is as basic to our Ii ves as the. air we brea the.

I cannot believe til at. the arti st who esta blishes beauty as. his fundamental approach to art can go ~e.ry fa r wrong. Noone denies that beauty is broad in sec'pe, so broad t ha t no single lH' etime could en compass more than a small p,art. of it. The, g rea t dang cr lies in allowing beauty to get bogged down in personal opinlons, trends, and isms, in narrowi ng our indi v id ual understanding to the' dogmas prated b),' the few. Beauty must be free, belonging individually to you and me, as. far as we are capable of grasping ]1". Beauty is all arou nd us, wa,i thlg to be discovered, and. eV'ery artist interprets it on p;.'t!per or canvas in his own particular wa y. ,

1 (. i~ often asked how you can tell a. goad paintin g from a b ad one. V incent Price, the actor and art co llector , answered this question well when he said) ~~A good painting is one that pleases you. '" U: that is true, then the next question migh l bel "How do you paint a go()d picture?" I believe tha t 'there is a pa,r,a Hell anSV!,o'C;T here+-p aint ina manner that pleases )!OU, Forget the other fellow and how' he does i l, unless you fin d his work po rticu lady inspiring. Don It paint his way because of his a~gLlments,r. his ambiguous explaining, and his salesmanship. The pleasure you. feel in "doing" is the very basis of any individual techniq ue tha t you Ul.ay d evclop.

14

J:~ -i S ~O yOU.' especir§d ad van.~age that you JlJJ8 y see ·tJeau[y dilf'erendy from the way others see U. Tlds d~ftleI'en,ce will he]p you s,e]ectt' su bjeets that are a~ tum,ed to your tastes. It, wiU :~&3Jd :you on t . me: and exciting fields. The. source of beauty is en,d]ess, but the true c~p uring of ~t is rare: it Is a CO[flstaJD't challenge,

In our search 'for 8U bjecu to paint we may go beyond na ture and eoncenrra te our attentiee merely on 'beaut)' of' 'form. texture, or color, Th c re ~s, bea uty to be found im pu re georne:trwcaJ forms, in s,paci ng, in creating surfaces. planes, and abstract forms. \Ve 11lUS:I. therefc re broaden our scope and sh,01l11d we choose to work in the abstract, 'we wit. sdU 'Bnd that beauty Is OUI ultimate goal. Rather than ccndemning l~ih,~'( we can-not a,gree with, we should t~ ke our ' u ll measure of' the freedom :al]Clwed '[.'0 ,aJU creative eR'or~: \7IIe. should dOi[l)i'll,g as 'we believe they should be done, and ghre others ~n.e SI)Ul,e fre _ dO]J~ of' ex-

pression, All art, to be worth its ~~,ID ~ mUB~ be ~ I1divldlUd. It must 'be ere a tive, . . .' ealism can be ere atlve In the selection 'Of the :subJcct and in rend ~fL'g that SUbject ,1111;5 it IB seen and felt b, you as an indi vj,d ua L Whether you:r mat . rial. exists irn IreaHty or A,ot j s mot sig,:mi' 'icant, You may paint an j mpression in. broad terms or you may paint w-i'tb get· at fidelity to detail and either way a-en ieve a fi ue creative ,"'urk of 3['1. The. su bj cct is mot 't'he p]c~u[[e" at ~. the way in wbicb 1 t is rendered, that

makes 0'[ breaks a 'w'·-o···r'[" ,.,;t.' art, '. b ""il"i!!I'lclfi' art and

"~rl!~- ~~. , 111_ "Ad _,J\, u!L, .,' . Q' ·IIK Ilk I _I,.., Po .

Fe ! ~]sde a rt are sifnply Ih1l0 different forms ,ot approach and ther, is no one who can say I hat one approach is a ny 'b Ucr d, an, tae other,

Art \' ill ,11lJ~w,ays have h:s trends. de ived from those who happen so be the ,gteate· t artisans of the morm nt. But the pendulum of creativeness 'is 'never s~;in since no two poopl can see \vi~h the .' ame eyes or reason 'with the same brain, '. 0 two brains have identical n~ceptivi~y or are motivatee

fhe 'Gl.dl' Sl,'lI"'eQ;n 'by' W,EMlow 'HomeI- ~n~TROPOLIT,':N MUSBUM OP AllTt l'n!w' YORK CITr'. Re.1ilism can 'be c,mat.i,ej • the ,Sl.election, -of' the ;s,ubJect~ and .m, ICll,dedmg that subject

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You, '['[],ilIJY Pt] lnt 1'0, impression i,n broad terms 0:[ you may paint with grea t fidelity to deulill. and leifiler wly lew,eVe a, :fine creative ,\VOtk 100f art

and influenced by envirenment in exactly the same way, In tact, no two people could possibl y start from Sera teh and_ paint identical pictures.

Toclay there seems to be. a 5trong trend bJ;"ra:rd spontaneous ~ creative expression, without much regard fo-r classical training, The creative urge is stronger than the will to study and acquire knowledge as the masters did, in the past. Therefore we see palnti og s 1by men who have llttle or no academic knowledge 'by men who are endeavor ~ ing '(0 paint what they fee'] rather than what tbey see. '\Ve cannot deny them their right to express themselves in this manner, for i,t'i:s entirely pessible that a thing 'Of beauty may be achieved by working from an emotion ia!1 standpoint; In fact, the. Jack of one element r.nay be more than cornpen iI,:' uted for bv ~ nether for as ev e rvone k it'lIQ"WS-·'_

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there are many academic and expertly p(SlJinted. pictures that e.xp ress so :~i ttle emotion that '[hey fail altogether as 'creative works o'f:' art. They can be trite and s'tiU and lacking a ltogether in both s~1ii,rit and originality,

It ]8. true, however, that [be abstractlonist without ,8 elasslcal training works against greater odds (ban the experleoeed realist does i He Is Uke a, man huilding e, house without any know,ledge of the, carpent.er;s trade. ,AU knowledge must come by 'way' or experiment and. 'innate craftsmanship, and he faces the extra hazard, of being completely misundersteod. His creati veness must overshadow his technical fa ults, and Iln~:k of technical

. k now ledge is extremel y diffic.ui t to conceal for long".

So far as 'I know, there is no basic training by which a pad,nrer can learn to be, an abstractionist =-inc fundamentals of drawing, values, color, or the rendering of form, I sugge-st, that ,S! yonng artist wishing to paint abstractions should. be as well grounded in the fundamentals of technique as an objective J~a inter must be. This has been true in the c~~'e of Picasso and 'many other modern artists, The s,t~]d en t may then turn to the a bs tr act if he chOOg..I;:.8,~ wi n~ some hope. of: ca pturiug, the unity and. or g aniza don" and finally the

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beauty r that should be. a paf~ of: any. true work of art.

lit is hardly pO\ssible---or wis~ior' an artist to decide at 'the outset of his career which ~ype of painting he wants to do, T,hc decision should be made later on when he is qualilied by knowledge and training. to go either way he cheeses. O:ne s tyle is usually 'HIe OU tcome or, one ulight

sa y! the. refinement of another ~s the artist gain s in, experience and dexterity. The ref ore he should not be impatien r, but let his work evolve na tu-

rn 1 ~y, aecording to bis abili ty and tastes.

In 'Vic-wing g allery cxhi bitions today; we m u~t understand that m.any ca uvases are .bung 'with- _ out the remotest expectation of ever being sold. Man yare exhi bih;d for tb~ sole ,piJ;UpO~e of edu ..

" h bl· .; iIo, lilt

eating, tne P U ~ .. te to new concepts in art, \rt e

cannot teU at lbisp~)in t how successful this pro-,gr,am of education will be, or ,e.ven, whethes it is justified, '8 ur if the V],e'we.l' bears in mind tha t rn any such 'WOI ks by modern artists are ,DIOI'e 'I n the na tu re of experilrrnen ts than they are :n:~,pre.sentatlons of' an ideal, hisattitude toward modern, art is likely to. he more lenient, My own opinion js that the can vases that will sta lid the test' o.f time wi}] be only those with inherent beauty! those which stand on their 0""·0, merits and can be appreciated without high-oounding literary explanations by the avant-garde reviewer, Ce r~ tainly people can and, should be taugh {, to accept new conce.ptg'l but in. the fi nal aaaly sis bea uty Is judged by the. eye and not ~h e mind,

The soundest ad vice tha t can be given to any young painter is first and foremost to Jearn his craft well, tc search constantly 'for beauty and new ways of expressing it, and, relating effort to inner eonvlctioas, 'to let his individual style evolve unhampered by any preconceived notions about how he :)'bouJd paint or what the critics are 'likely to ,Say a bout it.

f I ha ve, as 1. nope, convinced you. th at beauty still 1S and always will be the; source, of art, we CfU) now turn our a ttention to the "whys' ~ of

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beauty. Though perha ps no OIW can gE ve i.lJCOn1 ~ plf!ite d efin ilion 0'£ what beauty i~'1 we do come to '!!]Jldet.s'rand that there a re ce rtaln elernen ts which ,combine to make beauty, whenever or wherever 'We find it To' recognize these elements and, learn 'how they can serve IJ.~ will gre-a t ly j ncrease oru r prospects of ac:.'hiev]Ilg .sU.CiCe:.~S as pa i nters ,.

The elemen ts ot' bea u,~y are so well integrated tha tit is often very difficult to separate than for P urposes of ana r'ysI~. In. discussing one princ i.p]e: or elernen ~ :it lll.a:y be necessary 110 em brace an & other 0[' even several others at the same time .. N evertheless, the attempt s·hou.Id. be made to bring each one, separatc]y, under our scrutiny.

Th ;;0;;;;.0;, are tbe b ';;'IIi!'~:oI"" ~·W·P]'1'I\1;1· "C- l~Q"'" '''L '0;..' - i~,", _·-:ii;.li"i~U~ I~-' -~ :'j,~.

J . U f~ tty. The "oneness' t which brings all the pictorial quelhles Loge'[her into a s.in,gl~ or whole expression; the erganization of design, color ~ . line, val ucs, textures, and su bject into a combined and total ex.pre:s-

"

sion,

2. Simplicii», ar Clarity. The subordination of all material and detail that 18 irrelevant "to the main thought; the reduction of the subject in to, the: fun damentals of desi..gn.~ form, and pattern.

3. De~figl':L The over-all relationship of areas, form i and. color. Design makes the picture,

4. Pro portion i Harmonious rela tion of each. sub] eel and each P'Mt of the picture" Distortion is the opposite of proportion ~ 'though some di stortion may be legiti-· tua te, where an. idea or an emotion mIg.ht need greater emphasis.

j' . C olor. Thi sis one of the strongest elements of bea 1[1 ty j and In using it. the artist can-

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not &unp-s U'!6 gUiu.e IVy tastes, .1 'res or

dislikes, The relationship of color to values must be understood, as well as the basic principles of mixing and producing colors for realistic and harmonicus e.£.fe~',s~,

6 .. RI1y:lhnl. Though thig Is onen underestimated or ]II isunders toad, it L~, a q ual ]ty that contribu tes greatly to the: beauty of a. p ainting:. There :[8 :rh.y~_hm. .j n all anima te and ina nima te ]ife~ from tire smallest forms to the eye res of the uni verse. Wi thou t 1 t~ form Is static and .llI~les8i The repetition of similar (;O].oIS or of Jines OT' shapes of incren sing Of d iminishing size will create tb:ythI]1 in a painting just as it does in nature, For instance there. is rhyth fil in the repea.1I:iug fines 0:[ trees with their branches and leaves" or in the lines' ,Q,£ a zebra's baek, or' in. the: petals [u tnarkings of' a. flower'.

7., It' orm. The structure of form in relation to the whole is a. fundamen tal art pdncipll}:~ E verythhlg is ei titer form or ~p~ce. (solid or void) and neither can ex:is.t WI thout the other, A painting .is said to nave "form H when the shapes o.f the ,C'- bjects contained in itt are well on tli n ed ,. well com posed, and pnJpedy contrasted with the open areas-such as' a tree ragai.ns;t the .~ky".

8 ~ Texture. The renderiag of surface, There is .

characteristic su rtaee to all form, and. this iiS as Important as it~, structure, 'Ve cannot achieve true b~3]lty by p.~]nt~ng: all form wl th the ~&m e type ot surface, as; if all things were made of the sarne material, w:llic'h is ,precisely whar happens too often. in otherwise soed p.mntina,.

[D· ~

g". fI alues. Values and color are inseparably

dependen t upon" each other. N either can be true or bean tiful. alone, The proper ,reJatio.ns'llip of 'V alues creates the [effects of ]ignt and contri bu tes t-ADI the UlUty of the picture, Incorrect re]atioltilnps. can do more thai) iinythi~g else to destroy beauty -e

1. O~ Quality of .Light. An element ,of' prllim,e;. 1m.=' p{lJ1Q.~~~t: The. .u·alityQf: (he .Ull~t· _in.

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mEg' upon the ~ PlGlCW8 . Mq :y~eCGm,es .part 1 ine and propo:ru[o:n ~[ so tha;t our' r~D.detm8B are

0[£ it", T,h"ei.~ are .~n.aEy kinds n,t Ugiht==- true and eonvincing.

indoor, outdoor s:uM]pight~ dillffus00, li,~h t, The artist will de well to direct his iefforts'

'reflected Iight, The source of light must toward .ph~~sing 'the viewer rather than the critics,

be related to the medeling of' f'OI.lU~ to in!' the. viewer. is tbe ultimate purchaser ~ and J

... 11,; 1'",:.-11 A b "11" f' 011 ... ",. and ~..... 'Jt,[lot'!.U_'_A_'i_·_'i""_.-.· that .. U--l-··O •. st ...... ut ists are interested ]D IS:rullll.~· :

.0:t~ .fi.dlU. a fi.un. J,8incy' {1. C w;'(ji .;lY,U '~~ "'-09. ~UiU Il iii] II i!I ~ ;;!! !l!I!o ~, 0

texture; Without a true un de nit anding of' light a piclure can become mere ,pllnes of p:mnt and canvas.

Chotee ,of Suh ject ~ This offers the artist rna. grea.tes,t chance to exercise individual taste, 'Th~ ]il'llitl~SSO'lJ_r,ces of 11f,e and, na tum a'lie his to tap aJ:nd, trom thcrn :he can select, design, a:ndproduce a concentrated c1funple of his own 3.p,precia-, 'lion 'fJf beauty,

Techniq ue. ThB me ans o,~ expression rather than the expression itself. Technique ineludes understandln g of surface and texture, know ledge of medi UDl and its ulany methods of applieatinn. It Is Ute personal 'rendedng 'by which all the other elements ate bl'ought together i

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This prev lew of the con tents of the book should help to put 'Us 011 common goo und, It is certaln'ly not ,my intention, here to try to set myself or :my work' up as. a sJlini.ng example of the solution to ~be pro blerns -0'£ the artist, H ut I do want to stress how importan t it is th at every artist; be he pr.o~ fessional or amateur ~ should recognize what his, job is all about, t say 'again that there is. no slngle form of art, Of' single form ula 'for prod ucing it. But when we find. the elements that combine to create beauty in life ~ we can. try to anal yre and app']y them 'to create beauty in our 'paint~ng.$;~ Bea uty i'8 not the speci a] property of' the artist Bea uty is perhaps j ust as evident to others, who may lack the know ledge and abi ]ity to re-crea te it" The rhythm a nd gr,~ce of an animal 111 ust be just as apparent ito the, lover' of animals ,8:.5 to the artist. The difEer~nc,e' is that we try to fin d OUt wha l makes the rhythm, and grace: in terms Qf

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their work, 'WItHe art dealees heve dene a great deal of exploitatlon, and monetary values of pai11.t'~ngs have often been. pushed '~O astronomical fi,guresj in most cases the mr~is~s themselves have never lived. to 'tee-en ve '(hes~ beu~·6.ts", Today' good, art can fi,md a. ,ood market, 'in c.omrue~cjar nelda as 'wen as in t'ile field, of "fine a:r.t ~" Paintings O[ the easel type~, :for hanging on the wa 1], will sel-

'~ dam. bring the' financi al lew,anl s rhat OO11l1'e from I

UI ustr~tio:n ~ advertising, and other commercial ! wo,r~L Bu t 'we ha ve, fortuna tely ~ reaehed a. stage wher-e the ,fin~8:t art ls afte:n. y sed for commercia l I

purposes" Industry is now pf{)vicHu,g a new outlet for fine art, and the artis;tt bend upon perfecting his C,f,a'ft to the utmost is no longer eonsldered too good :fOf such a market, as 'was once believed i

Whi le the ~tr.icdy commercial artist m,3;Y' still have to work wi thin Iimitations set by the purchasing ,agen.~y or tlie ultima te user, sue']], limits, are bei ng grea tly broadened, and the w(;[rk [of ea sel painters has been u sed in J1UU1.Y adve rtlslng campaigns

This development has 'G0111e abeut grad.uany~ ,aided. by' the' mtroduction of color phclk'igraph~ into comm ereial fields. When, exaet detail is i m,~·

portaat L~) the sale of the adveraised :Pl00 uct,. the ad vertiser na turally turns to photogra.phy and IS likely to do so for some time, 'Where no tan,gmble prodlH:t can be pictured, 2U~ in advertising insur-

" " . .:11 *-. l' .: d in i .t,-"ii-

ance, .s~TV",H:: ~S, mcusma, ,preslUg~, anc U1. insutu-

tional advertising in S'en.eral~ a market for fine art has developed, Magazine illustration continues to provide tl market for' the: 8,rU:S:t~ p aJt~y because the use (~'f paintings helps diHerenLtsdc fiction from tactual articles. For the ]atte,r.~ photo-

graphs are on:HU{;lJrJJy used to substantiate the text,

It is Icelish for the artist to try to con1.pe'le, wlth

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21

P'R.'(),LQCiUR

the ea mera ~ 11 ach i ev i ng 11 de 11 i ty of deta il. Be Her 'lila t he U5.e 'ilLs creat ~V~ and i rn 1::IJ gin at~ ve powe rs and direct h i s efforts toward des i,gn., Eve n if he

, use.s a camera for worki l1lg. rn a terial ~ the arti st can still COfH;entnue upon the things [hat a camera cannot do ~ he can sub OEd] nate and el i [11 i na !e.. design and rearrange, s'il1:lphf:y and take other liberties to p raj ~ct h is idea more forcefully",

The professional artist shou ld prepare 'for his profession by !-)J S th orough tra ining as possible, ill art schools and classes ~ or frcm an y sources he can find available, It is a fallacy that no training is necessary in order to' make ,m Hving at. drawing or pain ti ng. The; fact that 'we ITl ay often see pictures in exhibitions that show no apparent talent,

knowledge, Dr ability, and which we fee]. certain th at we, cou ld equa 1 or better ~ has nothing to do with the ease, Much {)rf the art exhibited today would not buy a sack of potatoea

Progress and development in art. must always be the' progress, and development O'f the individu all. '0 ne arti st can help others '[.0 a degree only, He can can atten tion to facts that, over a period of effort ~ he has fo und to be true. H;~ can poin t (~U [ relationship s that he ha s found to exist, He en n s11 ow that colors will 'mix with deilnl te fOB-Un" that values w1H unify and organize a subject, This is what 'I hope to do in this 'book. If I GaM show the beginner a tew "hows" and ~~'whys;~n I win have accom plished my purpose,

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The I]ll:lll Fig'hl~' bj-f Fraaciseo Goya, ME ROPt)LlIl.TAN' 'MUSEUM OF ,;\\.'11',) NE'W YORK (;IT'{'., A light.l.y sketched-in

Ilgulre can often :~ool{ more alive and real than one rita.t has been painted in great detail

21

I, SEEING WITl-1 TI-IE P AINTER":S Ey'E

The artist's first step towa rd the ul tirna te b ea u ty , unity ~ and org anization of painting is Iearni rig: to see everything in. pictorial terms. This 'will mean the closest possible unifica tion between the eye, the hand, and the medi um with Vi hich we have chosen to work. In time most a: rtists find that the hand automatically works with the eye even to the mixing and application of medium, In Iaet, artists often are surprised and delighted- -to discover that they have unconsciously used a certain teehniq ue 'to express exactl y the impression they had i ntended. The artist either puts down a suggestion of whitt he sees" or the .0 bj eel as he sees it ~ being at the moment unconcerned 'with

"

technique, Technique is thus a result rather than ~~

. f . . . I 1

a, con SClOUS manner o stroke. Yet every artist in .

ti me de veleps a tecnnlcat approach, if he is ,patien t and his faith in his vision and emotional reaction;

Of course, W'fJ all see shining examples of technique ~ some of which we admire very In uch ~ and which the young' especially->- and sometimes

the o·I·'d--..:iT-e· ternnted .'...... f t hni . -~.,

_ ic ,,' ~-.'~ r _ l;~,_ ! ip '~ .bU copy . or .ec .'Illq ue !S

sake alone, As a. result tech nique actually gets, in our way and. we end up by not seeing the subject we are painting truly and o.ft~n over look many of the other essential elements of painting as well,

When a man is thinking in, terms of technique he probably is not, giving his best attention to valu es ~ relationships, or even. color. He is thinki ng ,abOUT the strokes. he is making and not very 'much else, 'Tecl1nique is a strong indication of

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judi vidua lity ~ ,a nd if you allow it to do so, it will get in to you.r 'Work subconsciously, E t fs m uch like, hand writing, nf w hi ch no two specimens are exactly alike,

Th e best ad \1 ice I ca n offer i s to paint 'what you see as you see it, And. if y'Otl C an suggest an o bject or a scene so (hat it is convincing! that may even be better than completely boning '~t out, In a landscap e, for instance" a lightly sketched -in figure can often Jook more alive and real than one that has been painted in gn~;a,t detail, 'The truth is that 'we can quite easily. train the eye to see as, we wa-nt it to see ,; in. fact i t has already been trained '[0 do thj s, \V'c can skin] through a crowd and spot the. face we are looking for, and h.atdly 'be conserous of any of the other faces there, 'If we are painting 'warm sunlight ~ Y{~ ~lnt.y see it warm, pOSSJ b ly warmer than ,it actually is. If 'we are, draw lng in outline we see in outlin e, and SI,e only

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fain tly a w ate of any thing else. If we are rendering

a sub ject in tone, we begin to see values and. relationshlps that \-v€: had not noticed before. In the first case 'we are really Iocking ,prim,EIL'r1]Y at outline and see everythin.g: else as, second a.ry;, in 'the second case ~ mass and 'Lone become of pdmary importance to us and edges and outlines more i nc ide n tal. When we look tor ,00:1 Of, we must

~wmchow also keep values or tone very closely aSSQChHed wJlth it) and here is where the training of the eye begins,

The tendency to see only one thll\g or aspcet of, a scene ~"~' a 't~rn e i s s:o,~et.hi~i we ~U'~st ciducJl~e

2" 3:'

, ,.

I

1IIIIIIi~i~.R.mil~.: 1_ • "='''' -.

., .... ~.... - ; .... -r-. - .. -' ,

ir~~~~]'~. ,"'!r~'I"-i' ...,,,,,.U~~~,t~l;ml~ted

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°!!O:,!'ou,'I,'1U;.I,II._ a:re,mlci~, iu witth

tene, widl~Ut relord, t-o the real edge, or what- the tone is dojng~ or wh at its rela tiorn~hip is' to ether tones TQn~ and color are applied in a more Of less schoolbook lUOJ1l1er ~ ~:imply by filling areas 'between outlined nUll ts, This is, not painting in. the true sense.

,

" TIle, experienced painter studies his su b,] ect in

all its aspects, The more he can see the total effect before he starts ~ the better- the paiLlting' will be. He will look at 11laSS with Its edges or outlines,

seeing the mass in. its 'Value and. 00101'1 and 21C~ cording to it s rela tionship to other. masses and colors. He does not single OUI t one thing at a time! for all these things are closely connected and belong to or affect one another.

W'e may start ;;1, picture in Oil tline, but only after we .h ave carefully noted where that on tline is going to merge and lose i tself ,in other tone, 'W'e may even indicate this on our dra wi ng with short lines across the edge, which means that thi s edge is to be soft or lost, If we draw a hard outline around evel'ytnitl,~'" the chances are that we win

'~ e ~

forget all about the tr ue ed.g.es and accept the hard

ed q~s W~ have set down, Then we end with, a

I~

Ugh t, hard picture 'with ]10 freedom, of approach!

one that is. unlmaglna rive and not p,t! rticu larly creative, Such a picture is really a colored drawing. War king from photographs has a tendency to increase 'this tightness and. hardness. 'Ve ea nnot see the life image; we sim ply copy 'what a sharp lens has recorded, putting in ev,ery detail,

Before you look at your subj ect, before you Ia y a hand on the can '!l as; stop and, realize that any picture starts as a. fla t tone, (the canvas) whi ch is. even tunny broken up into more tones, Th usa pa ttern of arrangement of masses and], spots is created. This is actuall y the 'first thing you should train your eyes to sco=the picture as a 'whole with. as much identitica lion as possible of the pattern or design", You should decide 'where the borders of the picture wi 11 he, aud its shape and, dimensions. The habit of roughing out pat-

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... ~_. _. • : __ : ,I.. ,~I"o+' _ I~- • ...:~. ".t .~.~£~ Ii.. ~- •• - - :Jl~'li .' ...

terns :fJ~ 'composrt1G.n, :Ill, m$#~'t~~ ;m\'"~,~,:g f -_; M' ,<;'!l~,~

'-""t - - ~~·1--o:.. {','-: 1'1":1'

'L .. bi - ~ '~- , f"~""'" l' ,I ear.nD.fi,g 'to. see yuur sm -Ject m ~e:[ms rQ' 'S~,lllp e

masses 'M,th,a general relationship to one another in. color and value is the first lalw 0'£ good paintin g. We can train, our eyes to see; mass wi'lho]J t deta,il by decid~ng' w ha t the general value and colors ~.I'~ 'EO be, Then~ later on, we can rai se the value for the highl]ght~ and, lower' it 101" the shadows. W hi t we are really seeking in this manner .is. '~h~, app!'oxbnate mlddle "[nne o,t the area, or mass, and th:l~, we set down quite flatly in siL1J pIe poster term s, IIi!, C.!rSBS where you want to maintai n the, underdrawing ~ w hi ch is usually done wi t'h

. charcoal and fixed ~ ~)r is a, light drawing gone OIV~!' with waterproof India ink, you can US~ thin turpentine washes over the drawing so that it shows through, U 18 even bette!" to learn to draw within the mass, esta blishing planes ~ halftones, accents, highlights, or texture as you develop the picture.

To see tne general tone of the mass wi th less 'Jdetail:! try squinting the, eyes and looking through die la shes,

Prom the very beginning, line up (he val ues in the, order in which they ~ppear. Look for the; lightest value and label it number one; the next value will be number L wo, and so On un til yo lit establish about eight grada,drOrn~I' Here we are training 'the eye to see values in relationship to one another i 11 the bl ack and white scale. Areas of the same value may appeal' Ugh ter or darker than they actually are because of a. neighboring co!o:rJ A ligh 1. yellow may SC;e]D lunch Ugb tel' 2uld, brighter than a H gilt blue! al though they' 'have the same black al1LG white ra tin in the value scale, 1'0' recognize 'this takes ,a certain amount of tr ainin g.

Thou gh we do and m u st draw as we paint, let us [hi nk of drawing as associated with. outline, a nd pain ring as Assad ated with mass values and color. We do not want a painting to turn out to be a dra wing ~ nor do we wan 11 a draw 11l1g to become a colored-over excuse for a pain ring. M uch poor art IS neither true d rawing nor true pa inting, bu t an unhapPY' confusion of' both. A, good drs. w-

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1. If we copy nature as we find her, out dr,awin 15 ',YiU be sometbiog like. Number 1. Tr.ac·, ing all actual photo would 'be much the same!

2: ~ Block in tbe forms in simple terms like this j e limln ati ng de = tail.,

3. This shows what the massea would look like n Number 1 'were 'to be accepted wi ttl every £Or1l1 "as is."

4! 1n finishing 'N urn .. ber .2 more thought is given to pattern and design" less to. edges and outlines.

s. Further B:impUfLca,ticn of" Numbee 4,.

6, Her e re al ism is abandoned for the sake of ,fore design, On'~y a sligh t idendfi: .. cation ,Q,f subject remaim. We may call this an abstract in terpretation,

7. In 1:his rendering, ed ges are more clearly defined,

g,. 'With vertical and herizon tal lines the design becomes even, more abstract and in some .respeets even

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F,iaU'fe With .shawl, b:J Gec'tge' G·.mszj, W AUER, GAL.LERIE~, NE.W YO;I.J{ crrv, Art. traffinhllJg 'w.,1.uliDy starts 'wit t.. drawing ;" [ t'hes:tudent m.1JSt 6fst train ~ eYG$ to proportion, and go as, fa'f' u, he can with . - orm. iJm. :1, ... ,. un [M .. ~!"'j

b\lack m,d, w,bi'Ee ... ecliUlm

,': ~-' :--~]"G' i \'N:1TH THE, PAIN'T'-E-,R'~S-' E,--'Y" 'E-

SE E I,r~ 'It "L _ _ _ . .,.

iug should rem min drawing by having the struc- to his smdents, the Rate Charles Hawrhome. one

ture and, outline very much :lIl evidence, and of the great, American painters and in,:itru,ctors"

lea,villg' it, at nuu. A §,ooo paintiF},g should stress made, his students start their canvases In, reverse

tone and ,pa ttern with an 111b;~rluing'Hllg .of forms ord er. Instead of' d ra w jug the usual outline they

and edg~s~ wi til acme edges stres sed and oth ers started with ,pate he s of tone and color and. fitted

subordinated. Line as, :]111£ does not belong in them together In the bestproportion they could,

ptdntil1gj, fot' outlines do not ~ctuilU.y exist in His idea was that they could eventuany ]e;arn to

nature" which is what a p\~inting-, or Ell classical draw and get su bjects de~s~gned ~r.lthin '[be, canvas

painting" at any rate attem pts ILt1 f1epresenl. as sha pe~ but that 'the ability to see things tJOg-eth,el ~

c]o.sely as possible, In nature we. see (Jiil1J]Y contours in relationship of [one ,~nd., color, was far more

an d edges, ~onns are; dtJjncd by va hies ,appefU.r j ng hn pOl'ta;I1rl. It l"eaUy did not matter toe m uch to

~-Qnc agahlst another, and [here is no need to r~p~ him if the, subject got. onto the canvas minus

~~Pt these divisions in: a.ny other way,; Howeverj 'hands or feet: the main thlng \V,as, to ~eafn. ~.O

in drawing 'we, have no other w,~,y to define an paint. by educating the eye.

eel ge or the limi ts of the forms before us, except It 'i s not a bad idea for the artist to make t his

in. nne. kind of expcr Iment . Set up a still life, and 'without

This difference between drawing and painting any preliminary drawing, start painting in 'areas

should 'be fi,nnly understood, Good drawing, ~f and rn asses of tone and color; then; in. these

course, underlies good painting, but the. essence . rna sses develop the form, D f',[.tWI u,g ean be, e:asHy

of good painting goeo'll, 'beyond edges. and contours corrected in oil when it is dry. 'Where, e.dg,e~ 'merge

into the rendering of the so lid form as it: appeal'fS or are very c lose i:n value, keep them, lost or soft,

in a given li.ghCj In its color and textu re ~ su r- 'W here they stand out in contrast, make them so.

rounded by space and atmosphere. Such q uali ties IE you have, never worked this way ,i C may seem

can not be reached in a subject where all un its dime ult, for there are: no Iines to work un to;

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,tlnd parts. are separated by hard outline, or com- theY' win have to be estabHshed titer as ,edg es, .or

pletely identified edges around everything, lack Q[ t)c]gc, This is one Q:f the best ways Qf

Art: trainin g usually starts with dra wi n g~ for l raj ning the eye,

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the: student 111Ust first train his eyes to proportion, There is an ,]n~between approach to. drawing,

and. go as fat as 'he can with. fonl1 In a simple which can be beautiful EH1.d. which -s~ll qu,alifies

blac'k and white medium. Bu to he will not see true as dra W,]og" That is com bining massed shadow'

values un till be, starts to paint. with outline, W'hUe we do not a:tt~m,pt an the'

\Yc train our eyes to perspective largely by subtleries of modeling and light and shadow, 'we

,]eatning the rudiments of it! and recognizing the '. do de;~ineate a, strong eft.cc~ of ligh t and shad ow ~

perspective before us as belonging to, the la w of more as it would! 'be seen. in 'very strong; light" the,

optics, Perspective Is a ctually the, science of draw- 1ig]lu~ 'being white or the, tone of the 'p3p~r,! and

ing form and! space as it appears to the eye·, ~,8 the darks or shadows in shnple areas 'being 'v,eery

opposed to mechanical projection dE'a,wing' w hich d ark or black, ,If the dra.wing is made on tone

renders f'Or111l on a fl,at plane or- planes in, actual p\atper ~ while may 'be added 'with. st!:nlin.g 'l9itect:s •

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dimension, In order to paint 'we In.USt know hew Actually this means dra\VI,n_g in about three or

to scale form and proportion in. space; we nlu~' tour tones,

understand the complete :principlc o:f the eye-level There have been illustrators 'iln.d eommerci a 1

Of horizon which. is the cemerstone of all ace ll:= ar tists whose wort was, basically drawing in pa.in t~1

rate representations involving perspective, _. and denni'~~ly o:n the slide of' drawing, Ou.t~~fu~¢i ..

I It order to d,-i fferentiate painting and dra Wiin~:- ing anl0Ilg ttu~~c W3J,(S J '. C; Leyendecker. _How-,

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T'AKING YO'U,R CANVAS OlITDOQ'RS - F'O,R DIRECT PAINT.IN'G OF THE LANDSCAPE __ '~-.~,,';I'BI

AREA BEYOND PAfi\ITING

STAT10N POINT

Few arti sts ever- stop to rea lize that in outdoor 'painting they are really painting a huge. pie-shaped slice of the stretch of landscape before them, The importance of realizing this. is man ifold,

First, the baseline of the painting represen ts corn paratively few feet, while the distance 'may represent miles across the picture, In the diagram above, note that the baseline of the picture represents only about ten feet. Approximate this line in front of you by sighting beyond the bottorn corners of your canvas to the ground 'with your eye opposite the middle line of your canvas. (AB and AC)", Draw fore ..

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,.

ground material between Band ·C,. You I can Jay stones at the. points Band C and i

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sight in vertic al lines above t, .em to find how much distance you should include .. The vertical lines arc the right and. left I edges of your painting. These lines actually fan out to the horizon and distance. This keeps the foreground in correct relation to the distance. The horizon of the picture should be at the eye-level of the painter, and you will find it easiest to paint

if you set your canvas so the two coincide,

Thus, by first establishing the actual area of landscape to be incorpora ted into your can vas you can paint all material the

same size as you sec it.

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28.

THR~'E=',DIMENSTONA,L 'E'YE,

TRA.IN"ING '"

The contours of any object will fit within a rectangle or box, By studying the shape of the object ~ we call vis ualize a. box around ft o:f' ,ap" proprIa te proportions, First sketch the box, then d fa w tile object to lit wi thin the' 'box, i fI simila,r perspecti ve, Y ou tit us train your eye to see the solidlty of the form, rather than just its con tours; The child usually draws contours wi thout pe,m,'s pecti ve,

This is particu larly helpful when we are drawing round objects. It also aids us. in. drawing correct and true ellipses in good perspective as related to the eye-level at 'which we, are viewing the object. Everything: in a picture should be drawn from a single viewpoint Of' eye- leve 1.

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If you learn to' visu alize the' b ox, you won't have much difficulty In rendering the object in Correct proportion. Try to locate 'the corners

'~, of the box, just where they would appear' i~rou.nd the object, This is not always as simple

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as It may seem,

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I' ........... .....,,_,._~'ir-I." I~r. •••

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t SEE AND MEN'TA.LL,'y ,DRAW THE IMAGE OF A CLOSE-FITT]NG' B,OX AS 'Y'OU SrrUDY 'THE FORM B,EFORE YOU" IT WILL HB:LP ,'TO

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ESTJ\B,LISH TRUE PERSPECTN,E.

29

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THE EYE OF T,HE PAl.NTER

ever, 1 doubt i:f a close; Imitation of his style would sell toda y; McClella.n.d, Barclay used strong 0 U (line in his Iater work to good effect, as did Herbert Paus, but the appeal in the work. of these 'men. "eaBy came from design, pa'tre.rn~ and OOIOf. There are many styles between true painting and good dna wing which are used by commercial artists, The danger lies in being tricky, rather than tloing "work of basic excellence" Tricky np.preaches can be easily copied or plagiarized, 'whereas, pictures based on sound knowledge, and the iudivlduality of the art 1St are hard to. imitate,

In order to train the '~ye towa I'd a rrangemene, pattern, and good composition 'the artist can be~ gin in a more Of' less abstract w'ay to play with patterns in miniature, Without worrying about subjects, be may simply try to spot masses and, shapes of three or four different values. wi tb]'n a squared-off rectangle. E ve1j'one has; an inherent sen se of balance and order wh l ch varies irnmensely with the individual, Hut this sense must be developed. by experimen 1., just as, vision is by practice. You. are the only one who ca tl do. it" Reading books on composition can 'be helpful, but in the end your own taste and. selectiveness will plan your pictures"

The eye must also be trained to organize what It sees in terms of a composition. Nature has a W ay of strewing her m ate. rial in a haphazard fashion around the surface of the earth, 'V\,! ith wind and w ater, frost, a 11.d all the other element s W'Q.rkiug over t.he surface it gets to be. a rather mixed-up affa if, But an i ntelligen 1 approach can be developed as we come to understand nature. What we sec arc effects due for the most part to causes thai arc often less evident, If Vile can grasp the cause" it helps us greatly in understanding the effect, Pictures are really effects.

Suppose we. are looking at a. landscape. A8~ sume for the. moment that it hi: a cJ~';8e;;::rl, scene. Befo re u~ i::;. a profusion of forms. ~urf aces, and sh apes. of. light and shadow. 'W'e. ca n analy ze the scene in a \~'ay that great~y helps us to paint, it First .let us try to determine the. causes that _PlU-'

dueed the effects we see. Uuderstanding them will give, character and a convincing quaJity to our picture. As we look. at rhe gr-ound we can, trace wna t water [courses and fi,ooos have done to, the surface" Here they h ave made grooves and

c ha n n el s in the s.urf ace. There sediment bas been

d eposi ted in shap es that still den ne th e. flow, Rocks ha ve been scraped [and torn a way oth en; show grinding by water! 'wind, and. sand, W'e 'follow the slope by ~'hich the water came, back perhaps to the distant ruountains where melting. snow even, more than rain must have canted the . effects we see, We look. for desert growth: is there BtH} some ,gre,en some vitality in it that through a~tii~ has, learned to survive drought. What color

is if? Are there lesser plants that are parche-d? What is the nature of the soil and its general color? How docs, .it. diffe r from the buttes and terraces which rise above, it? Does the whole. scene seem Iighter or d arkcr th an lh,e sky?

'N O",\l we begin to look for arrau,genlem rs, How can we utilize that ~w'eep of the dry wash? Would i l. be better if we we re to move those bushes and trees a little to the len or right? Have 'we nice patterns ofligbt and shadows? 'V{~ note the direction of the sun and tile 'brightest planes which must stay at righ l, angles to t he source of I] g hi. We :1 ist our val ues from rhe llgh lest to da.r-kest. by conilp,a, rl 'fil g them and realize that W~, III ust stick to this sequ.ence. If we are looking' ]:111.0 the light, the sky will probably be brigh ter than we can pa in t it. So we rn list 'make all the value s a tone or l wo darker t han we see them ~ to establish the. same scale but in a lo\ver key,

",r~ know the distant mountain is cool in color because the same atmosphere which appea"rs blue in the sky is between ug, and that mountain, dropP ing a veil of blue 'OVt; r the actu ~ 1 or local color"

Now if '[he scene ] s crowded and "b usy , !, wi th rocks, 'forrlr'~S:, lights and shadows we seek to simplify the prof usion by actually e] imin a ting 801n{~ materia ,I; and grouping the rest of it, into _panerns,. 1F takes ve'ry little 10 make an effective P1cU'ue-11,atUi[e usually provides too much. We

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SEEIN·O· WIT"] THE PAINTER.~S E'YE

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gf'it. out a pencil a nd pad and rough OUl. several sma U eornpositions. If one of them phla SCS US1' we are ready to make a sketch •.

Thi s is educating the eye by means of the! m:ate:rial before it and the brain behind it. We have th ought a bou t something more than eutli ned shapes and paint strokes. Each time you study nature you will gain additi cna I working, knowledge if you mslst u.pon sizing up C9U5,es and effects, a nd then set them down; instead of slavishly ccypy lug wh at yo~, see ,a_ s you migh U copy a 'photograph. 'You cannot put Into the picture everything thet is there before you, in an its overabundance of irrelevant detail and literal fact ~ and still paint a good. picture, Y QU nJigh t. 'better use' your camera, Y QU are 'making a lens of your eye and, an empty 'box of your head! dJoi:ng the: same thing the camera does,

To 'help in the process of elimination, first paint

]\30, very sm aJI color sketch ,', This, should be so SJ:uaJI

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: th at you cannot possibly include all tbe intrica t~

dftan~ 'but, must settle for mass and genecal Ii planes, Then make a larger sketch, checking wi un. 'I the sm all one and leaving out much of' the m a terial you 'were forced to omi t from, it. Start. '!W; i t 11.

the masses. When the mass becom es ·1 demitted enough to be- convincing as ground, foll age, rock ~ Or cloud, trv to leave 'Lt. You can alwavs see 1110re

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detail than you co n pain t~, a nd you can watch a

picture that started out as a 13.tdking and positive approach deteriorate imo a commonplace, overwor'k-ed no thing! How many times, have we all done It? And 'we win keep on doing it un H~ we learn the hard. way til att 1:1 ature should. be used as a source only, and that enough detail is enough,

There a re a few 'tried, and. tr ue and generall y accepted facts about outdoor paint~,n,g~ and '[.L? look Ior them helps train the eye. 'The sky is ordinarily the lightest p'aJ [tern or mass, unless there is a Vtl)' bright pattern <or buildings or other materi a I that is white or nearly so.

The next Hgltre8:t mass is usually 'the ground, This G,e.ts the direct Ught of the ,sun" on a more or

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less flat plane. The third value will be found, m sloping pl anes, slanting away from 'the light sour 00 1 5 uch as mountains, roots, banks, and so forth, The darkest patter.ns for the most part. are fo und in the uprights! such as trees, cliffs, or anythtn g tha t casts a shadow toward the grou nd.

You. will 1Il.su311y find th ar all shadows ,go down in seal e rela ti ve to the lights" Thls means that the ligh test tone in, the shad ow w in be found next to the Hgl1!eSl lone, in the nghl~ tbe next darker tone in the shadow wUI be on the next lower tone in the light]" and so on. down to the darkest (l'bj ect in the light '\-v hich natur any has the- darkest shadow. The lightest shadow ordin aril y starL~ about. the middle of the scale or 'very little a bove it, This mean s that white normally has a shadow about middle tone, or ()In'~y filighUy above, and thar all the li,ghtg and, shadows scale down from there ,]0 proper seq uence, We must not forget, however ~ tha t :50IU,e shadows ma y be nghrenoo, from ~beir natural sequence, because of light reflected from the ground Of c ast from some 'light surface nearby,

Setting up ,I scale of v alues for your pictu re helps you to train your. e.ye to see color in, a pictorial sense. We all can see colors and their ti nts; we all au 1il 'n am e th em fairly accurately as :]011 g as they are more or less, pun~ color, But pictOT1 aJ ~y 'we get into nUH],y nameless colon which a re nutted and sortened as a result of the kind of light or atmosphere in which they appear., 'Pi c=' t orially color is true only when its 'V,3!l11e, is ri g'h t j w hen its warmness or coolness is rig'ht. 'in relation to the neighboring color. We cannot mix sky color or ground color, 'foHage color or even flesh color and put it Into a, tube .• ~lc-sh, under ;,1, 111ue. $;:1{)' and \\1 ithin the shade appears totally differen t from the same Ilesh seen in warm sun 1i ght, The reflected blue ,lig'h t of the s']<y ~ 01(" the warm Iight of the sun, 'has altered the local or actual color. of the ftesh and. made it relative 'to all its surroundi ngs,

We Jook for cause and effeet in color ~ as well as in form and. ether pictorlal Q.1!J:aU ties, If the-re ~s

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TH,E', ,E'Y'E OF THE 'PMNTER

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ORG,ANIZATION AND, GROUPING

The complexity and, overabundance of for.n:t~ texture, and material in nature "is frustrating

d f" '. '111 ,~ ..... "l b .' b d TL.· ., 'l·e,- ..

an con using uruess some attempt 18 mace to onng it eout on cr. .ms means simp incatron,

. elimination, and grouping m.topatter-n. .. 'The: t'A!'O pictures at left show literal renderings of a landscape a s they might appear in a photograph; the versions at right show how organizetion of the same forms results in a. better picture.

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Sl,orm by :De~:D. Fausett" KRA'USHAAJt G-A[,l.ER1U, N,E;,W '!'QRK [C~,TY'. ''the s'ky is ardmia!l.'il:y' Idle lightest partem [O'I 1JiL3&s '. '. , 'tbe nexe 1j,ghlest :m,MS is U~lUl]]].y the ground . . , ~~ third, value, will. be. Jound b], sloping pbll'U~Sj slaillmg a \\f,ay from the Ugb:[ source

33

THE EYE" OF THE P,AINTER

brigh t sunlight on. green gr.31Sist the 'b~ight green

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is reftected. u:pwrud to reach the; underplsne olf

Qj ny' fo rID' above it 1'1'- rna' "Y" also refle .... rI- upw ard ln t ... n

I&.Ll-·', ... -' . - g ,_. ',',-'b¥ IL.!! ~. :.'._ ii"!l: -, .rw ~ w~lL .: .I~ ,,;_.~~ .' '_k~

a. shadow area as, for example, the shadow side of a. barn. At the same time 'the, blue of the sky ma y be hitd ng the ,~aIU~ plane, So 'the sh adow wiU 'be warm at the bottom and cooler at the top! and it will also be affected 'by the local "co,lof of ~be barn. mts.e]f,.

Training the. eye of the a rtiSJ.~, is tOI a large extent p'Iovidlng 'ruMonn.a.tion aJS to w;hat. te loek for. 'No 'one man can, make as. 'many observations and pic't,orial discnverles on 'his own as have been made 'by artists 00 Uectively. But each OUl~ wi n make for himself many discoverles 'that be w.iU then, be. able to' recognize ill other men's work. These things are rarely ille~rned by copying~ but

'b di " . h nal 1.-." I . 'h"

-!y " irect contact Mi" nature, W,U' C, 1S t ie w'a.y

artists of ,all, time have learned them,

Beauty does. not exist for ~8 until we become conscious of j t. <1 0 some people all things exist more or less. as grcnl:ps-tir'ees; flowers, animals, automcbiles-e-cach g.rou:p looks more or 'Jess, alike until one gets particula rly interested in. iii ~ su bjcct llnd makes a ~tlldy of it. Should you be- I come interested, in 'fine- autcmobiles then you wiU

see each car mdi vi du Q, Ily l as a unit, and. with 2. ~

'CD araeter of its own. This i.~ the way the eye of the arti st must work, He. m u~t see a tree.' as an iudivid ual tree" i ts grow~h~ its particular formations and birM.cbe:~~ the groups of [e~fy ~orm's wh ich make ,~'IT 'ii-1:.} on. t tr .... .iil!; and n n etl .. .e r N; 1'· of'! L0' '.']at

.. il~ . I,. I MA _ ~ It L.l '0, I. rw.,;;',,-" u. .. LIJ. .'...,. .. !.Lll.. '_ ~ll. -_·.II

Fesehin told one m his students, "Paint the-apple, not an apple." Frederic Remington pSi nted many scenes involving Indians, but ~f he painted an A,P'iche it was; an Apache, not. just an Indian, Such, difterences are important and 1emd authority to a painclng,.

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Su.pedluous as this question 11:-1 ~,y sound, It p01SCS the bigg~st problem ~n artis t Iaees, OIDf: :r~~ooon m.any artists p:r,efer commercial work: :is that the subj ect is us ually settled upon before the artist is called in. In most cases there IS ma terial to W~I k from! at least in the [Orin of 1a yout s, sketches, and theme, If the artist, is required to p,repa:m:,e, his, own working material, he has but to call in. his model, get out his eamera, go to his :111es for ,s.u:gges[]on~,) and then proceed with the job. This PTo,ctice relieves him of the need of find].ll,g subjects, but it also limits him, 'The, chances are that be, wUI build. hi,s picture according' Ito the client'e tastes and wishes rather than lds own i he must d.e,]ibe!~de~¥ subordinate hEIUseU and much of his own creativeness to someone else's demands,

That is 'why mo~uJiy commercial artisrs turn to 'fine an -in, their 1 ater yean;'~ after the f nand al pressures have .Iessened. But the step Is act y,ally a big: one. The artist who has never exercised his creative ,f] hili ty 'beyond Ute demands of an assignment U]'&y find 'himself at a loss for ideas, for' avenues of expeesslon fOor (hat extra creativeness that is req uired 'to become viho,Uy original, To search for subjects 'without regard for a precnn = ditioned cash value re~ SG,methilll,g new, P~hlHnJ!~ :w]e],y for the sake ~,f beauty and. craftsmanship and, the i~,] oy of d Ob'lgit. is. unfamiliar + Il, 'On, the other hand, he has p]oann~d througho U1[, his career for this well-earn ed day of freedom, he win be,

,., armed w.ith .neow' ambilions~ relieved of pressures

d . 'W- th d .

all! tensions WI- -_. _ ' e -: cor C),pe.n. to new experi;~

a'r'II ii",i:!!. and na'w 0 .... 0'];"]· Il'l ;!.A f;D;,'" ch fer

!ii.'J,u.~~ IU; 1.- ...... ' bUU- roi t~, : ~a\J\' ,u, tl!

Th is is; not to 5; ugg,e-s:t tha t ccmm eroi a:J art cit 1:1,not be: beautiful, ar even qual[zy as fine art, The poi nt '~s ~ has tl1 e artl st, duri II g hi s ea ree r of p~ ln t.].ng for othet peep l e, done a,ny P aJJtting for W1.l:1= '5flf.? HaSI he, attempted to eX,p:(e,ss himself alone, has he tried to aeh ieve Hue fhtest craftsmanship b,f which h~ is C~ P'sdl[C! with. flU thoillgllt u,f ·money 1 n the process it H as he tried 1[0 show his, wor k in noncommercial exhibi tiu'lli$,?

l:f he has, the step win not 'be so great, Th art is why" in. m,y belief ~ everY' artist ~hou]d, k,ee.p reaching: above himself, He shQuld. .go out and .. acquaint 11 imse.ET with nature. He should sketch, He should do some of' the thi,n,~s he wants to do, rather than do on 1)' those 11e is bei m'g paid to do" E very y~m ng a,rHs~ should rea lize that his commercial c:areer 11 uevitably reaches a peak:" fronl Which it must ,,go down, since !S Lyle trends constan tly change as adverrlsees and sgenoies search 'for something Tl,CW and, difE~ren t, The hi,iher a man g:oe~~, and the more of his work that appear,s, the more certain it is tha t his ~'U tput 'will 'be rep laced by another's to keep up with tile desire 'for change. Some men are capable ,of' changing with the tlmcs, pl'Q~o~Iging, '~heir usefulness, but even tually all muSL bow t(), the 'yaung, the new, and the different, This i s one of the motivating reasons for thus bonk=-to urge, the artist, young 0]' old, to th i ok ;aiJ,w,ays in. terms of beauty, of nnprovemeat, of the 'finest craftsmanshi P -o,f' wh.ioll he is, capable,

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THE EYE OF Tli~ ~~ P',AINTBR

In. the pIOC~S of dev~lopiog ~ one, must dhee·rluny accept Iimitations, but by doing so 'one earns 'the right to the day 0,[ ir,!oo'(uu. When d,at daycomes, instead of fieel1ng that you are through how much mote wonderful to feel that you, are Ireel How a man plans for that day is his own business, But there are alway s new fields to con-quer ]f he is prepared, I hope I em lllstill 'in. the reader an ,~wap;~~:e~s that his personal search (or beauty is.

__ his:J?~~!_~~~~k in trade, Not only does it. improve his. work, th II s increasing his ,inoomc a'nd brin gLng, interest and ha,p,p~nes;s in the doing, btu it a tso bu~lds up a reservoir of accomplishment aDd wellbeing for the who le of 'his Ufe. There is no ,end to the search, no end Iu 'the; source, ]1.,0, end to the accomplishment. There. is no age Hoot tal the sta t or finish other' 'than the span of life i tseU,

There are many wa ys of :tfinditlg OT' preparing ma teria 1 '!for pain ting, Let me mention some olf them, One of the 'best ways is to bu Ud up a file of subjects that interest you. Even though these in a, sense are "copy," the same kind (hat is used in commercial work, 'hey do not need to be Ute a Uy copied and they provide necessary information. This file :llIay contaln clip ~i]lgs, postcards showing interesting ,P aces, transparencies and. photog raphs you h ave taken yours.elf ~ art reproductions t11 at you can learn Irom ~ roughs B·nd compositions you ~ave made up in. your ~parc. time, or actual pencil sketches and, notations yO'u .h ave made, Wh~n you g,et out. ·.in your car, 'Or daring vacauoos ~ always h ave your camera and s ketchbook with YQlJ.

If you have the time and ener gy ~ try m ak ing d]f'ect color sketches outdoors. Because ligh! and weather conditions ch~ng,e ..'50 fast, if. is seldom practical to attempt large paintings in the ope]j}~ unless the ~p.0t can be revisi ted under n"e ,a,]I1C conditions, Then there is '[he h aza rd. ,of wind Orr al m. If your easel blows over I' it is. us,ually-,a.[as ~wi th the can vas face down" But yOiU c.atl make sketches under' almost. a:ny and a n conditions,

Sometimes you, see by eha nee a, scene tha t strikes you as startling 18 nd effecd ve, H YoO'U have

time fer nothing' else, at least jot down a deseription of the general composition and color, and a.fiy other notes mar will be helptul in re-creating the scene in your studio later on. Put. these. in ,your file of "Sub] ects to Pamt."

You can make ;a. simple ~'finde1~"! by cuttirog a small opening m a black card, in about' the pro~· portions y~];U prefer to paint. Carry it. in your eoa l pocket, Looking dnough this findet as your eyes range over a partieularly "paintable" view C:2Ul help enormously in Si~ttlmg on the most suitable 'area to choose for a 'landscape ccmpositlon,

Develop the !la,bit 0- drawing abstract patterns and shapes within a small rectangle. Three .c'l' l'our values are enough, If' these ~,[[ggest a subject, rough one out, and save it,

Pai ndng from life is. ulways, better than faking.

If time is limited" you can. set' up a sti U Iife, The more unusual the s~tu~ ~ the, more varied the m al,teri al, the more in eeresting the pictu.re., Portrait studies arc always possible, intf;recS:Ung ~ and a. means of increa,:;dng your skill,

You will be more jn terested in dtNelop]ng tile material you have prepared yourself, or seen for yoursell, than in using what y()U are given for a job. Besides trai Dring the eye to see the rna terial before you, you can train you~·seU '(,0 be on. the alert. fnr material in any. shape or form. If. you have the desire to paint, now Of' later on I you wHl need material to work from, A iUc of Juateria] waIUng to be used is the; best ~;fresheJ("&upp'c::r; an artist can have espeei ally if the last job did not go too well, A. _stiU ~ife which contaias 110 :f,8; king is a great restorer of confidence in yuur ahillty.

Go to art exhibitions; see what is being done.

If you are 'j 11 terested in. abstract art, here k~ a whole. new field. for experi ment, in which yuu can play wi tll desig11L and, color and create. a t. will, If some abstract. art ap'pcafS ug'ly to :you" see if you can do something more beautiful You. have the whole range o:f the. spectrum, Your dleslg~il may be ,geometrical or Irec-Jerm, 'You. can take eoncrete cr identifiable form, and reduce It to the abstract,

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P:"a~s dlul ,Pewtt~lr!by Luigi, Lucio,~ Tam M--=-,Tll,OpIQ'L:IT,AN 'MUSS ,,'- 0" ,ARr~ NEW 'YORK CITY., Pawntlng,'I',om, ~me "s Illll','a,ya better than :f'aJkinl~ If' time Js Umlred 'you. 1~:aD ser up' ill still 1if:e

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.IC"' .. 1:11 ••.• ,,'1.1'1;;;) [01;--- 'D:"'" -------.---", .... " ,.- - [, .,,' .. ,.' ]~~' --

~", Deat.er ,.. uy ~1!i,Ulrt .aVi\S'J T,HE NUSlm!VM OP .' ODBI,N AI. 'f '" NIW YOU CJj,'tY. ,II you

iKe mtlra~I=:d in IJbStl'a,Q~ art, ,~erel :i.s, I, 'w:bo'~e new fieild :flo.r expe:dl.emrm,I • w,hich '100 Ie. :~;.~~y '\V,ruth design :Illd, ca,]ol" lind Cl\eai~e [I~, wiD

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---, :mrlrrn wh,a '_mploy" Ulch ' 1'8_,:' 0.111 'til hi .spare'time 1_ xp~rbtl_ tiEl 0],1,),' easW1y find 'ha; he COWl II.pp~'y son - e O~, :bri S ,pel· cnal d i ·cov,e:des in, hIlS -v. ry- ay w1ork. l ,_d thus :impr~Dve it

. - -~iL'_e is Om!· t:llimg 'W._ must net de, rl,nd U1.a~: i, to ]. 'It time gc by w i,~.l'H)U~ d,o,] ng ,a ',ytbing. N'Q~:hwng C'mln l·ad to such :ffU stratk n a nd diseouragement, lOne m y be tempted to loo '-OJ - ',;lurd to ~h" day w'hen one is rid of present respan ibn·t.~~s 'wi~h nodlba,g but id~e '-reedonl ahead, but idle fre~down j. .its 0\- n worst e;nem'y~ Wher.~: 'U ere is no achievemen! there is little hap, mess,

In choostng a subject let 'us give ,gre. at consideration to si,m,p,nc.i ty ~ Not o.nly is ,2 si mple subject more wi~hmn UH! scope rO't the average atthll', bU'~ the result even 'from the I est of painrees will 'be more fOfce'fu~ and "eU~ngi We have learned froml pc-stet art. ~h It :s· n.1Lp]jci~,Y w~U make a design "carry" when viewed 'f [Om a greater distance, 't is sate to sm,y that the sma net the picture, the simpler ~he (h~s]g~1] s.hou~d be, ,A. paintw:ng ~nay be consider ~ d most effective if the viewer can stand a t least ten 'fee'_ ill,way and. g,e:t the fuU 1 npact, I~' lt is ' xhibited ~:n a ,gaUery the effect should carry at least ~wenly to ·~birl.y f!e.et,

It ·foU. w;s,"h,at subjeictswith wntr.i ·.att,c pattern

, Irnd delaU sjh[,ul_' 'IJL' paimt-~', ['D ,I :~ILrIe. c~ :mvasjr bur even in mar:g,er' p,:i .. etures simpl~ pDUerDs Srt· nd rOrU~ liIHJS:t e.ftoo~ivr ly'O.here' ere the ~_I~L t sfl.oul select his sr'ubjrectwhh this. mEW '-:, mnd H~ h~:· U:.' c'ho~c c :itb.er of S'i 111- rlifying the om- teri 1 he in .. eludes 0,[" of ,eUm'inati,m,g re.110lOgh ,mate:r.i.m.] '~O simp[miJy 'the picture, Wld' -vista subjlect'r must 'UsuaUy -:_ e ;~d:m.prfied much mo ,·e th II more in tlmate close-ups. I'm land' cape, sometimes who,~e n:iJJOIiJ.n'I eias .m,IY' be eUD])) nated, eseecial ~v VI hem ~'hev

,J- l~ II [$

occ~u· wn series 'for 'th ' ,sa .'. ,.:_ 'Oit 'the '~Jarl,er,~ mO'f\e

dominant ones. 'n 'busy skie about half the clouds nl,a.y give place to fewer and ~ar!:e:r ones. Somet imes as much as. '~wo--~bird5 0, the sea ttered wnaited,_I'~ 111a.y be ellminated witheut apparent toss, Tbe aim of the artlst rns, not to make a comp lete record of the place, bur tc create a, beii;U,.nUuil, canvas,

, he - tudem't is urgec to ex[p riment with des~g,n i ng pu:re pa tte :1:1 wi~h,n{u't reference '[0 actual ma t.,"'iii"i;om,~1 -011" ,t!:u-'b';,.aclll T'L~;~ can b- e done .,.. , well in

~.I,~ __ ,l/~lIJ, WI~.JJ 'w. a . ,~ w- l~!i , IILlllJ~ fUH_. " gl~~ l~ .~, ".

black and white as in color, and .is, an excellent way of developing ,3 fe.el !cl for deslign.

W~tb any of the lb]ack~a:nd-'whit:e mediums us ~ . or a backgrouad a whUe. gray, or b~ack p[aJ.pef'.

.. h ~'~k 111~,y used on. the darker papers. Now

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'Wnfle C(J'no:di(Ulr Barn, No. 2 by Goorgl:rJ], 0' Keele, T.RE MUSEUM OF MOrDi_!l~~ AR,Y, NE'W' YORK CITY', -"~:Ol o]l1y is a, simple subject more '-_ lUum the scope CDf the average artist, 'but the result, e:~n from the best D.£: ,painters" 'wil~ b@ mow ,~o,r@:eful and 'teULn,1I

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,s~DlplJ starl 'tOI p'r-od.uo= i!lD:~e:rlfUJimg patterns of about fO'~nr values, T,b~ :pap_'_' ba,ek,gJ:ound may be th dO.D'duflu't pat~e,rn. Try to balance [on) area 'w,idl another. Try ~_a:rl,e- 511 m,.plb;~ :p\~.t~e.rI;Jjs at firsit I' and, then some that are a little more :'mtr~'ca'lte" Tiles" partem skl!itc,hes :rru,ood, b _. no ~Brler.· th,arn dl"ee' . ;-'yfour i .c·b, 8,. '. bough Y'ou start ~bese 'widt~ [out anY' partieular subject in mind, 'diey win fJlf~en. sUGg,est subjects, Try not b) ita·.[ :_'. lOY two areas ,of pattern the. same size 'O,f [s'hlpem

Whr en we speak 0: - three 01 'four values of pattern this does net mean djsUIllI(;.~: and separated Qr,f'QS of pattern, If we harye fOUl' SpOlt,b:_d 0[' ,w:rnter::Wacing patterns fbey mI.)" be. cut up! :~Dto as muumy ,se,a:fa~[ed areas 85 W~ w· sh, and stdl be eonsidered a four-value pattern, [One pattern mJIlY ,jrum'; D'ver.' another, be s;Ur,f.\(Hlndedl. by or p~ac[6d ft,gaiWlst a nether. One pattern .rna:y be quite s1m.pt', and

I - th -, . :;~ , ib 'n[. '-b ·~ir. .a a y' .', d.

ana . er ,c-onSiJ era ~ I~y -.'ro.~~D, up., 0" .may. 'UIO

:anythbl.g :you Uke to create des.i,gn- but 'ljde:p i~ all

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Some ,of the best pictures 81 art out til:·, way,. If yo~ur desj,en [suggests sOBlI_.thm:g", '~:ry w·oltin,g wt OU~ ·w~tll. fur~ber maDipullt ·on. :rnnto the kind of ,subjje.ctmt su,gg,e.sts,. P'his is an abstraet approach I

'L.," IJi.. .~. • d-d dlai 'y' · 'ii\..' k I

to wmcn reausm is a;. 'J~. ~~:tlet.i '. 011 mlgu't wor

out rhe de.-sign 'widI colored penons - crayons lor chalk.. Once i'n a. 'wbUe y[ou 'w~n come u~p wi~b. ;1. llttle gem. Save thes ;0[,::' our s:ulbjlec.t fne~ 'they' can be life-savers,

Aneth r :tncl which can be a he~p in findIng subjects is. to take you:r pa lette scrapings and. dab ~henl on a pi[ece of' ,lip' 'r ~ f,llrly close together, .. ·old the pap'of and !.tep om wt to ~qlWel!ze and blend the palette scra,pi'ngs ~og ~llier. They wiU :pen~e .. trate the absorbent plal.per. _. Then with :y.ou:r. palette knife!, sc.r,ape 011 'dle stn'pl~s pwn~. The design

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Wlw _ T0NlrulD ,as; 1 urg penel!:ra,",",IlJ. _~ e )lllpew:,. _ ". ow

take y[eu'f :~lUle finder and mo~e it over mhe cotored ,B[ 'eas, With ,I penell, trace a ound 'the open-

. jQg and, m.a·r.k: aft file ~w.ttle [com,posidons t'ha.r~ are :ill~ _'res .im_g~ Th.en cu:t tb.es-'8 oul an I mount them, Ion gray 01[" bllctpaper, Y[Oll 'wiU find s,ome a,cci~

dM!ta~ com' ·o.sf,"'on . I1I;t are· un,'UBual ,and. '1- eauti .. , ul and they can be devlBtoped Into wnatBVlf suibjec _3 they striDes',

"her _' nre !l[th .. mo' 'W'r- ys lof' JIdv.iJD,g at abstract desigrr w11i _'h, lof·teo lead to SIJ.l '. g·estioml.s fOI compooimi[c(fls, ;and, suJ~Jects~ Take two sheets of gr.a y pape-r~, 'De ;' ghter than 'rite ether a b ack . btL tp. ,I rnl d a whi"~e one. T[el! these :iJn,t:a d'~ t1~eu~,-s:bref· , pieces, sl1ake tbem up ill, a box then :~ay a 'limder over them aSI t'hey 'happened . 0 f.aJI. If: you get ,g.ood design, :iketcin .m:· [n :1 ll,fll.d beside th _. box 'with a sof~ llead pe.llcrn1. lal,r' y10u can :6U the bottom 0' a box with scr,iIH; of colored :p[~ p~s Shllk[e, tJ!:icm, and ia,Y ]f[our ftm.de.~· over them You ma.y g\e~ lome. ve:ry lnteresUuz, patterns off' celer,

T:r.y movimg 31 finder over 0, I arge p'hot'Ogr,aph.

You mlly e~thel choose an actual bit of the, subject f:o,r a camposiron~w:ldh ma,)t.' ~- mueh more :in~,e:res~inl thIn the who,l~r by tlJrni~g the finder [I:odl m[ovinl ,~'l around dlscover ,somle fascin:a:~i.l1:1 abstract pa~,te.rnB.

YIQU Rlay come across a g[ood color SUbject urn ,I lID) Igume.. pe.rml.ps, om.e 'wmtb " faidy .];1.rg1s :and, [com,p.~e'te figure,. Run th' smla' J finder [over' tbe head ,~uld s'howdlcl,S ~mdl an idea 'for La .ortrB~:t rnay be the re,suJ]~ ,hese may also 'be in~,e.restin,~ accessories in a large picture w'h web when cut down to a SDJ_]lef' sun:oulldi Iilg area b<y 'the~ln.11er· sugges exc,ell_l1lt stilm Iifes,

I k<n,Qw OD'e. [l'l[~is~ who carries ar mudl 'b~<ack bo: around wi'th him, t has a small round hole in the back, and. ,Ill, [w~ang'IJ:~ar one, ,llIJ, so Iq uire small in th .. fr,ont, ,0 tbat he can 1[00'.' thmug'h "be small aperture in ·~he. back and. om Hruoou,lh ~'he. front openin.g" whm,cb squares off the 'view'., Tl ~8 is Uke a camera :bdu. and, is a tremendous aid, mll pick]'llJg out 'nic" arll",amgemen~s,. - t :1l19o 'helps '~C nne up the values lof' ' .. e 8Ju'b:ject! wh~c~h are cfclJssed later,

A mom .int:e[[e.s:t~nJJ;, 'VII',I1" tor ea te abst ract pwe UJ~e.·s, rus 'to mak[c a, comor priD:~ and try 'to crem:t,e a. deswl;m lout 0:'. tho . _ QOmo. ["S only., .' 'uiWd you,r' oW.m sha"es iil'nd pt 'uerns;, IC([- if yDIU. W~Shi' try to red.uce

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SKETCH PANEL,

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C- U'T A:' Fl'IN:.' 'DER": ·"W·i"~T'mI TiIi'~E

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'MARGINS FAJRL Y' WIDE

'MA.KE OP,ENING THE SA:M.[E SIZE

AS 'y'OUR SKETCH I

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MA,RK, 'OFF 'DIVISIONS A,LL .A'ROUND THE OPENING

,DO THE SAME WITH THE SKETCH :rAN'EL

HO\V TO USE A FINDER FO'R THE BEST RESULTS

'-T' A Tl'E TWO"-" srrcs e I'N 1'" '3" M .AX·E

'.l'"L.rt.. .. ,'.' ,'-. '. -j'.iIL'.IL'_ '.f!i..l . x.. x, •. t'\,'. '

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A ot"LID"IN' 'G' 'D,D, ,v A"'R""O':"UN": 'D" iTlUr::']l.f

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rnRJLL 'BOX ,AND STICKS FOR. DOLT AI'lT]) \VINJJE'D NUT; THIS IS FOR

C o it!..TV·1["} 'N'''~''E' .... "!'r'I''E' 11' N CA"'I;) 'IIT:)Y I N' 0'-'

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S"E.T·· 'U'P' S"T 1-(" 'IY'" TN G'-"RO' -'U"'N- '0' AN"D"

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'POSITION ON S'I'lCK.

A small finder held fairly close to the eye is excellent for finding subjects .. However, once a subject is decided upon, it is more helpful to have one with an, opening exactly the same size

-- as your sketch, This can be thumbtacked to a stick next to the sketchbox, Place this, so the two are aligned" as shown above. III this manner you can ke-ep viewing the real scene as you, make your sketch, and you will find it ea sier to draw' all the 0 b j ec ts in C orrec t scale and pro,., 'n.n.r-·:nn'··' The ima ge '~~ Iairlv C"'O' nstant ~;f: Y' O'-u' k eep th -- e h ead in the S"I'm' Ii!li' pos '1" ti on f: "0'[ both view

,J;:"'V _' 'LI,V' ., " ,u ...... ,!I,.W,U,-' ". Ii,;,! ],[Ji ,~.,M!. .J' •.• '. "J; W.l, .III. .~ ... '. '., _"""......' _ _ . "":(-;11", j '_,_ II. ,Ij;,;o .~ u . _,,,,",, , . .,;;;;.\ .,1 ". .1, : . .I' ..... '_' _,

ing and painting.

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Plg'eon by Zollan Sep:esby ill M~DrrOI'VN GALLEIUI=:S:~ NEW' YORK. CITY., Children ~t the seashore can be a most at~ractive s1lJb,jec~

the exlst ifig shapes into geometriea l 'forms, and planes, Use 'no perspective, arnd U ttle or no :111 0 dellng o:f form .,Work only for beau(]fu] color arrangement and. striking design. If there ~s. harmony ,of color in. the maeertal, you can thus get it into ycnlr design, Let one eolor domlnarc, and ~h!e rest play ~g,rru,ln st It.

Pictu res ~ha~ attempt to tell at story are, a different [on] of art 'which mightbetrer be e a Ued llnrsrratlon, but there is no reason why they can-

not be belu'L~fu]. Ch ildren ar the. seashore can be a most attractive su bject, Ani mals have thei r P lace in art, 'M otherhood 11 as alwa "Is been iii n :i mportant theme, '0 tber themes can be. taken rro~n variou . human activities, such as sports, the clr .. cus, farm li te, it 11 d. c U.y streets. Old ba res, quai et

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houses" factories can. a n be wOlrthy sub jects,

"1rVe. can run th roug;h 'the ca~eg,ory o.f h uma n' arnot lons and pai fit our !QW!Dl inteepretations of hope, faith, charity, sy.nrupathy- reverence ambi-

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dQlll and so fOlrt~h, 'We can a]!so :w,nterprle. griefJ sorrow· hunger, want all of which have prompted great art imhe past

We c' n take human occupations and g~~odfy m:henl]~['fu,e man in the fie ~d 5' the miner; the steel bunder-=a,~ythiIDg:, almost, that comes tOI mind, The artist, not tbe subject, creates the at' er nCI artist ever sa,)' 'that he has nothi [lg, to pa int, Lelt him S['f"VC to develop' his, understanding of ngh~- fo.rmm eoler and arrangement so that he can paint absolutely anytbw,g. This is not as difticu]t as it sound fo'r aJI things are sinlp;]y diverse forms in li,gbt and atmosphere ~() be SIUldwed, arcange.-d;

and p,ut into ,prnctun:=s. The artist 'who cannot paint life m,a,Y turn to color and design. So many modern paintings .' re rea]!y nothlng more than pleas.ing patterns ~)f color and texture,

Perhaps the art which appeals most to most people is, that which conveys emotion of one kind ot another. This does not me-RlDl, that we must always show ,peopl!e doing sonl,e'thing emotional. There can be emetion Oir mood in any painting, ,A landscape m,ay carry the mood of the surround-

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ings the mood, 0.[ the day mike fresh sparkling

umsnine, or twH~,gh'l and stillness, U may be a stream si nging over I[iH~ ,0· k 8 a peaceful pastUlfle,

Elel?,han.ts 'by ,R~,ueJil Cowles, XRAUSHAAll GA:tLEUES NBW' YOU 'CITY. Aniw:ab have their place in art

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"]!"'~J D, J::' ...... , C"" ha 1, 'D' ,'U;_,f::' ']d' , ,",,'.,.' ''J;,~' , ""'" -,", ", '; .,,' ",-, , ,I' Jd~,e ~:'\O'O. 11,,1.1' " anes .,ou.rc.w1.e, :J! ,F~!K. K., ,J;i1, •• J.EHN GALLE:lRf~, NEW YORE ICITY

City /1'Zt,eriol' .19.3'6 t,,' Charles Shecie(1 WORCESTBR. ART M.U.SEUM, W'OR'CESTElt., MASS.

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pictures in ohildren's books, They serve their purpose,. Many prin ts are, franled and sold and make pretty pictures. in the borne and cottage, bu t th ey do. not belong in the category of art. To be pfofo11lnd~nd beautiful-s-a work of art must be based on truth with little, if any, compromise

It is Ob\110llS tll nt the arti st must n.uulagc to surround hunself with tile kind of b,eauty that inspires him most, II you ll V~ in the U nited Sta tes, no matter i'n what part, you are not far from sources of enough natural beauty to keep all) artist busy for a lifetirn e.

In the East there is the beautiful and varied Atlantic coast. There arc the mountains of New Y or k:: SUUe., and nor thorn New England" 'with their st' earns and f oresrs, where the changing seasons a e. so much more dramatically contrasted that they arc In the Far West, There are weatherbeaten farmhouses and picturesque historic vi 1- lages,

In the cen ter of fhe country t11C landscape is n ot so varl ed, and there is less sense of the past, bu t the rolling farmlands and changing cro,ps have, calor and character, Go north and you find the lakes .. dunes, and. timberlands. Go south and. there are Jlne old plantation. houses and troplc al gardens; more wooded moun tain S and Hi e strange fascination of the swamplands .

. In 'the West much of the. ruggedness of the frontier survives in gllost towns, mines, and ranches, The deserts have: their own beauty, and so do the, trem eudous men n tain ranges and the magnificent views found along the, coast.

AU [his bea 111 ty need not be abandoned feu a so-called more 8ophi:)'L~ca ted arlo It c ~D still be the basis of art, modern or otherwise, depending upon wha l the artists of 10 til" country make of it. Let 1]1$ never fall into the error of believing that art can be put into it single cat 'gory" that it Blust be this or must be. that. The galleries which are at present still only sympa theti C £0 ob j ective art should not close 'their doors to the non-objecti ve, U(J.!f should the modern di rectors discou n L e verything but, the abstract One brand of art can ']]0

~~WI' fAT SHAl_J I PAINT?"

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the g]OJl~y of the sunset, or long sh adows cast over white snow. It can. 'be the hot and dazzfing brilliance of the desert, the fury of the surf, a lazy stream rippling in a. gentle breeze, There are fi.owers to brighten a W,aLU, birds In gor,geous pl urnage ~ 'VB lages nestled, in the valleys, Getting into the spiri t is finding the emotions in a. Btl bj ec 1.1' and trying to set them down with painton canvas. Th I s is something you alone. can feel and do and no one else can tell you how, But the em ot! O'M becom,es the motivating force behind your effort and this will showin the painting, prov ided you do not bog down in technical dHUc ulties,

Beauty Is really an. emotional force, and ]_f love find 'technical means. to ~xpress it, such emotion will be fen. Beauty is so broad in its. scope that it would be bard, to miss it entirely if 'we tried" There is be. au ty in vigor and force, and there is tranquil beauty. There is voluptuous beauty, bizarre bea uty, dignified beauty ~ serene bean lIy . There i~ be an ty 'i n basic form, in planes, and in textures. There is beauty in animated form, in classic form. There is "be a u ty in the elements the minerals, in all inanimate form, W.f! are given such ,~:O, abundance of beauty that we take it for gran l~d i and unless. 'we focus. upon i til we arc not e'¥!'IQD1 cnnscio us of it. We might say that a man could not move ten, feet without seeing some kind of beau ty, provided, he has, the eyes. to see i t,

Even if this. world had 'been but a barren desert, there still 'would have been beauty. A friend of mine palnrs nothing but the desert. To him, there ]~ enough beauty there, to paint for the rest of hls life, 'The beauty he. finds. is almost his religion, and his hearl Ii!) as young as it ever 'was.

'Villl a world !SQ full of it, how can we ever feel that there is. nothing to paint?

There 151 a big difference between ~'pretty SJ rt' ~ and beautiful an. Pretty art is usually not profound, not t ruly studied Of t rue to the, beauty of Il,3, ture, Ii usn ally consists of pretty colors assembled fIJ S. in a piece of embroid ery ~ or a design on wa llpaper, \"1 C 'find, ~ ~Pl'CU]l'~ pC81ca rd s that have been doctored up in the engraving pla nt ,I pre,u)'

The. Oll·tpast by William Then, M1DfJ'OWN GALLERIES,. NEW Y'CJltK CI1"Y

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lh.ndH(2' A ficad 'by M aJ:r,geFY Ryerson, '~A 1'lON A L ,i\CAfJE'!;.(y OF ,D,ESHiN ~ NEW' YORK 'ClTY T~ere can. b~ emc,tio.n or mood m a.'ny ,p;lintill.g

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LilacS! by En]Le.s~ Fiene, There am flo,w~rs te brlg'bt.en a, wa~], birds in ,w\CJifl~~(H]S ilfl]:uma ee, 'v11 ..

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.La,g:e$ ,rnlesit~oo m the y,a)]e:ys

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more be ra Honed, out to the public to the exclus ion of all others than can. one brand of, coffee or cigarettes or one kind of food ..

Art i rselt is bj gger than ,any artist, art dealer, nl useum director ~ or critic, 1]1 art the, job is al ways bigger than the, man. Few things have ever been done that 'could nat have been, done ill st a

u- ~'~ . '~ ,h' ,...:I! ~ .t...] ,. b the ',.'" . :"~ .. ', .,' -ii''''''L

II tt re nerte r'l anc paS-51 u j y . e very same ,ar'1..1S ii'

if he had a. longer life In which to develop his,

talents. Anyone who believes that the utmost has . been reached in art is evidencing the first signs of stagnation, Art can never stand still nor reach a stale where there, is no more to 'be done, True beauty never becomes obsoleee ~ it m,gty suffer under the tides Oll fashion, be torn down and buried for age's! but. only b) 'be' red lscovered and revived a,gai n, The: re ason for this is that. the beau [y lies in, th e m i nd of man.

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III. lINIT'Y

'Unity in a painting is an lntaogible quality, While it is difficult to s l down a procedure for attainIng it, an approach can nevertheless be sugge~ted.

Each picture presents a special problem in t rug, respect, but the ini tin] conception of the su b j ect is a1 wa ys important,

It is obvious that the unity must be.gIn with th,e de.~~'ign and pattern, to bring about a relationship and balance of the areas 'O[ the picture. Such ba lance is a ffeeted both by the distri button af values-the lights, middle tones, and darks-and by the placement ,and amount of area of' each in relation to the whole design.

A. light area can be brough t ]11 to rela rlon ship, with a dark area in. two ways first by contrast, i.i!ndl. second by means of :i ntermediatc values betwee n the I 19.h L 9J nd the da ric. Thro ugh such rnanipulation we form the masses and design O[ the sllJ.bje~ct.·, a tur e docs a g·rt:a. t deal toward setting up these relatlnnships before. us! but nature presents us with 1.00 wide an. expanse all at once, And there is no assurance that whe [} a bit of the whole p,ano.ralm:a is enclosed within a rectangle or frame, the patterns within that particular area w] ll be in billa nee and in good design or al't"a;ng~!~ mcnt. The artist must create such balance and design wi thi n h t.~ sub jeer. This is w by we can not hope. to produce good design wi thou t. con s C]OU.~ effort in this d irecrion . It is the re ason why we can se ldorn rcprod uce nature exactly as we fH nd h.

,_.,...

r" q.f f [SN, Importance ,is. the necessity of training

be eye to see ma88~8 llafly and more or less un- 53

broken. That means 'we must save until later the .. ariations of values within the' mass the highlight~ and accents of dark, addh'l.g them only after we have esta bli shed a good design of flat pat tern, Then Jd.S we bre ak th ~ s dow n in to planes, color, and detail, we can keep the ba slc d cslgn in mi nd and not allow it to es'capc us .. Bly approaching the design th is way ~ you will be. surprised at times to f md how little must be added to the flat patterns to brlng abo u t. a third-dimensiona) teeling or an appearance of receding into .space. This C8 n eften be done by color wi thou t much change ~)f value within. the pattern,

Thi s is especial i y true of' the m iddle g round and distance in 3. landscape. The Ioreground carries most of the detail and accentuation, and us the m aterial reced C8, H becomes si [11 ple r, sone r and hazier.

Per haps. th e best wa.:y to be is ~ 11 'm n the s tu d y of composition and pattern ls ny painting still lifes, Here 'we are: not so much concerned with sp,ace and depth, and can concentrate On the immediate stud:y of pattern. F or use in still -li Ie ex periments, the artist should have several heavy curtains, The color of the seis m, '01 atte r of choice but om t! shou ~ d be of dark: 'VriJ.1 lie th ou gh not black anoth e r of a low middle tone, a tbird of lighter middle tone and a fou rth of a Iight 'ton~ but not white. Two s hou Id be used at a lime! on e as a ground an d t 11 e O[ her as a background,

For ligbt objects, ~ dark background is the, logical choice, and for dark ob jec ts a Ugh t. color p,ruvide,~ the necessary contrast. \.Vith a. middle-

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lU,a'c k L flee ParDJiol by Mon is Kall'hl:n" I PIH:U" L~ es M:e M10RIAL 011. LlriE.R"Y. \llJ'ASH lNGT()N I u, c. Perhaps 'lhe best way to begiml 'in the ~illlJ.dy of composition a,nd pattern is. by lPairui,n~. still. lifes

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toned background, both :Ilght and dark objects may be used, Subjects whose va lues, a e close to.getlu~r maybe set up a.gai fist either a ligh t or dark background, Expe .iment with both, and also \vith different colors until Ute [I10St suitable pIa ttern, tone 1 and. calor relationship is establish ed with the objects at hand.

The. reason neither black nor white is desirable for curtain sis that som e reserve should be kep t Ior th e highligh ts or dark accent s wi thi n the su b-

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Since the, unity of a subject 1~ of' prinu: im-

pcrrlance-I let us talk for a moment about uni t Y of llne. Every picture, though not al wa 'j S CJ bvio usly '" is. baslcaUy composed O[ line. AU lines in a subject' bear ,It relationship to one another in. the w,ly they Ire placed in the composition 'and also in the mood they con vey. ~g_!~~~I?J~~:a:)_. Jim es are associated with tranquillity, vertical _Rnes with

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growth, d i.{lgon.al lines wi th drama, and cu rv~s

with graceful movement. The. greater the cu rvcs the more energy and motion are expressed, Subj ects may range. from peaceful or restful one s all the w a y to those oJ violent action accord in,g to the kind of line used and how lightly or boldly it is. drawn, Here lies a way to unlimited variety,

Such i in e ei ther m a.y be felt ben ea th t 11 e m asses or the moverncn l uf the m a sses, or rL1 ay be in actual con tours wi thi n the IE asses or t 11 e.ir cd g CIS • The boundaries of any 'form on a flat canvas prod uce ci ther stability or :';:0 me kind of movem en t. The eye follows ! ine ,. any Iinc, straight Of' curved, and it 'win ~t()P at any crossing of straight lines or mergin g of Ii n es ".11[0 a point. Lines r adi ati n.g from a point. lead the eye to' that point, and this can be a very va I ua ble device for estab lishin g t 11 e. tocal point, or point of interest, that every cornposition shou ld possess.

In n atu re we so often ft nd u ni ty j n valu es i one perfectly related to another, that Ior the most pa rl, values can be accept cd ~.:s. th~o)' are]! so long as we are a hie to reach them in 0 ur pigrnen t So ry ra n B'e" This is nor so true. <or line.W·e. can of course accept the contours of Iivlng Iorms, but

even these m ay have [0 be arranged to 'fit into a. r hythm.ic pa.ttern.. People may be posed for grace;.· f111. and rhythmic line, Animals may be so placed in. the: arrangement or design. [that they become a part of it. The con tours of land and those of trees .a nd other growing things m Illy be set into d csign,

A,~ly~Q~lg_1J_j_S~J1J9_r,~. ~f!~9tive when the half-

.~,oD.~: - _\\1' thin the design a rc min ir . zed and the hu;ge.r -and- t1 arter 'areas of tone take their 'place JllllO-l~;g .. elher simple tones. F o~~p.o'y.,'et_andL.si I1l~ - _.n .... pHdl)!' ~be.--la.J:ge....-fla-L.tonre,s are. best, The _jJlG~···· coatrast, the more intense and drama He effect,

The closer.in values the masses are p~in~~~t the

.m ore reserved and quiet the sub j ect wi ll be. There.

is quiet unity. and forceful unity. Close values, penn" ~ more variety o,f shape and contou r ~ \\1 i t h-

out upsetting and destroying u:nitty ~ than strongly contrasting values do. But it IS safe to say that

'the stronger the contrasts in a subject, the simpler

its patterns should be ..

The. same ca n be said. of OOlOl. '\tv ben (,;0' lors are

close in value a. wide range 0'1: colors :may be used 1

. ~

with beautiful effect. But huge patches of con- _ l;~¥'~""

.,.. ~

trasti ng color ma y easily become gari sh and ove.a·,·· ~ JJ' r ~

. v

powering. Glue way of achieving: unity with colors .

is to j[ nx a little of one color throuahout all the

L til

i colors of the subject.

To find the color va lues or yOUI' masses it is best to experiment with shades of color on yOU.li' palette, or on a separate piece of board, before you actual 1 Y sf art to pai nt. [This wi 11 sh O\V you the ra nge of values at your disposa I. J f yOU! arc painting outdoors 'the chances are' that you canTlnt reach the whole range you see before you. You (hen d eeide whether you \"1] S h to sacrifice the values at the lop or thos . e at the bottom of

.y_Q~r scale, But bear in mind 'that the Iight values \ in your picture make the. pi.chlre. People genet- i ally do not. like dark and dreary paintings. It has

a lwa ys seemed to me persona 11 y lha l low values will not be. missed as much as the bright ones. In portraits, if you have to pai n t some va lues lowe r than they appear to the eye in order 'to mai ntai n

'. the brilliancy of your lights, this does not matte-r,

55

- _---- - . -- ----

I

:w Ulia~1J. Ru;sh Ca:rl"I'nlJ' A~ 1,IegQricct1'1 Figu!fte' of I he' S'~/Ul,lId,U R h't!'r (Fj nal Version) by Thonulis Baklns, PHltA~ .DEL:Pl'UA M USmUM' OF AR T~, PHILAD(GE: LP',U:]A,. People m~-y beposed ~or. gr~cefu], ,~JJJ<ill rhythmic Dille,

'~'6'

!~I-.

I I

I ..

m'D 'par[raits~ 'oc y'o:u, have to plin.~, 1l!{njl~ 'values '~ower' tlUUl tbe,}1" a:ppe.;ar. to, tbe eye ~n ,o,ooer to :maLot:iidm tbe 'b.rilUancy '0£' yCMl.JJl' ]jghb~ tilts does rn'llot matrer " ,. " so lOflg ,ilS, 'you have IcMell'ed, 'brWia:ncy where .~t belongs

too much, ~C' long as you have €lch'iev,ed 'b,d]l~an.cy where it belongs, OUUdOOfit ,perhaps the reverse .i~ true. An, over-a ~ I H,gbtlil.,ess a nd airiness, in your subject may cause, you to lose a little of the briliia:nce of t he sky by OQ1UraSl ~ 'but it keeps you from making the, kind, of heavy" dark paintings which were so common dn.id~g the e,ignties. and nlneties, and w hich are, £'OT' the most part iUJW r'l3sting~·f ace to the wall-s-in the storage rooms of museums, It 'V!j:',!S, to J,et 3w,ay from this tY,pe ()f picture that Monet, Pissarro, and Va 11 Gog:h, turned to the hi',gh-keyed. impression,

T· h" ~.~~ ,:i,a a" O'~~-~ t d ~ al if-Ill r. r ~ la nt II ~ rN, 1~ iMI rJl!.~.l'fl1"·~f.-~ II

""1,.... ]-0;10 '. CJl. """I:;L, _ ",,",U.· :J) 1",,-,,',· "" ,~~IL '_ \-I'.... _ ,lJ. ,I. .... .;!',li. ""' .... "

to values, in sdU. JUe than in laadseape, ,~Hj,n life IU[Y be, P ainted in, a. higher or lower key to good, etre~l ~j ther 'w,a)!; This is simply like r,~ising 'O~T lQwering, the CUI tain of your ,studio window, Oil seeing more or 'less light on 'YOUI[' subject. ,En fact, yo u might start a still ]i[e; on a dark or cloudy day and. pick "i t u,P agai n an a brighter d~y to fi nd all the :light are 3j;S r.aised in value, whi].e the dark. ob] ects 01' areas seem even darker, That is, simp:[y

..- because n· I1t increases contrast between, liahts

.......,. ... - ......... _ -~~ .. -.~ ~

and darks, Darkness draws them closer and closer.'

together' until all is dark. Tw~HSht: is a ,goad critic of your oanvas. If the patterns, and design hold up, in twiligh.t you, ,m;~y' be sure ~bey will if) good .liB:hL

Conslste:nrcy· is another ,]D1Jportant element in. 'lbtl unity of a. de.sign., Whether- yo ur 8 ubject is objeeti ve or u'b,sbact, to make a good pain ting it must na:v'€l consistency. ,Re.~di sm. should a t least 'be pla.usibl~;. This sort of consistency al W,i.Thys seems 1'0 exist in nature, P Oil" instance, during tbe seasons, there i 51 a consi ::;:~enc:'y of form, ~O,l(H' ~ and tex tute ttil at quickly identifies rhe season, When the Jeaves turn In color during: the fall, the ground bas undergone it change also, T.he.br~ght g.'feen of the .~ra's s ,is ,gone with the green of the -[oUa"ge. Reds, browns ~ and. low-toned yelloW'S, a,ppcar 'On the g round. ,a~o.ng wi 111 the fallen leaves, And because 'these, leaves have changed. to warm cob ,~cr~ ~ {h,e mountains w,h~ch _looked. 'blue in the summer . u.ow' a.ppear ~ purple, f:Or th.e blue atmosohere

__.~ •• - I •• __ • ...r--. - - _ ... -

-e,

cannot abso'fb the r-ed as, it did the g[.~~,~! Because it is !Sb.rning' on rn:Qf~ warm color, ~th~,_ j5rlJmlight itself ~eem.~ mere golden in the .fall.

The' colors of winter are consistent in their d ra bness, even when lhey app~ar in sharp contrast to brilliant. 'blue skies and gHslten]n~' snow,

In the sp:(ing colo.r starts coming' to .life,. The' dr ab eolors of winterbecome interspersed wi tb bright new' color, 'The budding trees take. on 111 ere, fled; the new grasses an d mosses become brilliant and the dark, wet. grrGund, o:ffe:r:s. gn~a ter ron trast 'with the sky.

Midsummer usually sends the artist to the seacoast (n: to Una su b.j'e-ct~ other than the pas'tora] landscape, for 'whan all i~ green the play (If color' is lacking, ,H~ seeks the roU,ages, the mills, the: barns ~ the stables, rather than the fields and the woods. He find s streams, dock.s wi ~h boats and their reflections, rocks. and ~n.uf~,sub~eets with color and aetien. Or else. he ma y p~i n.t sri n H fes and flowers or occupy h ]m'se'lf' wi d, portraits and . 'ogure studies,

It takes art. obser v ing eye to recognize the conS]S;tel1cy that, is so vital te at ,piat ure, In this Iconncction I. would like to call attention to the 'work. of And ~ew Wy~lh~ who is, still r.t young man and one crf ~he most popular American painters of today, His work is popular not ,.only whh the pub. Iic but with artists and the 'OU'l.S.t exacriag crlrics, It is steeped '~n the inter-est of observation, and is consi s[anJly good all the way down to ~he last enrefully a rranged detail, Wyeth find.s drama, and excitement In orrl b~ary things,~ proving that ,if the

_ artist bas enough jnsigh'~, 'be need not ,go far if' . find a. su.bjet;;t..

In the matter of lighting'S censistency means that light from the same source ,perv,adea.the subjeet, and each value 113, related to i.J. In natn re

. ~~~~

everyt'hing seems to be ] ust 'where it belongs m its

scale-of values", and unless the arti 1St takes his cue from, what 11 atu re teaches, ld s values. are Hkely to a,ppeall' j u,mp¥ and his cO,~o,rs dead ~lC(H'rus1stenlcy ,of ]ig-ht pertains not onlv tQ _ value, but: to jjlleo·,

." _ •• 'I"_r~ -i/-..r-" v/';;;...._._..,. ~ If- r" .~

~ion!. The direction c)f the, Iisht source; wnl de-

- "--'-I~ rQ ..... _ ... -. . _

.58

· -~.

Sf'iul CO,"! by AudrewWY'etir!JJ KNO'~DLE'Bt. GLL.~R~ '8, NEW "'{QRK CITY,.

It takes au. ,ob.senr~og e:y.e to recognize the cons istency tha.;t is so 'vital 1/C) ,3. p'k~um

59

T'HE EYE OF THE 'PA]N~lER

\

tcrmine which ~ planes-can be itt. mIll .1 ~g]:1Jt,!~ which in .. bal -H.ght" and which in. shadow. Failure 'ttl recognize th i ~ principle has COS! u"D.any an artis l. the difference between a brilliant and mediocre piece or work,

If there is 111o,n:: than one light source J. 'the p ["0 be lem i~ that mur .. m more difficlllt~ since two general sets of values must be considered, When there are core than two light sources, the artist is almost certain to get lost, and had better either wai t until the light 81 tuati em changes or select anothe r area or subject to' P oJ lilt,

If 'we ha ve brilliant Hgh t ~ the. refieeted ,]i,ght will usual ly. take care uf over ly' da.r k shadows. Refleeted U g:h.t in a paiD d ug ea it be in fi nhely me re beAuhful than direct light 1'1 has a 'way of bringing eu tt form, especially in conrrast to the more, Ha'lly Hglued bdght, planes.

If we recoglliz~ the qualities of dlir~Cl and indirect light and translate these accurately onto ca n V3.S,- our ,painting should have uu h,y .. :'W~ milt y \say that if the '1t,ght is right (be values are right and the plerure W]'U be' given unity by the ,I ight a nd va lu~~~~ight esta bl i shes textu re ~ and C~)~ 0 r

_'.r.!-""'--" ~ _

tl1ot_U the. light is. []g,ht hut the picture persists in

be ing bad, ~hen the fan 11. must rather be in the design, I the drawing, 0,[ the p,atte.~~ ..

Every painting' should d:is,plty a consistency of style. Abstract painting should be consistently abSlracvj__!,nd! realism should be consistently true 10 Uf,eJ Thoug:h there ma'y be exceptions" I ques~ tion whether rhese two approaches or auy at h er 'One.s~ca'tl be rn ixed Si a.tisf actori i y in a s~ ng le painting,

, ..

- U - Q, -' plctu re has an idea j let the 'W hole picture,

be consistent with 'thalt: ide~L Hawever, to avoid mo,[1~Jt~ny~i'Ilnd the oanlpletely orthodox picture can be trite and, v,elY ordina y- iberties :lnay be taken to gIve grelter pictorial interest, Planned contrasts have value. In. at still life~ an ,exquLilllte piece O\f ,jewe~lry cornhined with some faded and worn slippers migbt stir the viewer's lmaglna-

, B· 11d- 11..] h . · ..

tlorL:ut 'it "VOth· IOe. a t.oget er too U1Conslsteo~,

to paint a. portrait ,of a woman weariuJ; such

j~,we'llfy and sitting on a stool peeling 'Potatoes,

Lack of' ,~on,~istency in design w;~ ll detract 'iroUl bea l.Uy, AS. sta ted above, abstract ",0 rm s, belong with 0 l1161" abstract forms, realism ",,"itb re ~1i s.tic forms. Whe:re re aJ 1 Sin has been ,- educed to the abstract, then, aU. the realism of the subject sbou]d be trea ted. Iikewise. Real istic hands growing aut of inanimate material can be little more than. glor Hied en "f.oClni ng,

\ From the. men tal 01' emotion al side, consiste ney.

. is plain gaud' t tiIJ ste !.nd COIDDlOQ, 'sense. T here is nothing to stop anyone 'fl(om doing the ridiculous, .aDO if he does so he natlu"a,]1y does so ern. his own. 'W'e all h ave the s arne pri vile g(;.

,A nether ki n dl. of consistency relates to the treatment of a subject, Flatness of treatment is one approach, and the, round or modeled another. and the" two do not seem to belong toget.hCjf I though we see ulany pa]ntJn,g~ in which such an attempt has, been lnad c. W,e see, rounded figures emerging 'from flat planes, like heads, poking through ,iJJ, piece of cardboard bodlee enler;ging front stone "vans j 0 r 'mode led clouds rising above buildings tha t ha ve no th i rd d imension, I have seen round smoke comilrg 'out of a. pe,rfe.ctly flat Iocomotive, 'fou:nd heads rhdng above perfectly ,fi3!t costumes ',and bodies" This seems, hardly a matter of' artistic license, butplain inconsistency, Were the heads also painted nat, as in early Egyptian art, there would be some logic in 'the whole

It is. f.requentl,y· to be' observed that pietu res

,,," when painted toward the fiat, g,aln something 'by having, a bet ter rcla ticm sh ip eo the 'flat canvas than those whh~b are excessively modeled in the round. For the same reason, in architecture bas reliefs U!iU a.lly have mote beau ty th an completely rounded sculpture, because they are more a~ propriate to the flat planes of the buHdiog. Only when '8 sculptured figure is separated from the thtl plane, as ,a, memorial figure OiD a pedestal, does h seem to c,al 'I for the complete. third dimcn-

.

sion,

There is always the, danger that a sub ject ma y be ~O' rig [d]y desl g fled that it becomes ~ tatie, 'He l' e

60

l

, ,

I-

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1

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~ I

- - --- ------- ---

- - --- ---- __

I,

l

j ~ j

I,

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f

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f'

I

k

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,

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,

"

, . ,

'UNITY'

h '_A t 11 " ..... '

is wnere one Of more aectoenr all enects can pro .. ,

"dde ,plc~ am,g contrast, Acc]dental~loo:~[ng. effects can also, in reality, be ,platln.ed. They can be achi,e:ved t'!echnic;al!ly by not finisbin.g, every pt'ufi of' a, plctute completely. J nst as ~ sculptor often

. ]eavcs traces of his. chisel in places, especially in gann.ents or dr~a.pery where the ],aclt: of fi.nis.l:J.. adds rather than detracts ~ so til ¢ P ain ter can do the, same; kind of tiling with his brush. III a portrait, the garment In,a), nor be as: Iinished as the head; In Q still life one er two flowers ma.y car,ry much more detail and finish than the T'e~t~ ar the drapery behind o.bj ects 'ma;y be less com,_p]et.ely ]pninted than tn e ob je·cts, themselves, Planned contr asts th us have a ve:t-y lmpcrta nt P lace in pahIbng and need not detract at. all iJOHIt the unity" of a picture.

[, [r-

An. instructor once told me that a pictu re

should ~;u,g8:est that ~he paultUJl,g, was stopped while the painter was still having a good time, Thi s 'is diffi,euU~ as we, ,~11 have a na tnral tendency to carry the tinislfl to th e ~a5.t fiager-n.aj] or ,pebble on (be ground, 'Whe.n the value wi thin an a rea: is correct, and tile, color b~t'r.n1o~y is there ~ \V~, can be a, little brutal M tb the fOnl;l.~ betore it ge ts to the point 'where it vies with everything else 'for finish. En. order to' have form that. we can leave. unfinished, we must ,[i];pproach file form sirnp'Jy 'at first and in simple pla nes, and work all over the su bj ect, bringing i l. to completion simul taneously ra ther than piecemeal, F ini5hing' one part at: a time more or Iess excludes the possibility of a. SPQl} taneous and lively-looking picture, If we can, we must think of the whole p:ictur!3 all 't'he time! ,Q:ns m ev~ry p,art' as :l t fits; ,~R to the whole design.

,

I

r 1

.. _. - _. _._--

tv S'IM-"P'L'I'C' IT·"·Y AN" D H' 0:' W' TO' ',' A C'" "H'IE' VEl IT

, ",.", .',1,,' ",' ,I, "'~ ,. ,'" ,', I "'::,, ',: ,: " :-:, ,'1-: " '

Olur aim for simplicity and clarity must logicaUy start with the subj'ec"E i:tse.if." J:1 choosing' our su:b~ ject we ~hould. first consider how' eff,ective- it would bel in a small sketch, say no ~a:n'get' 'than ,) by 7 inches. Could ~h.e material be set down in a sketch of tha t size? Could it be done 'without using a very fine brush or would, some of the imporlan t details 00 too s111aU" If it is impossi bte. to make ,I small $k.e;~cb. wi thout in.ti ni tc ,~a bor, then we can 'be ;pr.el'ly sure w,~ are st~,rting off on the wrong foot, 11 is, safe to say that ,~ny su bjecl that will look c:JIective in an exhibition gallery or on the wall 'ul an ,Qvc!a,ge~si7..ed '1ivln.g room is a.lso deAn.a,b1e ,in a 5-oy~ 7-~in,ch sketch at a distance 4,1f 6 feet 01 more.

Even though irlJ a, small sketch 'we would! normany only sug'ges.t the outlines and forms of a subject, the patterns ~hoUild. be simple enoug;h, to make the desIgn carry ten feet or more, If the small sketch will do that \.\"!i ,may be sure' the larger .ca:n.va,g wjn be: effective under any circumstances. This is a, very g'ooo reason Ior ,m,ak[ng a SHlin sta tement of' any su hi ect before we ~nvest effort in ,fill Iarger one.

Assuming that you 'UsuaUy do, most of your: oil pai nt]ng mdoors, you w 1]1 need sketches of outdoor scenes ~or reference. Make a small sketch

. for color alone, This, cou.pled with p,encil sketches for detail, 01 photographs of the spot! will p,r,ovide much be uer sautee material for the final work than wUl all attempt to make a, larger and detaile~, prellminary painting in the limited lime at your dig,p~,sa] eutdoors, If your sketch box is, large, 'try using Jarge brushes, Concentrate

on l;olo.r~ tone; and paUem. Leave tll.tf.~ detail for - pencil and eamera,

The writer has, learned by experie ace that the artist has Dot much more than OD.e, hour to set down his subject before the Ught be,gins to change, f:'f you. t r.y 'to paint too long and then have to go, back lover your ~tetch to "w arm .it up," because it looks too cold in the [ate: light" [he or.ig1D~1. CO]OF" relationships w~U be tbroW,D out (1'f ba la nee. and the, sketch will become progress.i vely .. WOlf',ble and inaccurate.

Since we are g,oiflg to have to shnp~ify. nttosJt subjects anyw'ay in, Ithe firi"'sbed. work, it is better ("0' start eliminating in. the skeeeh, If ynu take photographs. for reference you can ,a~w,aYB ,put back ,a de~aj~; here or there 'in the ,final composi'lion, should, it seem, to require it

Sometimes a subject ffim,proves .~n. [be warmer H,ght of late ,after nOOD~ In this case don'~t try to wor k over Jour eriginal colors: stu rt ·ag3~n 0]' take . some euler shots, The pomt is not to mix two separate color versions. In, your !m,al painting.' Choose one or the other and ssiek to it. Tbe oneo'clock Ilghtlng and. colorwlll never fit a fiveo'clock version. If you are seeking late-aftemcon eftects, we can sometimes extend YOl r time limit fur the: sketch. by starting out a, little earlier and pm rpose]y 'making ,jI,our colors 8 little wal1.nJLe.I [han. they appear, However ~ t'h.is, takes considerable ex perienee and skill, especially as allow ance she u Ld also be made for [e.n~tbemn~g shadows .. , Just as, colors: change, so d 0- ~b.li3ldowslt as the ai'te,rnoon wears on,

We. can sa,¥e ourselves a good deal of trouble'

62

I

SIMPLICITY ;\N'DI .HO\V TO ACHIEVE IT

by selecting simple subjects for our paintings, Scenes in vel ving too many trees, rocks, m ountains ~ people, animals, bulld.ings:f clouds, or wh arever I' can become cO!Jlp'H~a.'[oo unless J:llftUY are el imina ted]. 0.[ minimized, Even Ii a very .fuU scene. appeals to you, it is a good idea. to see if' it is poss.ible to group some of the units into simple. I' all erns, 'For mstance, thousands of trees Ion a u1ou.ntaiIlS:lde .mi.g;ht be. so grouped that they could 'be suggested in t.WOI or til ree pattern.s. and painted with cotnpaJii ti vely few strokes of a d uy. brush, Th re arc many SU ell possibilities,

T ie more complicated land 'intricate the patterns, the 'larger the area of lean vas you snou ld use to. accom meda te your su bjeet com! ertably. Busy patterns can 'be contrasted 'with simple patterns with good effect, but a picture that .is busy . an over wi 11 always suffer in comparison to' a picture ,of sin1.'p,~,e an d drama de design

As mentioned before, the artist 5110 uld choose

- • iI"~_ oS -- 'too' ;['11" iFii'Ii nl ~f-tl wil.., Q,.io he. it"Q.I'!! it' nI t '~I j) a

e:l ~,~.li~r ,"', a u,'p. ".'".1 . ': lIi.lulL. . ...• i,]I ..... ~.:lI U'. . :0. .:s~..Lec'" . .

sir rpler subjec], Or he mi'ght ch.o~se to painr part. of what he gees rather than the whole subject. For example, be may select a barn ra the -r' th an the whole farm, or even :jfu part of the ba,rU 'with an anlmal 01' two in. f[o,nt, (f it, Most aU-UM teur painters. try to include too m UCh1 'wh.ile the experienced. painter knowingly focuses his attention on tho most interesting r= of the scene before him.

. Pai]l~dTIg i s very m uch like writing, There can be. so many detailed pa:ssnges in a book that the reader 'who wants thee atory to ~fiOve alon g be= comes in; ita ted. A conversationalist ca ,get lost in deta U and trivia too, and so can the artiss,

t is in massing and (fouping (in creating design which did net exist before) that the artis t. can outdo the, best results o,r eolor photo.g.r,aph.y .. I f rea U stic or objective art is to, continue, it win be larS'ely because of this sort of' creativeness '. 'he

. C~eral has already supplanted the kind of' paint-

· hi ~ ,I " .. 'Iii: • •

lng w ich '1S a slaVI'sh cl0p-y or nature! and. l.t IS

'~1 le.ft to the a rtist eo p,ai:nl the essence of what lu V_ se·es, rather than the 'f-rozen exterior ·~m.age.fiie

,

mUs.t take his. subject ap:,art., H~ must find 'out

what gives it life, \vhr 'it i~j of lllteres,t. to him .• , why he wants to paint a. If 'the design or natural p,~t .. tern of a subject ~ '0 terests him. most, let him -stress that, or jf it is 'c:~]efly the' color that thrills him, let that eontlnue to be rhis. main inspiration. :So.metimes a suhj ret presents, a f~lscina ti ng desi gn I a. happy cembinaticn of architecture, or a rhythm i c g:rou.p·ing· of ,figute~ ~ pc.rhaps, yet the colors are drab, Here 'l.h~ ar list can u tlllze the shapes be

d .~ll.'1 'b' ··1!1"' . -. h _ ·iL.,·b 11 . s-

wants an ~j,.u.!!, .. .'l!lJ/ lance t rougn u roxea Of I

I

stepped-up color; lEe thus tries to put gocd color' t

with good design,

Taking r.t subject apart is rather [ike taking ap.a:rt a machine whose performance is st uggi sh or otherwise ]es5. than ~a.tLslactor.y." If some. parts do not function well we replace them 'with new' parts.~ we clean DUlt the dirt and ,put everything back together so the machine operares more ef'fecdvely. It would 'be' hard to find a subject in nam Fe where Doth ing detracts, and nothing needs to be ellminated. In tn;-ett_kj-ng down hi s subject the artist mus L decide. upon essentials, the things that really make tbe. subject ~ftecdve- and he must 'weed out or minimize 'the rest,

The creative process is brou_gh~, into 'p]a.y when the artist 10' ..... k ~. at I!lI; sub] eet i'lI nd deci des 'IL-.,o- 'W- ,'. ri'·~·~

ILlt_l· d· LliZ'l - " ·u. ~J -. IlI:.;!Ii .. ' l~ ~Idl,:" U .PW I l . .;J 1~.JJ· ... L.U

make a good. p·ictur.e. out of' it. He does this in much the same ·w.~y that he. wculdlt be were looking at a pabltin,g by anotber artist, askt- g him.self how i~ could be unproved if it: were to be repainted, He I[nmna'l.cs what he sees intO' his "own. creative terms, ,Approaching nature in 'this manner, he may say to himself, here is a chance for rich. contrasts, 0.1' here is a subject thae calls Ior a very high, delicate key" And he wBI usually think o't the :su.b]-ec~. -i-m. terms of hi s own particular technique=-one subject suggesU[[lg" .po,,~\:91bly~ ,a, strongly built underpain ting, another a subtle juxtaposition. of colors 01' forms, Whol knows p.re,.. cisely \\?}1at the artist's ihoughts ,~lre? But ·v.;'e do know tha t a sense of ex hil ara tiou comes over a U of us in a nticlpation of crea Hug a. work of art.

More' etten than not, uhe flnal 'painting fails.

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.D'tm:ge., by Thomas Benton, ASSOCIATED AMERICA.N .AR.']:lS'I'S", NEW 'YORK crrr. In breaking down his subject the artist must. decide upon essentials, the. things tnat really make, the, su bject dfective~ and he must weed out

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Or rru nnmze 'WC, rest

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them, you can sometimes sim.plify the. problem by suggesting, fingers im an impressionistic :Illim," ner, or palntltng a hand with the fingers closed. Look over yuu.r ,9,U bj eer fill the m any little things that you can eliminate to bring you back to a

'n • 11 • •

iarger, $l:I,m_fuer c~nl.posl non,

Our power of analysis can. o:nly come by degrees, It cannot develop from, rule and forJllu~la alone, Thism ay be, helpfu I, but it is really meelli gren.c.e dictated 'by tas te and exper Ience that helps us most. We can study for '3, w'hile with. a teacher, but in. actual fact there is. not a teacher in the world t hat is not Iimi ted. to his own viewpoint and ability, An is stressed In schools today, and ~'he,r.e are mlan.y special a rt se h 00 I S and summer classes for amateurs and budding professlonals. But' the question is: How much creativeness can

b h ? Th· ,m h·'} .' .' j lnb

e 'ta,ugt;· .. ']5 lS somet .C mg l ~a.t IS eitner in -OfID1

or developed by the. ll!nD.a~sging ,in terest, study. and hard work of the. individual himself.

Besides cutti [1 g down the amount of material in a picture for the sa Ice of simplifieation, we ~ho.uJd. of course also look and look: we']].) at the materi at], we de pU'l in. 'We lind inloj]~ artists, especially artists with oou1lllCiiCc,ial experience, a tendency to round out and. finish ,ev.ery part 'of the subject so thatequal importance is given to everything. This means that no P art of the sub] ect has been subordinated and too 'many elements com.pete for atten tion, It ]g almost hn,perad ve that the ,attist search for a key motif and stress it.

A1 l pamtlngs shou Fd have a., ,local paint. This l,. will be the obJe.ct or grQUp o,f 0 b] eets tha t you feel is uf most iOlpoltatlQC to you r them e. and your dtlsign. Concentrate you!: snarpcst, detail or I color here; and subordina e it elsew here, If other . I spot~ are too insistent, eliminate some of the hi,gh~ Ught~ and accents, bring the values closer, 'fuse the ,edge~;~ or lessen the competing brilliancy of color.

An Important means of simplification is to see your patterns or areas 0" tone as flj:El.tly as possib e. They should n ot be bra k.en. up or overrnodeled

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with too ]UUlny obvious planes. ~~ldnk of ligllt as

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l.;,u.;..:iJ",,'fA come oft as. w,ell as the artist had. anticipated. · This .m~y be so because at the time of the initial ~~Vislla,]ilation there is a minimum of uhou,ghtt about tlle thousand and one things. tha t US;1l8, I '!y happen once the execu tien has beg un, 'VbUc he concen _,

I ~':L. tra.tes en true values on color or form, some'\'\'bere down the line, some of the effects an 'artist may have. hoped for will have been lost. His first look at the scene he wants to p:a int revea ls uni ty and beau t.y I w ith au' things as. they should be. The: execu uian is simp.ly [a statemen t of a bUity 11 nd eornprehension, One proce~,ss. is completely visual, the other completely technical. No man's technical ability can ever quite reach the whole truth, even as he as an individual may see it

We, must also realize 'tIUt'C in our first. appraisa'! o.f a scene we usually look at. the whole. and are; moved by it .. Then later, after our work starts,

'we Iuay notice the. Iittle 'things we overlooked and .gradua,l]y ~ by concentrating on these increas ing'ly bothersome details, lose !i.igh:t of' our original impressiun i the impor tan t impression that made

us select the subject in the first place, Therein ~]es the danger of missing the boat. The hand. can become heavy and exhilaration turn to increaslng di sappointment and at tlmes Iruatratioa. There is on.ly one, antidote. T'81ke a 'rest and try aga]'n '. See: ·i 1T you can remember w here it was you began to go wrong, at what poin t you lost the first lmpresskm, See if you can 'leave out every~ ~h ing that .~n tertered with you r 'first gre,at ~~~reep of vislon. Eliminate an but what you. think must be in '[be :pici,ure to make ,it dramatic and intelligible. If your subject was a building, you rn ]gh t not have noticed at first .] \1 st how In a ny ~ ittle windows there were, To avoid a busy Of crowded ]ook~ you mig;h.'~ paint these windows, or SOJLne of

'ff them; veryclose in value to the main value 'Of the.

,~ building itself. Or if your scene encompassed a

I large area of water, you might improve it the

~ seeond time by eliminating many of' the Iittle

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• .;:~~~ve]et'S. and by concentrating on. the larger pat-

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~ 115. In figure. studies.ball~ are .of~~n~rO~~le.-

ne, and while you certainly can t eliminate

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B r,eel,ll1lg' U:p by '\lins]ow Horner N'A rION At" G' ': L' I HRY OF ART ~l 'V!/' AS [= ~NGT'ON:I '01• c. All paintings s'hou~d 'iIo3Jve a focal point, Th] wiU be the obj,ec.t Or group of' o,bjecu, tbat you feel ~ o,f. most j- 'porta, ce to, ,OUf theme a nd you]" me,s,ig'

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Y'OUI-18 Woman by ISaJb~~ Bjsho'p~, M~MOW-' GA.LL:EJ:U.ES'i NEW '¥,OJlK CITY. In igure. sredlcs, hands are often troublesome, and while you re.rtaruWll, IC~Ul!'[ elimjnate U'lem~, yoll.1l. can siometimes. silnlL plify the problem

b . f.: • •. •• •. •• h..ll

Y suggc.'ii:t.ln.g .. rngers U1 9.[I!JJ unpressiomsuc manner, or p'~Uillfil a .a!l!it~

wIth the fingers, closed

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one p]ane j us Inoue as ,~n,oUl,cr; o.l'l.d. 8~''UlL10W as a

~hi~~,~~- pain-f,ed.. ,~imp'ly -~~d almost flat~~ ) .... ~(; net

mean that the planes should get "tinny" and perfectly' smooth. 'There can, and 5110 uld I be variation of color. But if you thin! .of the whole light ilS opposed. [0 the whole sh adow, with the interven;'ng 'h_a.Mftorti e as a tl~·ean $ of un itln g 'the two, your 'pi~tul'e will 'be simpler and, as a rule, more el1tecti.~'~_.__

~ The. impcrtance of Ilatness and. :Sbnplici ty is

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emphasized m the ca:r.l:_Y.1llig' power or a poster,

'WldAe a pain tillg shoo:1 d D ot .~ 00 k' like a poste;r ~ there is, nevertheless, a :lesson to be learned here. So often a pain ling sulters by U1:e presence of too . many subtle 'v ttl ues thro ugheut Ule 'V alue scale. Wi.~h Jittle separation of p~ttem and Utfk empha ~

sis. on de~lgn a .pieture IonkSi 'weak from a dis. tance, 1'h~r.e may well be delicacies within the p~ tterns, the chan ge: of 'val tU~S .m,8iY 'be subtle, but the de.sIg n shou.ld. embrace these. subtleties WiUlin the stronger pat [etri.~:~ Perhaps no pain ter used :1:1l0Ve subtle values than Corot j hut an. examinadon af hli~, 11 min tings shows that he held his 'pattetn a nd design ~ in fact hiswor k seems always to be based u.pon design,

Degas was ,et grea 1: master of ,pattern, color ~ and design, His pas h,~l1s are .pa tter ns of. broken color ~ 'with the p attern s lying nearly .flat ~ lhc),ll1g'il fu 11 of du.:fferent colors 'which a-re close in V8l] ue, JH_'e d:i.d not hesi tate to let a fi gure disappear under the frame if: that helped the design .

Howard Py.lewms, one of' the first. Ame:r'i can.

Re!1t:-{.U"S'cd· on the. SI~gg by 'E,d,g;B.'r De,~fI!Sf MET.ROPOI.1TA'N M'UiSEUM O:F. A.R'I'~ NEW Yo.l(K. errs. Degas was a g1l'~at ~m1t;lilst~r of .p~.U;e:rn, coIoF. ~ 'and de,sigll. . . . .HIe did. n-ot. h~5i1a~e; £-0 rett ~ figl:]re/ disappear under the [raJj]l~. ·if that he'],ped the design

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SIMPLICITY AND now TO AC)'I.JE'Vt: rr

,~l.Uust~atoI,s. to realize the 'true pk;ioda~ value of ~~ After consider-in,g tbe pattern areas of 'your

org,,anil.ed pattern, If we, :~tudty his work, 'we note subject, next think about the planes, These are 1

~bal he gay,e great consideration to keeping Itig'hts" the lines which characterize each object ~nd nlake '

,nliddle tones, and dark'~ generally :se:parated into jv. recognizable, They should be kept as simple as

lar,ge areas o~f each. In some pictures he. bunt his, possible. Like the sculptor, the pa.1nter eliminates

lights fU10J darks into a general overtone O'f gray; unnecessary tine. He ID.lay flatten U]S forms, work

in others. he put, his middle tones and ligh'l;s, Into for masses 'drive for rhythmic relat],Qnsil~psm even

a dominant field of' dark. 'With four g!~]]entl val- distort where distortion enhances his. [den .

... ues he shows us the foU.owing combinations. I ij a ~1jrrace. has ma:ny small and cornplieated

r (.1) halftones and darks against light planes an attempt should. be made to reduce them

(2) Hghts and darks against 'light gray to fewer andlarger ones. ,A wo nan's dress looks

(:3) ']Jghts, darks and light gr:aySi against dark better after it has been lroned-e-wben llttle wrin-

,gray kles }j,:a,ve' been, smoothed out and wbem the ma-

(4.): lights and grays against d,iiU',k terral falls h1 fewer and more 'Hatte.ri.ng Iolds .. The

This is the key to patUe:rn..:mal~ng in pictures. result i 5 1110n;~ 'be autiful because the sim plici ty ,of

Whole areas m~y be. enveloped in shadow for the Iine has been 'restored, If we paint a dress and

dark patt~in or len very U ght to prod uce patterns a~d so much detail tha t ,i ( 'bepl'Il s to' look messy

in a hlgh key, In a landscape, the foreground and in need of ironing, the painting will btU in its

J1dgl.U be in, shadow and the distance in light. Or attempt 'to be beautiful, A dress should be neither

the reverse' :might 'be UU&. Cloud shadows Of' cast p~inted like shee't. metal nor overmodeled, And

shadows on the ground can prod uce ~nt.ele;st ing the same principle holds for other subjects , Find

patterns, and so, ,at the other end of the scale, can e:noll,gln planes to detine the form, then stop before

ra.,Y'~ of direct or fe1iected ]i,ght. the area gets messy,

~Ve can use busy patterns. with siullple ones in, Even a head may be reduced to larger pta,ne~~

the same pictu'fri~" B'ur never should all au ,. pa:t-, without J.ru~s of torm, Just RS, you try to find the

terns be the same, Suppose, you have decided to underlying d4,;,s;ig,[l of drapery as it hangs in folds

paint it stream bed filled with rocks, and then you watch for the same sort of pattern In 'hair. Cun- ~

find there arc mountains above it with equally ncct the planes of li,ght, halfto.ne and ~badow.

broken up and bu.sy formations~ and. abc:nS€ these Then put in only as rnan'Y smaller planes within

mountains a ~k~r broken <up with many small these. areas as you need 'to "~ugges'l the character

clouds: One or U10fc of these areas wUI need olhai', The shadows 'will stand mote si[n.prfi,c~,-

simplification in the paintIng. If the river bed is tien than the lights" Ior detaH and textures belong

your m ai n i merest, ecncentrate deta H here and to the Ug ht, while shadows are more obscure a [1«

keep the mountains and tbe sky areas rc1a.th·ely opaque. Muddiness in a picture most often results

free of' confhcting pancrns. You, might even omit. from '100 many and too dark halftones in the

the clouds endfie].y for a, better measure of CO'riJ- lighted areas.

trast, -"a~ure provides copious 'materia] fOf our Much can be.done in the wa,}," of simplitication

selection., \Ve cannot eflectively duplicate e,very- by the handling of edges" Too many sharply de-

. thing ~xa(;Uy as we see it; theretore ]t is in our 'fined 'l~dSe~confllJ.se a subject 'with patterns and

,-, selection, W.~l,~ In our ability to scale down and reduce the piC.tuf'e'fS carrying powet·. They cut up.'

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crganize contrastlng areas of patrern Into a har- the.' material into small bits where masses are

monious composition, second, and ,]n our techni- called for. The "lost and found" ,ed,ge;..~ of objects

cal skill 'with pencil or brush I' '~~]!]['d;. that our sta- _" gainsl a ~ ig ht or dark 1:n~.c'k:g_'f()und-unify the

ture as an artist is, welghed. whole picture, and the, artist's job i~J to pull these

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[Jon may ·req.uire. ~ Furthermore, 5.Omc:r-::'0.·f the. , R;H~rns. may~ we:f1:'bes~paIale.d.m~~~e-~~~. iere,nrkJll...c.QJor..Jban--~v :value. Th~ 'posf{bi1itie,s

~,-~ ~ J~ ,

of 'd,e~ig.n,.-:nS'~ng- evea.a lb~1)j~ mngec (J,f colon;

and ~·alUfeS;- ar-e - ahnost limitless..

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L::!1llilgement and idJ.eSi.gn, are more easily con-. 1

trclled in portraits. and st1l1.1if'~i than in Q,ny other types of P aintings~\ In portraits, tbe artist can d oslgn hl S sub1 eci ~ as be aets it up,., placing his pauerns of Ughty;~ middle tones, and darks. as. he wishes, through a,rr.ilogeme.nt of costume, background, and. aceeasories, For. e.xaulp,'lc." knowing that he will be painting a subject in a wbh~ s.a~in dress he cenehoose eUl'11;;:>·I- .oj]; middle 0'" '~ d~III""~

I. ·0;fi I!'! _,." I ',', w.lULv.-. 1IlI\.t '_' ... £~ll. ii' !', - ,W ". ol ~, '_ QJl;i'I:..

THE .'YE" or T:HE" j, P'A'Ii'NT'E'n

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together" to blend and in terlaee and D100l fy patterns that, would 'Otherwise remain 'hatt) and separate,

Final lly.~ simplific-a.tion can be achieved 'by re"lLlcing the number of values used, The picture with three or 'four main ,l'al ues or masses will 'be sim'pl,!f:,r atnd. more effec.tive. than. one with many values. It is possible to ])roduce f]Uccn to twenty slight varia tiens of value, between black and

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w'hj't~.·~,~t,£t. few feet away these values will,l'nerge

into. what seems an unsep .. arated g,,- r adation of Lone

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from. white ~to black, The -Seune·-ihin.g -hap~~lIS: '10.

... - - .

a p:;cture in which the values are not morewidely

sep,a:r'l'~ed.. This, of course, practicj!Uy eliminates pattern and design i' •

ii' The best WQ:d~J~g' plan ,I s to use abou t eight 'I) values, with a divisloll of two values to apattern, WbUe th i s would mean using 'fo:\J~ ~p.attern.5, it does not necessarily mean divid.ing· a picture up. into four Lt~'p arate areas, as the. patterns nla.y inter .. weave or 'be broken up' in any waythe composi-

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tone fo r the back,ground.. And the actualcostume and head olf the sitter 'may ,pro'vide enough design in. itself f Of' the elimination of a I ~ other P atterns. '''''iUl s~ill.life the.problem is even easier, 'for the artist can select ,rnn.ytbing he likes from, o. wade full of materia land arrange bis o bj~ets and. colors ,

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/ .... /Des~g;n -uty--m·ea lr'the presentation and- expres_.s1o:n~ef - erm -irscdf:; such as in. sculpture, or of some sort of lUaJ crnamentation ,Ipplied to fnrm, such as in. a surface decoration, or it may refer to the particular arrangement of objects. in a p~dnting: where shading and the principles of perspective have been ,em.p loyed to give them a. lifelike, three-dlrnensiona I q uality .

Since in painting our ai m. i~ to :n~.p'resen t threedimensional 'Objects on a Ha,t surface, it is this type of desig n that concer us us he re, We sb all leave solid design 'to the .fic1ds of sculptU,rf, ceramics, and other three-dimensional objects, However, no matter how it is used, desigo invalves ma n.y of the same elements: simplicity o[ 'lOk,.lll~· planes, 00]0 - ~ texture ..

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! For the moment, let us Ignore halftone and

~ shadow as 'UsuaUy associated with the r,e1ldering I of solid form and consider the elements assoJ elated with the flat .. desi~n treatment of light and ~ dark areas (chiaroscuro) in a pictu re,

r., . What is the. purpos;e af our design? I!$. ~ t in-

tended to be' an entity within itself for the sole F urpose of erea ting be a.uty , or is it to serve as , ornament ina larger scheme, such as an interior?

, ' The surrounding s cad sometimes be made to

'--&~~~onize with a pictodaJ. design, but marie often a. design is m ade-o,r chosen-tQJ!£~~n~_:.~·~~ _e;m~ hellish the en vironment. 'In ,any event" harmony should exist between thefinish.ed design 1 tse1f and the background upon which it is either ~1 nug,; or ( j nth e case of a 'mural) pail1Je.d directly,

An abstract painting is a. logical choice for at modern Interior: on the Dither hand, any well-

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p.n 1 nted picture 'i~ at an. advantage 'when 'hung on the pl~ in. ba,ckgrou:nd. that most medern and con:"

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temporary rOOIDS prov:IJ-_e. ',ew panil.t1ngs~ except

the elasslcat t'y.Pl~ of portrai t or flower stUdy,-, look wen against a pattern (wallpaper) background, and most pictures in elaborately ornamen ted gol(]1 frames look. correspondingly out of place ill a

" con te,mpnr~ry setting,

The trends in ~ntedol1' decoration are toward Hght~ air)' treatments, \vith slmple p1.am.les of. wall, ceiling, a nd 'floor, with sp.la,shes of color in texriles, Iurnlrure, and accessories, The pS'indngs Hut~ sui red :[he dark oak~p£li.uelOCl In tenors of the :past do not fit a modem interior. Today's reallstlc pai nt ings, if tbey are to compete w ith abstraction s. as wall decor a tion, must have more pronounced desl gn, m ore vivid color larger pattern, and less he. lftone a nd mode llng of form,

Con temper ary fa shions in ~ n ter 101' decors ti ng h ave also swung '0 UI taste a vw,.',ay rrom the very ornate rococo type. of gilded picture frame and toward slim p]el, or at least simp ler mold lngs tex ~ tured with ge~so .. And fiat! wide frames are more onen the a rtist's choice: t'h an the older narrow and protruding types .. Here again! simplicity is the keynote.

Modern art 18 proving that It takes very little material to make a picture. If a few well-balanced nar color areas call be so effective ]n an abstract pain.ting~ ehe same can 'be true 01 an obJective one. Th e m 0'''' e c onserv ative P -'::'1~ n ter can b· en - etit 'by',

" ,-':1;. . v· 1.j;J~. '_'l~ .. ~.,.-.· ,"i;iL'- '~_'...: ~~~. ~,~. ,t. ".

studying modern art without prejudice and applyi ng. some of the same princip les,

'Wha t we pain t is very important, to us, 'but how

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SlumberJn.g Fields by William Palmer ~ MIDTOWN GALLE.RIES, NEW YOR.K, (;1'1" Y .' Modern art. is proving tha t it takes very little material to rnake a picture. U a few we] t-bala need flat color areas can be so effective in, an abstract paintlng, the same C~UI, be true of an, objective one

we, paint it and to what purpose is equally im,port.anL The treatment of a subject can be even more 'i m porta nr th an the 5 u bject itself, The a rti st 'i s f tee to ChOOSil;,1 the s ub j ects th at in tere st him ,]11 ost ~h(': d ocs not nave to pal nt cl ow us. O~~ fat nude S j 11 Sot bcca use some mode rn art i sts d o ~ he does not ha V~ 10 stop p.ahHing landscapes or flowers. if he likes painting landscapes or flowers, bu 1. he II l!;t Y learn new ways of doing ,i t, Studying modern a rt does not mean copyi ng it any m ore' than the study of Ron aissanee painti n.g me an S that. a pai nrer intends to reproduce a Titian or a Botticelli, Rathel; does it mean that by exposing

ou rse lves to va doug, styles of painting we I ear n a lesson f [0]11 each,

Ted ay we might wish we could pai n t a s well a s, let us say t G ains borough, hut our oonccp t wou ld be en tirel y differen t. Portr a. i ts in themselves art', by no means passe, It L~ only the overly f orm al approach that may a. t t ~ 111 es make them ~CCIn so, Vile live j 11. an era of i nforrnali ly and of speed, and u nl ess ou r pa i nt lugs have a 'light'!' s.pon.taneous, impressionistic (1 uality, they are likely to seem out .01 date.

TIn:; painters of yesterday used certain patterns a nd :s [y les that need not be adhered to tad-a y. We

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'D:ESIGN

'i!5" ,~ D ,', - _ '16., ,', 'T't.. .. 'I[."" '. ' ..:.' _.- ,- .. , .. "",- " . . .. ' " • '. " '.' .',' W'" Al..,,~ ,. . '..' ;'. "·r··' ort '" '.'

~~,'§'~ .fl,wer uy ,1,J1.)ng ~J!1smJl1n! MmrnVIN nA.F .. LlllJHBS~ ,N,!EW YORK CITY. " .. nat we paint ]s "V~Q ,1mpo:r!!liJ!'L ro

U~'~ but, ItQiw we p.a]nt lt and to what PW,']?O~, ,is, e:q u~Jly important, T 11e treasment oJ! a sulb~ect can 00 ~i1i,i\~imJ, mere important than the ,stibj:ect. .ittoelf

get to, 'tnin.kin,g that a woman must be pain ted in her best ldw~n,eck)ed (tOW]] 1 fLn oerirra. her strinG', of

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pearls, ,A more modern a,pprl)a,d1 might 'be to

intb 1 d un i 'h '. '1:.. ' , 'iI~

JH3J:nt ,er C1l111, ,e, . un in ~:n easv c: ' ~'~,r Wl'tJ;.! a bDOoc

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or m =ru.,gaZllle" or: to pan~t rer ar.r3lil1lgulg 0\' ers, or

'[jut wa,lki(I[g with her dog1 or astride £I, horse, or d,oing, anythill,g tha t ]8 characteristic of her, lJV'e

d - ';;1 ''i!- :-t· ":_ .'i~, ,·t' .... C' ... - -.~ -1t 'W" ";11i" 'L 'C' 1 '"

. on tna ve 0 nmta ;~., ~,~rg'~n ~ ,:' ~ nam ".. aasc ~

or anybody else, 'Our paintings must be contemporary and as ,fresh ana, ,tt!iv'e·looking. as pessi ble,

Wh"~ " , 11··,' ,.' . .,fil ... ~ '- fin .... I' ,';' , "f i tt.

nat IS rea Y neenea In me art, ,].5, tor me

artist's conception to be ov erh a uledi to fit. the times;' ,l1, is a change in our ,attitude~ ::nt'~h~I' than

a, change uf: subject, tha~, 'W Ill help us most, And with the change, new techniq I,Je~ Ina), also develop,

'\Vhen. we 'come to I~h~ act ual de~ign or a

B u b~ ect, ,it ];5, easier to enumerate the 'lhing:s. we should not do than to try 'to s m,y precisely what

to do, for ,e\l"ery artist must develop his own ,]U-_ d]vi du Ell, I, style. Bu t the re are some simple. yules -1 which are more or less obiig at()ty' for snccess:

Shapes a nd ~ reus of YOU.:f CORlpOS]tiOLJ S~.t1 u.i.d; . be va dcCII in forrn .and color and 111 neq,ll a 1 in size.

For Instance, ,in an outdoor subject the sky area shou ~ d not equa 1. the gtoU:lIld, area,

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THl\ EYE OF THE PAINTER

A void arrangements 'that spilt the subject down or -,aO'toss -the .. middle.

Ha:lllanc.::e large ,[UUtS or spots with smaller ones, A, largo unit in, the foreground can be balanced with a ~maUer one io the distance,

'- 10 realistic painting establisl; 8 point of view ,flj nd an eye-level ~ ad stick to it

- . -_ 1:0 abstract painting, play up color and texture.

This is as important aJ.5 the design 'itself..

Do not show extremes of' propcrtion, such as a v,er:y large head with luna]! ~gures behind it, It is dimcul~ 'for. [be eye-or even the: camera-e-tc focus at the same ~iJne on an extreme close-up and !~rreat distance.

Every good eompositioa gives ~ route for the, eye 10 fo~o,w and strives to hold the !;',ye within [he subject as long as possible, This nas been .. ~ . ~~aUeQ t:he:._r~e CJ! s!gpt!, the line of vision, the eyepa Ul f or the lead ing li.n~~·' t is an ctrort te cOlfl,Lro] ~]:u= viewer's eye, as it travels through thepictn re,

~ .' ~en~ftl:} j we ~ry to g.l V~ the eye on[y one en:",

I 'Ii..' d r ,''11 iii '11 •

trance to the IllctUfC, ,ii'll, one eXJt trom it, it 1S

like choos]ng ,~ natural p,ith over. the terrain a;r:i we mlght do if we were actual ly walking 'in to such a scene, We begin 'the, path J of line at the bottom Q.f the picture, and then 'by U1C arr,angem,ent of other ]ioe;$" edges, spo.,ts, and accents our eye Is carded comfortably through. the subject, and finaUy~ via !~, focal point, it finds an exit at the top. Should tbe eye be. blocked near the nliddle of the composiim,Qu by some obv.ioUi~y inl~Hissab.~e to b .. ject, it should be directed oee way or the ether around the o-bject by a, ]og~e.al pathw',ray~ by Une.s or spots, and then be directed upwards a,gain by the pia,cen\en'E of s;~ aUe!" obstacles at the: other side olf the picture, .. 1 If a tree is the obstSltCle in question, low bushes or rocks, ml,ght be, adde.d nn one side of It, while the other side is ltft ope.n for

d,e eye to travel into the. distanee, Wltn a portrait,

au' lines lead toward the hea .. d, on the ,pdncipille of

a focal pOlnt with. radia ting lines, Even a still life can be given a pleasill,~ e:yep2llth by arranging the.

bi ')~ tI I

<: 0 jeers m an attracttve sequence.

~~ In ..d... ... ;t,;;-,.... t';g flO - - - - a- ~1'lJ,.· not -- ; 0i'H - .... ant

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since we ord.ioarily dispense w_i~h lunch. .d~pth,. and the eye rests upon 'the 'who le canvas as a :fl.art plane, as it would on any' nat. desigll,.

Sometimes 'the eye m,ay be directed by cast shadows Qnd their edges, by a rut in the: grou nd I by pudd les, !$IDaU st rea 1118; 'bit5 or de'adwoodl or patches of bare. ,ground or. ftowen. I t obviously will follow an a.ctu,l.] worn ,pathway .......... ~a, road or a fence-s-and through association go dif~(;'tly to a g~t,e,wa.y or door. But a :pathway l'nay be developed on a, stretch of open country " such as a p[ain or a desert" and even in, at, marine scene. In ~he, hltte.r there can ~lwa y~ be, jutting rocks, 'btewn,g Wfl!V~S with sea spray, wave shad.o~'\!-~N std,ps, of Iand, birds 'boats" and clouds, Never let t,b~ ~e.y~~' path go, s,trai.gbt up the middle; If we look along a railroad if ack th~ eye ,goeg, straight to the hcrizon and must come all the way back to. see what is 81 the sides. Let the eye wander easl ly from side to side, ,gr,a.dUlaUy geuing u,P into the sky,. where It may also, perhaps, wander ,8]lUong an interesdllg~formancn Oil ·c,]ooos., Avoid anything that ~lould

. carry the eye out of the. pictuee act the' sides. Ii you lha.ve II mountain crest {ullll.mg riglht to the frallle, ,let a treetop sbow 0.00 ve It" or soften the, 'edge with a bld of ci,oud. 'TIle' leye Tllight be. coaxe~ fr-onl. such an ,edge 0-)' a. bird a little above U~ by an overhanginS branch at the top ~f' ~he picture, or by a line af I cloud swin,ging upward frora 'I,he. mountain crest, Cu"[P'~ smoke is another useful device- for this ,puip(l~§here' can be noabsolute. rules for rs,ueh details as these: ~hey are a matter olf' inventiveness" The, main idea-s-or underlying

If rule- is, t,,? be conSC.laUi, 01.' ore-a Heg an ·~yepath.

.. Sub,jects wi,th two very similar objects are, best

avoided, If we. mus.'t have twa,. then one: :I:lrw,ust dorninate the other. At no time should there be I sease ot divided attentlen, or of conlpetitio:n,.. unless Sllch, competition actually exists" as in a painting lo,f ~wo ,pr1m,fi!hteJ',s~ two bat'[[i'og armies

nl~ m ,~'t" or' - i.'L. er o'pnO'iI"'Il' DU forces B' '1I!"&n ]"Ii'\i !!II or a __ '_"_I~_~,1:Sj,- OU:ll~ 'fr~" Ci ,~"-w.;Y-'''"', .L.I, Go

,paindn; of h\J10 prize.flghters", the. :picture wi'll have more unity if they are shown. in a clinch (or IOJl!e u.J? and one dDw,n) than if: bodl are shown 5uu}d,·

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D'E- -'S"',::('G' N.:I

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. SEARCHING 'FOR ,A'RRA'NGEMENTS

Design and pattern are essential to every painting, After selecting a subject; the artist should make experimental, sketches, breaking up a rectangle with three or four tones and manipulate the patterns until a pleasing balance of masses is achieved, This is grea t fun.

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A S'Ul~ cU' Sl~~,k,ey's:' b,Y George Bellows .. NA.T[~)NAL GALLlERl' Of. ART. WA:5HING:JiON D., c, IEven in, a pa.lntiug Q" two ,p:riz.cfi,gl1tersi, the p:iculre will have more 'IJ n i.ty :i'f 'E:he,Y are gbo!w,1E'Jj in a. cliach I( or. orne up and, one down.) than i' both are shown standing wEtb space between them

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I _, aJb.st['a,!CI~ art, an e.yep a.tb, is 'IlOt so imp-o,rtaotJ since we of(Jj-inarily d~sp~;nse wiJth much depth, and the 'eye. rests :'0,1) 'the, whole '~aI!llJvaS as a fla~ "hm,e, as it waldO! 01'11 ,lny :thu d~l,gn.

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Ne.vm" put: lfl bead ·ar I, 'uychia, e:h;e of inportl:OCC ,m dl8 e,;:ac~ ce:mrter of D, ,[plietu~ i, D.w, it lit it. or p:~ac·. ,lOt te en . ~ id; · · i ,ud .~nnr; _. pmCi0 ~~c-ad. and moulders so! 'thery .fac~' the 'viewe:rr sq'UilR'ly

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THE EYE OF' TI-IE PAINT,E'R

ing with space between them, Two 'faun ded and abrupt shores on a lake, with their reflections in the water, have been. known. to look more like two whales bumping noses than two shores on a l~ ke, Double portraits, especially of t\\IO men or two women are eq ually difficul t to b,d n g; off s uccessfully. j\ mother and child ma ire a good subject because one domin ate's. the other ]}-:IJ a lzc. When. you must :ENl.i:fiI,t. two pe0p'If::~ have one st:aru:Ung and the other sluing) or dress one in a dark costume, 'the, other in a light one. Do anything to 8J.void) g1 ving t\VO .peoplc or two similar objects eq 1l1a1 importance . in the painting.

~::.;.... The. use of overlapping units is I@. \lrery good wa y to create unity 0:1 des]g.ll. I t de~ [he pietu re

. to gether and produces ill stronger effect Almost any n um ber of ani ts can be' overt ap ped or 81.'ranged into i1 few group~, for th e sake of sl fnpHfl .. cation. This was explained in some detail in the hut c hapte.r .

.. ~ ever put a head or an y thing else of imporranee in the exact center of a picture, Drop it, Uft it, or pl ace it 'to one 'sid~. Center p] acement is particularly disturbing: and irrltadng' in a, portrait, A head so placed is like the center point of aL target: the eye is held there a lmost 'by "force and has difficulty ill settHng elsewhere -. In additlun to this it gives the Im pression that the figure h So S 's,Hpped down and is, 8 bout to Iall our of the frame. Make ~11e. spaces around the head unequal in three direetions=-upward, and to each side,

One more d on ~ L In a portrai l! never p] ace head and. shoulders so' they face the viewer sq ualely . 'More often than not, this will rna ke the subject

ook as if he were 'facing a ftri n g squad, or posing for a. ,P assport picture. Wh i ~ e this seems obvious, failure to re'COIJfi ~'z_e' it aOCGiltvnu. fo'r many 'bad p ortraits,

I believe a great deal can. be accomplished in design .~ f we fi s~ tty to anal)' ze the feeling that a. subject gtves ·US, for in creating a painting both

d Ai 'I,' • J T~- '1..

mooc ane atmosphere are 'Very lmp.ort3l:o.··.,JJ: tne·

subject is serene, we emphasize horizontal-lines, and quiet ~ clear ector, _if it is exci t1.1!1g~ we employ

sweeping eu 1/,es; big funus, .and eon trastin g, c~~;~~I tb¢ sub ject is one ,01 coul9.at;..,and confu- 8i~n. then we Use bold strokes at opposing angles, spearllke shapes, nnd a dramatk, juxtaposition ,of co1orZl.

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In composition, the j ~ S~ I line ~ er :re..v.~er.se c ur_~e:t

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is a useful device when sheer 'b~a:U!ty is our ob jec-

tive .. · It is perhaps the most be:audfu] of"'rrU lines, suggesting beth g.ra~e and rhythmlc. ~:11 ove:~lle.!! __ at, the same time. 'It flow::i in gentle rather tns ..... -......,_z rapid motion. Nothin,g tn art D]OVt1"i as last as a str.a,lgh! line. Even the. llne an arrow transcribes in the air as it leads to a. target is curved, and an arrow s speed is a bou t the maxi mum speed the ,eye can follow, Any[hing of fa ster speed ~ such as a bullet" Is too Iast,

The .modern school is continually talking about e rnctinnal impact I but this can also exi st 'j n realistic art. Line has mood and emotion; so have shapes, colors, and values ~ 'apstrl from the literal .. W'e are daH)]'" affected, by these, somerlrnes consciously, sometimes subconsclously ~ It is my be .. Bef' that the g ra y 'walls ofa prison a re punishmen t in themselves, Man w'Quld go mad withou t sunl~'g h t and color, To me, !jTa.y~ is . .a:.~~o.cLated wlth d.ea,th-nu~, rot tmg bee trunk. and mold; gr.ay IS at once all colors mixed together and. the absence of all those colors. It is omi neus, like a. leaden sky ant! wa ter, Yet .gray exi iUS in nature, and as

a. foil for bdgh't ICO~Or-S there is. nothing to equal it.

It is the most lls,eJul, neutralizer and modifier,

Too much of any one color is unattraeti ve, and nature teaches as bow to balance one with am .. , other, Warm colors are o.ffset by the 000], ],tl S~ as, heat is relieved by cold. We. 0 n Iy begin to know nature when we 'beg] I1i to understand the balance of g.r,owth a n d erosion, lhfc and death. Ibe gre~test be,~uty in pabltlug comes from thb~ elusive and, subt le balance of .forc~~~-

B,aJan:.ce,.dn a picture can be :em0:eauid as, wen ,a s stiilClnt'a.L- This completeness seems most beaudful when contrasted in some wa~f' with inconlple ten,es!b. ~rower rio a tompositiQ&-~:sr gJ:eatest when bold" lines ate 'eontrasted with. ,tlJin .. M' .:u.a-

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Th'~' Fish K'ile b,Y·: obert V·· ckrey MlD'J10WN' O\i!tL'~ERmS, N 'W ''fiOkK CITY,. Detail. b . comes mO~e iJlmr~1.mg 'when a plcuwe also comtams simple, broad!'y' :p;ainte.~. areas

mLshed ones. Color is most effective wben brillianee .~s billl~anced by q,uie~ colors.Detasl becomes more Jnterestmg when a P]CUJ e ,al '. contains shup,I,e.,,- broadly painted areas+ Form '8, mol' OO'I1t'Y]n,c:i ng ~'Ji,~ he n there j s a sen se lof unde rely] ng str uct U re. A nd so on,

,"'e must ,g]''Ve equally S'C,!:'iOllS attention ~,O character and ways of d epicti ng 'I L 'C hara c ter she uld be expressed in the simplest ]:HJ~i,b~e terms : otherwise its, force will be lost, f superficial de tail is need ._., 'to portray the' character of __ subject. them the d me req ui red '[0 add .', c~ deta iJ ], we I spen'[. B,trt 'i~' -- trueture i. the maln theme, [hen overly deaailed surface decoration wiH tend to detract born rather than add to the main cbaracterisnc we wish to portray", The ebaracter of an an,]maJJI

can be conveyed betn 'Ii through the lines of its body., ~t graceful movement I[han. by the most exact duplication ,of its fur or markings, A tree is better represeme by its Jines o· growth, wts st I!Jggle against Ithe elements, its spacin.g and proportions, th .. n by emphasis on the outlines of individual leaves or the markings of bark. While such details are essential in dn:: illustration of ,a field guide book, they hamper the freedom of. st '1]e necessa r_y :i n the exec ut ion ,of a pa:i n t~ng. Where an illustrator's job is [0 be photographiea.H.y correct as to detail an .. rtist's search for character goes. deeper,

Feeling can oe expressed better in realistic an than i~ can in abstract painting, for the latter :i , .. j,ar,g,el.) an iniell crual affawr. Til. re is " "feel"

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A tree ,is, ootter- represested by its, lines [of gtllri,;. mm struggle BlUME the eilemclr.tsll t'ts ~paomg and proporttons, than 'by emphasis en tle oru.t1lm,es. of imdJividua;- :[lcar,ve,s or 'the iDlatk:i.ng,s of batk

D:&~IGN

,about evclJ thing, even the time ,oif day. Early

'r.nonringt. middla Y I' 'twilight; in each we lind n. very .~~(lln)er-iI\"I','t' , character of Hght and shadow, tone and co11or. It is hard to define the point at whlcho ur ,amillysis of sucf things Jeavcs off' and our erno-

tIneal reaction 'begiDs~ Both enter into the artist's . conception _JJl ,~ .. ,cy .event, itjs :impoftant that the ftelin_g . of the, subject be conveyed to th e viewer,

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_1!g:b,t a:nil color have much to do, 'with convcylng

"it~ des]gn, and cbaraeter still more, and 'e,m oti on, .~ I think, however we express it, mas t o,f all, I

It is one thing to copy nature, and quite another to express her in, our paintings, By' thinking ln big terms and 'by usin g big masses it 11 d P lanes ln a free, uninhibited rnsnn er the artist can express himself and the ~~feer~ ,of things most vividly.

J~~g truths can be 9b~cUJred by many se,p,Q,rate little ones .if we allow the unin; p~ottant tOIJJ',~Jn the

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'~ppeI' hand, The big truths in it landsca pe,;' SU[r(Jy ~ are that the SIBI is shining, ~'hat the shadows reve a [

I a .blue sky overhead, that there is atmosphere ~tweeB you and that distant tree, that the. soil is ricb.. beneath the vegetatiQ:~! that it. ~S, a certain. time Qf day and a certain, time of the .y;ear. It does .no~: .:llJa~ter;.. how m:a:rry trees '011' 'ft:(fwer:9 or blades

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,of grass there are, 'for their pr,esence, en ma sse,

can only be s.ugges'ted in a representa tlon of a landscape.

I ,speak of these Uhings here because composidon and design canne t, be governed by bard Q..nd fast rules. Wi'[llOUt. b]ve.ntiven~s~~ certain amou nt of itJ a t least=-and without :f~ling, 'which

also cannot be governed by' rules, our efforts rue Hkc]:y to produce an externally factual pa,ulting w Itho U:Jl spirit,

I .pef'~on a llry consider de.sl'gn more lmporram than ]dea or subject, H we think .nong eJ.lol1gh and hard enough, almost any subject can 'be made into an 111lterestblg design. ,\Ve ,111ay create the. de. sign, by placement j by pat tern. or value, by line and movement, by tonal key and color, And within rne IQ utlines Q,1 cur design we add the in rrinslc character of the thing' 'we are painting'.

There has been considerable r(~ffort to reduce design to a system of mathematics. There. are theor ies of d.ynarnk 1::lYIUIUt;lty and books on the 8U hj ect, And while ~uch stud y can be ,helpful ~ there can be no substitute for ~he deep analysis of na t ure itself. There we find. design. based U.pOD, purpose and function. Fish move through water I birds through the air, and the design of their bod] ies is admir Ii bly adapted, to t~i s purpose.. T he, design. of 've.:getation also r.esu]ts 'fr01TI its way Q:f. life.

Once in a life class George Bridguutn said to me, "~y boy, Y(HJ have drawn a.,kg~ but you have missed the design of the leg," \Vllal. he meant was til at every 'part is related in size and position t-o the Iu notion oi' '[he leg; The 'bones are curved and of certain ~eJ1gth to function together" and the muscles too are positioned for the 'most efficient operation, Where the movement req ulres most S t:rength~such as in the calf of a leg ............ there is the ,~a~gest development, Th is Is des]gn;

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VI P~RO"""'P'O"'R- rIO' 'N

,t~ ,,::.: ,', ,,': ':'"""""_,1,,, '_

Alth ough proportion hi: reb. ted to de!=.ig n ~ it j s a tangible quality wnlch can be measured and confirmed, 'But there Is more to the "creation" of proportion than simple measurement, Actual plO~ portion can. be measured with certainty - while creative proportion Jnust 'be accomplished by individual experiment and taste,

Proportion is u su ally measu red by the simple use of a graph in one 'form or another. W'e "scale" proportions one to another as they fall within the graph, Whether the method IS simple measurement by eye, or the use o·f a. scaled eleva t ion, a s in erchitectural and mechanical drawing, the same principle is involved,

In measudng three ... dimen sion a] forms, w,e must consider all sides as flat design and then assern ble the rneas urernen t. A house can be, bui it from fla.t d~sign,s of the 'floor plan, basement, and roof i con pied with tlat designs of the: sides or elevations. Perhaps it has not occurred to the artl Sf that he' draws J n exactly the same wa)l. Wl1] le he introduces the- third dimension by the use of perspective, he 18 really making ,8 flflJ[ drawI fig o.f' at silhouette as hi s eye sees it.

To get a, drawing in proportion, 'the artist must establish the In Iddi e points of the horizontal and vertical lines and consider. the beight of 'the subjeet in proportion to the 'width. By outlining- the boundaries ,of. ,his, picture and then by dividing the height at the middle with. I horizontal line and

iI'~ ·d' 11 II.. •• ] • 11' h di . . .41 . L

rne WIt" uy a" simuar v.e~:tlca, me, : e lVlues tne

picture. into four quarters .. s Af"te,[ this he can go

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on to reduce 'the object to eighths and smaller

fractions to help him. reproduce the whole object in propo:r tionate scale,

W'ith a graph. laid over or held in. 'front of an object' we get the proportlonate relationships of a ll the parts, A grsph '~nay be laid out on a piece 0'[ glass and used as a finder, 'to arrive B,t propor~ tions, or the. ordinary type of finder itself may be made to' serve a double purpose by gluing threads across the opening at the middle and G.uarter poi ets of dl e open rectan g;le ..

~ asiest of all, the eye 111 ay be train ed to fin.d the middle point wi 1 hill ,81:o1{ set of con tours by looking along a ~trnigiu edge and marking it Thus the width can be, compared to the heigbt and the. middle points of both. made [0 coincide. Some artists meas ure with. the tnumbnaii held.

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over a brush handle; others make an open square )

with the fingers, or a rectangle 'that. will fit around; . the desired contours, and. ,~udge the relation of

width to heig ,bt in this manner.

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It i 8 f,~Jd Y 'easy to visualize a square, and. build-

ings may be visually measured by noting how ma ny squares would tit into the: area, or w.ha( portion of a square would be required to' fit' . ~.

a round ~t '

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Anothe r very good method of proportioning is .' ...

to draw 'the object the same size you see it" by' sigh tiag horizont a.ll lines [0 'the side of the board ~~~ to take in the' h.eigh~~ and vertical lines to the top

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of the board to take in the. width, (S~e Diagfa-m.)

AU these methods are simply at means of·· . i n.g' at contours, When these are b.locked in, must look, carefully aga.in for structure, We sta

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GRAPH:

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AS SEEN THROUGH GLASS

F' I-cN,····-'D---:.,-·I'N: G-.':-' P··'R,·,··O·-··-:P-'-O-·--:·R·,'T·l'O.·. 'N<i

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A square piece of glass ruled in, squares with a gr-ease pencil <: or eye brow pencil) Is a useful instrument. for determining the proportions of a landscape or object. View your subject through the glass=with one

e-'y··-;:.='~n-·- d n ote W' -'h-A-r,ilOlli the divisions (see

- I lp' a .. _._ ..... _~ .. ·._~.LW' .llJ.-. . ," ._g~ . '.a .. Ii.']j~

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dots in center dra'wing) :f'u.lil j, Spaces be-

tween the contours are as important as. the ; contours themselves, As you train your I eyes this device will become unnecessary; meanwhile it offers a way of learning to see contours and shapes in relation to one another and to the whole, With 'this, glass you, can also check, your finished drawing 'with the aetna] sub ject before you. I

Also try to learn 'to gee' all parts without using a glass. Imagine squares surrounding the rna in objects of details of the design.

THE EYE OF

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,HE P1AINTER

TRAlNING THE EYE FOR

P'RO,PORT,ON

Set down two points to indicate height of the ob ject I' Measure the width and COlD, .. pare with the height (point W) '" Indicate the width at half-point of tile height. (AB) ~ This gives th e mid -point of the rectangle which surrounds the object (--). Di ... vide the height and width into fourths ( ) ., Make a mental note of 'how such

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down the general shapes in block, form within the, over .. all rectangle, Now look for important points or fea tares that oppose one another on both the horizontal and the, vertical planes and note their re .. lationships .. Then fill ln the contours between these points.

In simple terms you are training your

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eye to see the rectangle into 'which, the

object yo·u are drawing fitsjj Is, it longer, lor is, it shorter, than a square 1: Is: the height greater or less than the width, and how much? Where is the middle line-up and down or crossways? Where are the quarter-points? What points are opposite? How do they fall benea th each other'?

['.' .. _··· ...... '1 mass alone and ~an look for 'form within the tour" In pam.ting them is always the danger of being so much concerned with Q'lIl.tU ne and con. tour that W~ do not take in. the qualllity of the; lonD. and character uf the edges. 'V·e are af'nlid to let _ ilo of them as limits of the form, and fail to see ; ·that the. form merges with other forms.

To return fo[ a moment to the dilIerences -between dill wing and painting (discussed in an

earlier chapter), in drawing we usually see th,mgs

.• ,sin.gly ~ in outline; while in making a 'painting 'we concentrate more on. g,ou.ps of ob~octs and colors, noting what each thing does in me whole elect Q.f til e picture, Are there shadows? Do some 'pa.rts of an object stand aut in contrast to. the en vironmen t 1 Does a P art of the surface form melt Into Iud become closely assn ci a ted. with 'the shadow? Does part o,f it seem to disappear altogether? TIlese things arc of great concern 'to us when. we paint.

J]} dr~'wing on a. whi~e surface we are na turan.y concerned with the outlines as ~bey m 1!lst a:ppear on white, but 'we cannot transpose these edges to iIJ. painting, W'fti must consider what other elements in. the painting would affect the object and how. We must be sure of the liihtlng and. its direction, and camid.er the possibility of the object's giving off or receiving reflected light. Of great hnportance are the values, which must be consistent

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'with other values, and color t w'hich must be CODsisten t wi th other color,

When. material for a pict ure is g.'~thered. Irom several diifere,nt sources and objects [are aIran.ge.~ wi mout considera don of basic relation ships, there is. an obvlcus lac.k of unity, We sec th is often 'in commercial art, Every student should make a practice of painting subjects whiqb. be can set up as a whole, and at" stud yi ng nature outdoors, where 'he can see what oneness means, and learn. how to reprod nee it.[

In commercial wor·· fills is not always possible; nevertheless the man 'who has. experience in painting from life wUI be equipped to do a much better job of integration, He will be able to paint a

properly unified picture inst&lWd of making a gr.ap'hic catalogue of objects within a given area,

111 considering proportion m abstract art we face quite a. dillerent situation, Here the artist .] 5 a ttempting to do something w bicb cannot. be done with rreaJ istio proportion.

Suppese he comes upon a scene vthich he wishes to interpret 'in an abstract design, De sign then is his. moull} and he .is IliO'! interested in p.nJ~ portion, perspective, or 'the third dimension, but only in form, as it. contrl butes to design, and in values without regard to space or their relationship to one another. By eiim in a ting so .many of tn .. e eleme-nts at: beauty, he actually gives. himself a toughe.r job than. the realistle artist has to. face . . H·e is likely to be guided. by the thingti. he. feels rather than the ~birng~ he sees,

Van G,ogh.~wh-o:se work. is o.nly semi-realistic, must have approached his :~ubj ects in this way. It is certain tha t this Dutch ard~t sacrificed much to the thiQg ilia t seemed to enthrall him most->vibrating color + And, like all artists, Van G{lg" was much more successful at some times than at others, He maintained eD,gu,gh proportion and dra wing to make 'his subjects recognizable, and. his manner of' (educing form . 0 Images painted In bold, flat strokes results '~n paintings. with. a strong decuratlve quality, It wIU ever remain a q.nestion whether better diavlill.g and proportion woul,a ha ve contributed, anytldng more to' his canvases ~o.r~ indeed, to the popularity of' his work. My own Qpinion is that with accurate draltemanship much of 11 is '1ndividu~US1n would have been Jost ..

Accurate proportions alone do not make art: they must. be associated with fine value, color, Slid. design. Similarly I Inaccurate proportions do. not necessarily make bad art, We find pit1Jn'tlngs in wh ich the dIawin,g i s distorted and unacademic and yet the work sti 11 q. ualifles es art, The point ,:.s that at [ is [lot entirely dependent on draw ing:+

Some of the great draftsmen 'were great only as draftsmen, and their pai n tings added l ittle or nothing to their stature, DUrer was essentially a

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THE, 'EYE 'OF THE PAIN"TER

THE GRAPH

Nothing has. ever ex celled the g-raph as a means of locating contours and points, It is really a two-dimensional 'procedure superimposed upon a fiat. image. It. can be applied as a mental or actual means of stating graphically the re- 1 ati onshi p of' parts,

Through the in vention of a graph tha t wou ld cover a sphere, man has been enabled to define all the areas of the earth, as well as any spot in an area, by maps,

It becomes a most valuable. asset to the artist and. draftsman wherever accurate drawing is needed,

The eye can. be. trained to see a menta 1 graph in front of any object or scene. There- is always a middle line. and. also proportionate divislons that can be used as. a. guide to ace ura te rendering,

Almost anyone could draw the accompany. .ing obj ec ts by lirst fa ying au t the proportiona te 8.~ra phs. He could enlarge or reduce the dra wing by choice, by s ~ mply holding' the pro .. portions. of the. over-all rectangle,

Since it is easy to sec any square, all rectangles can be mentally compared to a square and the variation noted, The rectangle can then be divided as. needed,

TO .. FIND THE RECT1ANG.LB

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Block in the four q uarters, 'Next block in " ' the angles as 'lh ey fall within the quarters, Now place Im portant points in the contours, in rela-

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, '~;; tion to the angles. and also to the quarter points.

, It is easier thus to locate a point in, a smaller portion of the 0 b j ect than to guess where '~t is in , tela. tion to the who le 0 b j ect,

This is a method 'of: teaching the eye to .111eaSme and to', see areas as they are related, 'to each other. Soon you learn to see with amazing accuracy ~ The eye will a utom atically look for the enclosing block and big shapes, Thi s is the

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Tile same method applies to any shape, 'Here a taller and narrower tree has 'been blocked out

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in, similar fashion.

'MENTAL IMAG:E

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PRQ,PO:RTIONS The use of a sq uare also helps grea tIl' in arriving' at the proportions 0,' archltectural objects. In. this drawing it was found that 'the church, nearly fitted in to a square. The tower was about one .. fourt-h the width of [be square, touching the middle line. The rest: 0:£ the church fell just under the middle of '[be square" The tower shows about .3 squares of facing and. the roof about 2~ squares, the units of the roof being just ,1. little smaller than the tower units, The smaller buildings were drawn. in proportion to 'the church. 'The close building was a bout it square and a quarter' high. The width was determined by comparison with 'the tower, being

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'. ftsman, whereas Van Gogh and the hnpreei sts were gli~t colorists, their drawing having

1] ule to do with thesuccess of their wor k . 'It is not fila t a generation. will 'produce a. man who excels in every department of art! or one who prod u ces work ha v]ng. a.1 i, the combi ned e'l emerits , of beauty. Da Vinci was remarkable in this re-

s.pectJ and so of course 'W~S Michelangelo, whose paintings and sculptures were equally masterful. When we understand this W~ can have a g:rea t deal more tolerance than most of. us have at th e start for all art.

'We usually find that when 8J man Is stimulated

If' by the love (,f certain aspeers of life, he becomes proficient in, presenting these, In the popular field there is the English artist ,A., J, Munniags, whose IHlindngs of horses ha V~ brought him interna-

tional Iarnc, ,M unnings became popular not only beca use 01 his know ledge of horses but because of his ability to put. his horses into a ~ettin,g with total relationship and understand i ng:~ ill the same light, with the same good observa don Huou,gljjo'liJt the picture. Th ere: ha ve been many painters of horses, hut I ktH1W of none ill ~bis. century who could, ,pai nt them and thelr surroundings quite so we'll. On the otJ1JC,[ hand, artists like Degas and, Ma net ~ in the last century" made m.arny studies of the racetr ack in a far ]i velier style than M unnlngs' .

Dufy t- in this cen ttu'y ~I has fu rthered the impressionist tr adition, Modern artists dra \v for expression and accen tuation of poignant laces and the result ca n be bener than if: they stuck entirely to the actual. Their 'work. departs from "photographic" representation, In '[his respect, .it has al'way~ been ~ny COli te;ution that proportion appears to our two eyes quite diffe:rently from, the 'way it appears to the single lens of the camera, Certai niy the camera distorts con sidera'bly when it ITS too close to' an object.

An exce I ~ en t 'way to. d fa w is '[0 Blake a most careful d rawi ng, in as true pl"O:po'tl iuns as-possible, then make a second dl~a,wiIl.g Irom the fir~t, in-

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stead of !l"oing·. back to life. In the second drawinz

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we 'try to get the; essence of the ji:rst~ taking liber-

ties in the streamlining 1)[ the contours, adding blockiness to forms that seem too round, tl att en - ing' forms to prod ace more design, changing the proportions ']f we thi nk we can make them 'more expressive" Above all, we can eliminate, much inS1 gnlfican t deta il and stress simplici ty ,.

If you. are 'Using a photogra ph, instead of work-; \

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iii1g directly from it to the painting make your

own dr a wings from th e photo g [~,ph 'first and 'work trom them, In this way you are co rrying your own individuality into the paintlng rather than merely d u plica ting the photograph. If you need to refer to the photograph to check. values or other details, it is there to help you", But by making ,8, free Interpreta tion ~ 1h8J sed em. the. im ag~s in the photo,gr aph, you win get a better picture than you would by slavisbly copying eve'ry~hi,n,g the photogr,m,ph show'S.

The w,ay you, draw characterizes your work. It is one of 'its chief means of identifica t ion, and, h as positi ve value for you and for no one else, For this. reason, if. for no other, ,it i~ foo lish to allow anothe r arti st' S style of drawing to influence yOll too much; Dra,wing continually from photographs can be- cquaAly bad, If you draw from Ufe 'the chances are that youI' work w HI contain much more indi vid uali ~y th an it ever w i11 if you use ready-made drawings 01" paintings from 'W hich proportions can be traced and copied. exactl y .

A drawing or painting is often man'! interesting when parts are left unf nished; when certain, details are: merely :suggested by a few pencil or brush strokes, The de-tall and ft'n-i:s1'l in the other areas will sta nd out ,]n fine contrast,

A ,ffUU~,Cy to which nu~ny artists subscribe is tha [ a thing .]11 tIS'[ be depicted so because 1 t is, so.

If thi Ii:' were necessa nl ~ ,I, ''1;L~O~ rld depr] "'.fO=> 'U'IZ' all

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from using any imagination. Truth can be dramatized, made simpler. ~ glorified I and Interpreted according '~O individual apprecia tion. The good. writer does this all the time, He sticks to' ess"entitl'l

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M:arn'e or N'a,r.eut b:y R.IOt1)] D'l1 ,Y'~ BIGNOU G,A LER,Y'~ ,N~EW YORK. C~.TY,. ,Do'~y:! mUds century, ~as furth,e1'le.{i. the imPfe8S[OniS.t tradition

93

truth, bu t expresses it in his own terms, Te be outstanding the painter must strl ve to do the same tlling. He Vol ill never stir up, much commotion if he paints the ObVloUI) in the obvious manner. People are not interested in reproductions of wh at they can see for themselves 'with their Q\Vl1 eyes. Or if they are. then the, ch ances are they won ld rather look at photographs, which arc like1)! to be more accurate,

We should think about proportion-e-and dra w ~ ing a's a whole-e-in the broadest possi b le terms, 'making it expressive rather tha n completely au thentic,

The charm, of certa i n C9J~t.OO:n8:; especially some 0[' the television commercia ls, lies in. expressi 'lieness TiEL ther than ill realism The cartoonist would be hope less] y f08~ ,if such li bcrties were denied him When the cartoontsi uses too much realism. the flavor and. essence of hi 50 art is usually lost, and the result is commonplace and boring,

We must therefore consider d,ra\ving and. pro~ portion as a means of expression rather than as: a blueprin t of nature, How we see 1thit1gS and how 'intere-:stingly we can draw will mean U1.UCh. rUOIe, to the viewer than how accurately we can draw. Seeing ,a.ccura,cy in .fUn the ob] ects abo u t him, the 'viewer is much more lik~ly to be 'interested, in the 1:] nseen rhlngs, the qualities that he has never before auribueed to 'the common place,

Onl y the artist himself can 'be th e judge of how much. 'to distort; how far hom. the exact to go to. stress the theme or spirit olf the' painting; 0111y he can gauge the dividing' Iine between expressi veness and. crudity.

Every artist must develop th e ability to draw accura tely and well; then, III e ~nay te.nlpcr his know I edge to what seems best and most pleasing to him, Distortion that appea'is in ;~D! artist' s work because he is unable to dra w better 'has a 'way of showing H,]?,. and. it is seldom expressive. or inspirjug. To be deliberate in distoreion takes a great drattsman,

El Greco lens thened his figuree purposely to stress his '1110,C01]. ventional designs. :Michela'n g,e,lo

crea ted hereie figures, etn,01i.'mOiUS of chest, nltl:Scle~ and body l as forcible symbols .Qf man, Degas stressed the undernourished Inli Ity of some, of his little dancers. Da umier 'went a] I, aut to por tray character. And the ,ex.am,ples of pnrposcful distortion in modern art are endless;

J11. 'most draftsmanship 'W(~ sense a search for the ideal. Even. these artists who make ,3 practice of e1nployi:ng dis torticn tend to correct w 11 at th~y see in the direction of ideali zation. We wonder if the models who posed for Sargent al ways had the beautiful bodies we see in his portraits, Perhaps 'hi ~ i dealiza tion a econnted rOt his extreme popnla r~ ty. H]s, 'work. brought much criticism from the: ultra- realists for I~ld s reason, 'My feeling is that Sargen t Idealized through his innate love 0" ,perfection ~ [0 make his portraits glorified interpretations of women. in general, Some. of the portraits dune by his contemporaries wi til g:ren t fidelity t o life seem, Father ordina ry by comparison, Most o.f Sargent~s si tters probab Iy are no longer alive, but the glori fled ,in terpretation still carries. its original ch arm, Was it not better mOl' time to pl'e.se[ve the bea uty 0'£ his era tha n i is, H [era] fact?

The danger in 1-00 m ueh idealiza ti on ,! of course, Js "prettiness, H against which much or' th e revolt of modern. art is directed" Idealixation often ,pl"O~ vokes the accusation of i nsincerity, Bu t does not the crux of til e ma tter lie in whether the actual en aracter of t be subject has enough in terest in :its;elf? If flL[J accurate portrayal 'would be insignif'lean t~ then, there ~CUl S to be 'no harm in. the artist's effort to make a more interesnng paint,Eng. R.ed.e~dgtl,ing'~ shnp lifte arion i' charactsriza tion t even idealization seem warranted. In Sarg:enfs defense let us say th at he \~~l,8:S per:b~ps fa ~ more interested in the 'inherent bfH1U ty of rua can vas rh an in the beauty of his :d tter, If this is a crime, the alternative is to preserve the Q.rdinal'[Y,.

We must decide ill our QW[J, minds whether art should. be: a t hi ng of' beauty, 1:( we think so. we must see It to understand what elemen ts eontribute to, bea uty, 'We 1'11 US! dec]d~ 'whether the thi n,g we are: attempting Is to be crea tive or. merely to

THE ,EYE, OF THE P,AINTER

94

,The iV',irgi"';: 'wUh S{j',iJiU' tnes a~td S~inl Te>e,';(J (deta .. JO by El G1iaeO:l 'NAl'IONAL. OALL'~RY O:f ART.,~ WASH:I:NGiON D. e, E1 [Greco lea,g,(hened his 6gYR~s purposely to stress his uuconventlcnal de.slgns

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Tlut HI ~ndhQm SiSl'fH'S by J'ollln Singer S rgent, 'rEt· ME;TROPOll1'AN MUSEUM Of ARt. . EW YORK cr . '. Wfi!: WQ]!Uh!l" jf [he models 'who posed for Sargent aWw,a:y.s. had ~[1;(~ beaudful 'bodies w'e seein his portra its, Perhaps bjs jdea'l'i2~tlomJ aCCOUJDted (or h IS extreme popularity

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THE 'EYE OF THE PAINTER.

make a. statement of 'fa,ct~ whether we can. blend creativeness with fact. Shan we draw as we 'see or as we f,eel? What is there a bout the subject that W~ can s'tr.ei~r? What can 'we suberdiaate and, swm,piify elsewhere to make ~lun particular quality stand auf? How can we design ou r subject? Wha'[ sball we omit and what shall we keep? S·h.nU we make it a compos! lion. of close values and. qu iet 'beauty Of' shall we dramatize it with brillia nt

,~ ~ _, color and contrast?

Wha:t can we tb ink of in 'the w,ay of' technique or texture to make it unusual? Have we chosen a suhj ect that has a fly in terest in itselt outside. lot the. exeeu tien '] Have we experimented with sketches for dlHlersnt interpretations? Have we experl mented with the drawing and. proportions or with the form to make it more vital? Have we considered the subject as a decoratien? Are we maklng just one mare example of: something 'we have done before l' Is there enough interest and inspiration in the sUbj;e.ct to make 1.. s anxious to: work 011 it? Most of a1:1~ wHI the picture stand on its own feet, scM-Bustaj ni ng as. to its moHr and completeness. or must it forever be explained"

Tbese are the questions that the objective, painter Inay ask him s elf, and the answers :mevitably lend to more, crea ti veness, Let us. remember that a landsc aJpe need: not be, an au then tic. statement ,of locale. 'Leave tha E to the camera. A portrait nuny wen be an expression 'of a per,· sonali ty rather than a l~ ig~ll.y accura te likeness! A still life may be an opporturrdty to express light form, and color in design j 'father than a replica of actual objects, In 'the same way any subj ect luay be the. vehicle for the in terpretation of ligb t, atmospbere, form, or color, or simply the means 1[0 SOUle son of striking and un usual desi gn ~ The creati veness expressed a]y,ra ys means more to art than the nut teri aJ used to express iL

Proportion is closely related 'to rhythm, It is rel~ted. to design, to character, and to unIty. Thereflare let us try to establish these relationships where ver our : ngenu ity can do SQ., Wben, we consider proportion we ShDU]d approach ,~t from all.

,angles be'£ore we accept it u so just becau.se it 18 so.

We may say that I'ew.~im cannot 'be 'paint~d, with 0 u.t truth, 'but then w'~y not lenJarge Our understandlng 0:1 truth 1 'The truth is. there to help us to greater tru th, not tQJ hinder us by the. fear 'of deviating Irom it. FIr/in my point of view, be.nu,'Ij' should be the yardstick by which the artist mea&ures truth, Pictures do :nOI ha'v€ as a reason ,for their existence the verification ()f truth; they should be painted to ext-end beauty in life and to life .. Naturally Dot all 'truth is beautiful; sordid. ness. and. ugliin.e~s exist. W,e m,3Y choose to p aint them in order to call attention to them, but tJna.t is quite a d.itIe.rent D atter, Many artists have painted ugliness me,r.ely as a ,pro~e;4.t ag,ainst some particular society that pcrpe't.r,lted it! j ust as Dickens wrote books to call attention t.O certain social injustices of his time. 'This may result ]ll great art, but such works are. destined for the museum rather than as decorations for; the livingroom wall,

It is nly conten tion that the artist iedlin,g beauty will 'find it and develop it, We all possess it in some degree. and it enlarges and develops by contact I cannot believe anyone 'would try to bee orne. an artist unless he had SOUtC beauty in his soul that he wan ted to ex.press. And whether this expression rakes the '[0' -]U elf realistic or a bstract representation is a matter of personal taste,

In the actual laying of patnt, which means setting down the ma.sst:!~", real i stic and a bstraet art start out in much the S8,qU:: 'W,fJlY ~ The masses are painted ftady,~ and while doing this the artist makes a. sort of abstraction of the subject to bcgi n witll.. 111 s.om~ examples of abstract art the artist goes V~l'y Iittle further ~ he makes this su.gge~tio[l of fOI]11, Then he adds a few Unesl. accents, and hig'hligh'lS, Often he merely lays a s]k{:lchy outline drawing over the tOJ'lles of the masses ~ wi thout concern that the tone stop ,at the outline unless he speelfically wants it to, There is '0.0 reason why the objective p0J.[n ter m aty not use the same method, or at least borrow the idea, The degree

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P,ROPO:RTION'

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THE SAME SUBJECT ARRANGE'D IN DIFFERENT' PRO'PORTIONS

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The drawings above show how the same pictorial materials may be. arranged 'to fit proportionately into pictures of differ." ent sha pes, Di vide the area in to sq uares, Now align the pictorial man ,er with these divisions. 'Your eye 'will tell you when 'to use the. lines or the spaces, Do not use the proportion of two. 'to four, since this results in. equal spacing, which generally is not good in any but very formal com position. Four to f our and five to seven usually seem to work out 'best

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TI:.JE EY'E 0"" F ~ 'p' A" IN' T"E'=R'

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C ear y" e,,, ne, , lS t e "eg.roo 1,0 W , c- . I, an artist ,]:1';

I' deed t.. ~. - ", .-

JUl .. geu as an abstract or reansnc painter.

Abst 11';;11 c0,j" art is V""~ In !ill' - I(t·, ha s hardly' h ad time to.

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develop rules, methods, and formula ~ and the

F,dn cipl es used in beJaching ill; pIC)ba.blyr'slate

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cl:ueuy to - ividing space; :secunng va auee, and

employing barmenious colors, These basic principles are, common to all forms of pain ting ,8J.nd design.

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The poln t is tha t 'W~ do not: b 1'4Y fdutdcs and tints and variations of: color: we prod nee tn,em on ! our: paJ.ett~ from basic 'p:r.imaries. 'W e actually deal with. red, yeUow, and. blue, and possi bly a 'few earth colors and 'black to tDne them, 'or 'raise or lower the-m in value lhod. 'in.tensi.ty ~

'The oldy thi ng we need to know at the color caun ter is to avoid buying colors that wUI not mix chemically. Chromes, and le~.d colors are dangerous when not. properly mixed, since chemical reactions take place. in. the mixture. Lead w hites discolor in time, especially 'whe11 mixed 'with other color. They can a lso :proo nee lead poisoning ~n people allergic to lead. These problems are avoided by simpi~y bu.yiD,g Zinc Wlli~e or

p)fi tanium WW.te and mixing it 'i)nly with cad= mi ums and colors listed ,SIl.S permanent, Linseed oil has a tendency to yeUow. Ei ther turpenti ne or poppy 011; with a li tile retouch or dammar var-

. nish 'for faster drying, is ,3[1 excellen t medmum.

Most pictures can be pi ill ted with 3, tube of red, one oJ yellow ~ one of blue, one tCfD.~~g ftg~n t that is warm, such as burnt sienna or 'burnt umber, and another that .is eool, such as black or

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lect depends more 1)Il. the gtJ.bj eet than on the

name of the color.

A, 'Full palette contains a warm. and coo] of each primary, p1 us toners, A. wa rm yellow IS till yeUow' that leans toward orange 01' red, such as, cadmium yellow or cadmium medium yellow, A cool yellow lea us toward g,reeJ11 ,aJ So does cadmium

sale r cad . __ L_ -- lemon A' 'W,"'fn- i",]' '11, .

, p_. c Of CQ:...IJf1uun ,_,lon. .~ > & __ OJ1 'Ii) ,ue . .lJe;i1tllS C(J-

ward green, as, cerulean bh-te'I.' n nd. the co bal-us. A

101

Pethap~ the grea test pro,~reoss art nas made thl'otl,gh the ages 'has 'been. in. the better understalIlCUng and use of. color. Color i~~ one element of 'beauty Iha ~ stands on i ts awn. When it is com .. , bined 'with design, the resulr can stand alone as art, without adding anything else . But color added to an the, other elements of bean ly Jifts beauty to its highest peak,

Pictorially, value, more than anything else, cOOittij·ls color ~

Color cannot be g,ood, or correct :pictor.iaUy unless it has close and correct associildon w,ltb ~;t] u '. Bve:ry ,pict~tial color must take i ts ,~H~oper place in the v alue scale, w'ilich ranges from the ligh test ,light. COl darkest dark in any picture, It must belong to the "key" of the subject in or-oef to :fi t. within the chosen ranie of values, Key and ra.nge are discussed ]11 Chatpt.er Eleven, but, before 'we get to th a t poinr, there "is m uch to be explained about ;-';0-10-'"

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The colors o:f ~he :pain is we ge~ ,ErQIIl the art S~(]De bear little ur no rela!Jtionshlp one, to another. We- can buy in tubes and. j.~,t~ a. g:r~:at as:S0(1111ent of colors that are quite bea utiful when laid out on the palette. These give Us a very wide range Ior choice and mixture, but unfortunately 'Unit)", relationship, and 'harmony of color in a picture are not achieved that way.

When the, artist i.~ ~taJl,ding in the art store selecting among these tubes with their 'lntdguing names, he h as no way of knowing JIUSt. what the, ton es aJ1G color of h. is 'next. sub] ect will be. 0.1 a. large (;O.Ue ction o,f various colors om ly a few :m ay

ever be u I!1Jdd

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THE E'YE. OF T.HB :P,AIN'tER,

'coo] blue. leans tow ard violet, ·M 'W tramarine blue or per,m anen t blue, In the reds! cadrn lum ted or Ind ian red is warm j, Alizarin Crimson or Crimson Lake ~ cool.

..... his means 'two. reds! two yellows, and two blues, Yellow' ochre is teally' a low-toned yellow I and may be used in flesh tones and warm gra ys, J .S urnt sienna maybe ,ad ded to the yellow,s! reds ~

(and oran ges 'to lower them in 'val ue and retain their briUi9JfiCY. Black has 3. tendency to neu tralize the warm. colors, but will. lower the coo] colors the bl ues, greens, and violets, without de, SUQyiDg' the. ide.nti ty of the color ~

The greatest mistake in, color, and one that causes lack of unirty and harmony, usually results from having too many 0.01001 on the pp lettc,

W\L .. 0.." " .... j.jI !I::'''''' .... onda nil colors ;j,'I!.;.:!!i; grnEi.n~ o!i"a'lg''''H'' JL1C:..~ I,.l~~ ia~w' " . "iii, J' ~., ,;I;. . ~ '.~II! ILtl,~ [': ,~ L3; :'.1.. ': ~:~~1~

and v]ole-ts,~ are mixed from the, primaries on th~ palette, a rela ticnship is esta b]ished. I t is better not to buy EIl,n arra.y nrr greens Of' violets. Cadmium orange, however, is rela too to' cadmium red or cadmi urn yellow, since they are ground from the same pigment,

With a palette set up. with a warm and cool of each primary, plus white and the. toning' colors practically arty. color or tint of color Inay be mixed, Any shade o:f every color in the Iight and dark. scales can be obtained. And color may 'be neutralized to prod nee any grray 'in any value,

A picture painted with one of each of the three prim aries w ll I us ually be rOQI'e, harmonious. than one painted wi fob two of each, If all six, colors are used, the picture will be more in tense an d. brilliant, But, strangely enough, the more we know about color, the. fewer colors we use, Great painters usually usc quite simple palettes. When we realize that afl the color evident in some of the. br] i:lia nt color !lim of today spri n g,~ from three dyes we beg in to understand the possibilities. Ihn the en lor to. fiJnl is tr ansparent and is greatly increased in. brilliance by the strong light of the pro] ector, Exc~pt. for transp aren t. wa tcrcolor, the artist. ,s. color is fOI the. D10s.t. part, opaque. The light. we see in a picture is. reflected li,ght~ waat-

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ever the SUU1i.ce, and cannot be M b.:r ill iant as sunlight or. any direct ligh ~.

Colors in almost their pure state, when, laid side. 'by side and, at a. Iittle distance! ,villi mix: to' prod uce ather CQ]Qi'5. in the eye. The difficulty lies in making the values. of these eolors nea,rly ide nti cal, 80 tbat the. effect does .nOl. become ~PDtty and, 'the tonal value of' the. area is mamtained, A pin'k Iaid next to a 'blue of the same

\ value, win produce. a much Jovelier levender color than can be {I brained by mixing red, whlte, and blue on 'the pale tte, A red on d1e warm side can

be' JI n 1!..-I b r» (11· .,1Ij.ll' .~ red F!i'f.'!l the cool sl ~,.~ wi th mu ... ]

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more beautiful e.fflect than e.it.berwould give alone,

All this is known as "broken color." W,e can ~\"" reduce or hgC8ly'" a color by using .~t with its com- 0

plementary color in 'the same value, and intensify

it by using it with a CO~o.[ lyin.g close to it 'On the color whee]. Thus red is toned down by associa t-~ lug .il w ith i 15 oom.p]em en t ; reen, and in tensified by using orange or cooler red in OOn junction with

.i L The same is true of the, other colors: yel low green and ye]]ow orange inle]]'sify yellow ~ blue green and blue violet intensify blue. To neutralize yellow we use violet; tQ neutralize blue, ora nge" But we. must match the values or the effect 'W1U be ~pouy and broken,

For this discovery in the, Ll se of color, Van Gogh perhaps deserves a Httle 1110fe, credit than some other painters J but the who]e group ,0'£ impressionist and postlmpressioeist painters unquestionably made grea t eontrfburions ..

A great deal of experiment is needed eo 'perfect this. method of usmng color. The broken color may be tried out on separate boards before. being laid into the, actual painting.

The best procedure is. to mix 00,101'& on the palette to ,get a tone as close as p.ossi hle in color and va lue to what we SOOr then set down a mass in th i,s tone; Info this neu tralized color we then lay in separately ~ as broken eolor ~ the colors we

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mixed to get this tone, This, which I can We,

second pain ting, our the ugo over. ~ of the 'Original

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It is also 'possible 'to combine these Hlethods, "'here vou have a smooth undersurface P erhans

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a sky, you can paint in your broken color, Where the surface is rough, as in the' fo.~egrOUD1d t you mny drag on the 00],0[ .. Variety of technique in a

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sln,g.e pa mung 1.51 nee 'OD" y 'pemllssl ·.e1' u t, 0: ten

necessary to achieve the manifold textural effects Ilhal nat ure presents. owever th ey must be com .. , bined with care to give 'an all-over effect ,of u ni,ty ~

In planning a picture, Dr when buil,d ]ng u.p an undersurface, it shnuld be planned so that. the shadow areas CErn be painted thinly. You do not wan l a lot of points. or bumpsof ,p~gment s.tick]ng 'old in the shadow area and catching hi,ghUghts,. For ' he. most p,rut rdghly textured palnti,n,g should be used for landscapes, marines, and still lifes, If you are painting fiesh, too much texture (and I speak of it here unly it! relation to color) can

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ne out 0 pi ce,

Color harmony is 'vi tal to the success of any painting, and to understand it 'we must. analyze the possible comblnations Q;f color. Any two uf the three p rimaries-e-rcd ~ yellow ~ and bl ue-s-can be combined to produce one of the' secondaries. Red, and yellow prod uce orange ~ red and blue! purpEe: or violet; yellow and 'blue J ,green! Ora n ge.~, purple or violet, and green are the complements, respectively, of blue, yellow, and red, The 1£1'tiaries ,a rc made 11 P of two parts, of one, 'prjmaty to one part. of another, Two p,arts of red and one 0,( blue give red purple ~ two parts of blue and one of red, blue violet, Red orange is two

d d 11 '~I' tw

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par is rec ano one part ye "ow ~ ~ e ,0\\ or.ange, '0

yellow and one red. Blue green is 'tw,j1 p arts blue and 'One. yeUow ~ yellow green 'two parts yellow and one blue. Tbc·;EH.~ arc ,8J1l pure mixtures,

Now if 'we mix a primary with i ts comp lement we produce brow. n, or aeurrallzec color. This "d 1'1 be the same in each case if the mixture Is equal, Ye llow plus its complement P urple ,E S ,~n reality yellow plus 'red plus bl ue, since p tuple eocslsts of eq ual parts of red and blue. Red plus i 1.5 complement ,green is red plus yellow plus blue, Blue pi us i Is complement orang:e is blue plus 100 plus

masses~ caD. be done either while the area is still wet or after it has dried,

The 'impressionists otten paint.ed their broken color directly onto the be re canvas. If we follow this procedure we ate likely to BUSS the value, that an, undertone or mass will give us. Since values are v,ery difficult to lighten or darken after they have been painted with broken. color ~ I be= .neve the other approach is better ,a~ .a general pr~,ctice., If' 'broken color is to retain its brl ]'I:rance

and 'v.itali~ it has to be len. very much alone, If fbe values are not right, it, is better to serape it out a nd start over, instead cf trying to change the value. he latter procedure is almost sure to

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I npainting 'broken color into a tone, we have '[he advantage of 'the grayer color underneath to enhance and enrich the more brilliant color on top. The undertone helps to hold tt'he broken color together in u~i ty .

If a ca nvas is. to be: varnished, the color c an 00 enriched after it dries by gJazing PU[,e. color / dilu ted, with varnish over the dry color, This can r only 'be. -done :if the whole canvas Is to be var-

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nished; otherwise part of the picture rn a y he. ve a

mat finish, while the glazed color win d[y sbiny." A picture should be either all mat or all varnished.

~ A th'ifd way of producing broken color, and one of the be.~t~ is 'to build up '2Isur:face on the canvas, and ,drag color over it, so that it picks lip nodules. of color 'from, the brush, which are laid over other colors, . he built. up' surface can be made hy underpainting wi til, a fast-drying white. There are several. of these underpainting mediums On. the, marker. Gesso ma y be used if a good bond is establisbed between the gesso and, the painting surface, After such a bull t-up surface is dry it 'may be stained with an undertone, then the broken color dragged over it, allowing the bigh poln ts of the underpain ting to catch the paint, from ~he brush. Such overpainting is done wi th thickly mixed paint, Thin paint would Qnly fill in the,

roug,h surface. ftatly+

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cyefiow. Obviously they an add up to th e same thing and to the, same colo.,r of brown, But we can tone a 00101' with its complement to reduce it In intensity, and. by degrees arrive a,t, a tremendons range of colors, all. of ur. hich are related, since each 'will 'contain some fractlon of the original three' primaries. We can tone a ('.010';[ either by this method or 'by adding actual brown or cold

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This is w 111 at happens in a color transparency.

The various degrees of mixture ot the three colors produce every other color ~ even to browns, apparent blacks, and grayed tints. The same thing is true ,of halftone ,p'rindt~g in color. Reproductiona ~)I paintings are: printed with four separate pla tea using red, yellow ~ blue; and bl ack ink, The black plate is wed as a key plate to give, these colors richness and de.p,tl~.

Since the colors. of the .~pectrun:lJ. ate easy to reeogn ~ze, paiuting 'would not be dUncul;t if everything were pure in color. But only man-made things. are; ]n nature, the vast majority of colors are grays which lean toward 'the primaries. W'e separa te thern by considering them as warm and cool. W'e have, for example, gray grecn1S,p 01:' greens that are somewhat neutralized, W'e, have greens tha t tend toward the ye] klW and. those that lean toward: the blue, In the: same way .. all the other secondary and tertiary CO~O[S may be neutralized of may tend toward the primaries f rom wh ich they are produced !' When. we thi nk of colors In this ~ra.y they are much easier 'to "sec" and the eye can be trained to recognize the i n gredien ts.

Whether 'we mix the colors on the p alette ()r within Ute painting is a inaner of choice, W'he,n one area looks warmer than another area that is s.uppo:$ed to match it )]n color, we can add some red yellow or ,orange to the secen d area. The addition may be very slight. Or 'when the celor in one area. appears cooler by eomparison with a nether, we can. add a UCHe blue, bl ue gre:ell~ or violet to the other S' ~ n ....... ' hI" ck mi 'Y'.i!Io!'i W' ith wh it to fo rm -

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rather bluish gray ~ we may even, add. a touch of

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black to a color Co 0001 it" or at least {j, gray ,mIxed from. black and white". .

The fi nest painters have. handed down. the rude th ~t all three primaries sh auld never appear in their full strength. withi n the same picture. ~lnce they are not basically related they have a tendelley to Iight one am other.". TIley can en,sUy be brough [ into harmony by mixing a little 'of nne mto the other two, 01' at least into one of' tl e others. This leaves. one as do minant, and makes. th e other two related even if they are on]y slig'htly redu coo: in brilli ancy. This does not mean that one primary C)oJOf' must dominate the pict ure or design, We. are simply tempering the colors to. bring them into harmony. We. ean extend the influence if we wfshby adding' n Jittlc of one second ~ry Of tertiary color to a~ l the others.

A late-afternoon Iandsc ape could uh us have a touch of yellow 'Or orange added to all the other colors. In this way we achieve the relationship and un l'ly brought abou t by the 'warmth of the, Iate-aftemoon sun, a nd gain the "feel" o[ the scene.

This, rule applies equally to all subjects, since there should be ~!]ni'ty in all pain ting, P ainting :in to wet tone does much. the same thing in unit .. 'ing ("0].01, provided a little of the lone mixes with the color .. Tempering the whi~e with a little color is .~~othnr 'way of achieving unity.

Before choosing a color to use in a painting we should first analyze its. hue or the color toward 'which lt seems to lean, and lts value in. the blackand-white scale, Ordinarily the purer colors, are kept for spots £0 be set into the more neutr al colors .. 'T11 is is exactly the procedure used by the. modern interior decorator. He may choose to give one wall more celor t:h an the others I to avoid the feeling of being dosed iD1., en :fou[' sides by the

11 d ec J' B b]1" Ii 'I. 'U,I

san.1e value an·· co 10f. : ut (It .. ' .ant COJi.olQU a II.

four walls is hard to live with unless &OlTIe relief in sorter and grayer color accompanies it. We might p ut a red carpet ]n a gray room, or a gra Y' one In a red room ~ but we would be ·ve.ry uncomfortable if everything were red.

:104

rhe Ca.l~ at .N/glu by Vtnceat Van Gogh, \Va!.te.r. A" Curtin; photogrephcs, lltO,ll.ER.MULLER MUSEUM. OTTERlO! HOLLA.ND

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C.O·LOR

reasons such work seldom ac.hiev·es good telationrshjpl~ harmony, and unity'. W'e cannot know whether values are right and in proper brilliancy and contrast until we see them together.

Perhaps the higle~;u mistake r)naoo in the ren E dering of color 1~ in color within shadow, Many artists !Simply :~lghten the. 'pure color 'with white

for iii' 'Il.. p lights a ''ii1; d'" '~1).[1"",, ~.1.-. ,,., p' u ne ""0' 'llor for th e

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shadows, This is just the opposite of wh Eltt occurs in lilc·. The ·pum5~. 00101" belcng,~, to t.he Hght, and. the shadows, are more neutral, having less color than the lighted areas, FO'f example, to paint a. blue dress pale blue In the. light!! and a pUler and more intense or darker tone of the same color in the shadow i§ entirely false. Tne dress must either 'be paJ.e blue all Q;VeF~ Of strong blue all over. To paint the shadows In a pale blue dress we add. the complement or .~ toner to the. color. This keeps the brigh ter t purer color in the Hglrt. where it belongs, If' we use ~ stronger, purer bl U~ in Ul~ lighted areas, we probably need to add some black to the shadows,!

In commercial art we. o.ften. see pink lights on red dresses, 'But red. is reddest in. the 1igJrl.t. ·We. see orange. shadows on a yeUo,~ sweater, when they :S:hoold be yellow reduced 'with its complement, violet. We; see fle~h 'pifUinted pink in the. liight and roo in the shadow. All this hi; -false "Ul-.1 ~_ cheapens the finished" work, It is based on a mistaken idea that Ugh ening the;.light areas keeps the color clean, whereas what rezill, keep's color

.clean.is.the right tela ncn ship of eoler and value,

When color is gr:aycd and softened by the use.

of toners or complements ·~.t takes on quality. A color .appear,s, dull only if its neighbcrs are too brilliant or out of value, '\:V hen a young artist is

ad vised to tone hi s colors, he often raisin terprets the advice- and thinks th at he ha s been asked to use dull colors. Strangely. the toned color seems

to end up with more over-all brillia nee than the pure colors! which actually work against one another. ·P.ict UIe.S are brightened muchmore by ~( contrasting. good values than by piJing in more and more pUle. color .. But this fact is hard to

This leads us to' color "balance." There 'was a. period. of painting when all shadow was treated as brown, ifl!stead of as a. d cepe,r tone of the local _' color, or wi 111. the local color still in. evider ce In

the S11adQw. This style of 'painting w~s known as the "brown school." When all the color in a painting belongs to only one side 'Of the co lcr wheel, muddiness, monotony, and lack of color appeal I alm ost alw~.ys result, Happlly no one paints. that 'way tod ~ly.

, Color balance means a happy rel atio n shi P [of ~he warm versus tbc coo·j. The dill'er,ence need not extend. to pure' primaries, but some con U ast is needed. for balance, Outdoors the sky usua'liy takes care of this! along with the coolness brought 'about by the atmosphere, The blue of the s.k:Y~\ finds 'it s ,va.y int-o the shadows by 'reflection ~ and, the atmosphere of the distance provides 000:1

_ contrast to the warm colors of the foreground.

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Indoors, shadows are more neut rat By eon-

tr as.t with the cool north Hg.ht of the studio ~ they

r llU1Y- well appear somewhat warmer, However, in parts of the house where sunllght enters and gUn'p~e.s of the outdoors may be seen, the balance 'of w. a rm. and 000.1 is more evlden t,

So we may consider the warmth and coolness of the masses as upposed. to each other but also reach. ,[QI' the play' ol warm and (;001 color together and ~I i thin. the masses.

It is much easier to determine the true color and value o,I an area when U is seen in C'ofupany w Ith other tones. A single color on a card rna y look very differ,ent from the same color laid. into the picture. We Should always start n picture by .I:&tating three, or more adjacent values and colors, rather thanby laying in one area and 'fi.L1ing H. in, then looking at another area and doing the same thing. By findi.ng a spot in the picture where two

OT' three values come together. we can then spread these values one .against another and. est ablish the rela iio.llShip of all i~hc big masses, A 'Y1)ung pain Iter will often fiJI in and. almost finish one area. before starting another, This is the method used in. much commercial art and one of the main

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_ Once in. a whi le in commercial an we see an r' under ly ing drawl ng in which all the. shadows are I black or nearly black and. the color has been put ~ I. in to the lighted. areas later. This tee hn iq.ue some~1.,:, "-lim~~ .. results In powerful and. attractive work.

While all shadows are not black, (nor do we always want to paiat them that 'way)" the effect ]8, far 'better than that ·of pictures :in which the shadows are all painted in pure color The-reasorr is s:impiy that it is. more consistent and truthful to have the color brightest in the light, The black s hadows are more neu tra Iized, Ag,3i:ni in a v~e:ry powerful bght the shadows. u1ay .. appear almost black by contr ast, and becau se our val ue rang;e in pigluen'[ is limited ..

In 18 y ing in the shadow masses of n ny picture .. it is a good :ide.-a to paint them in richly and

....... lia¢!}':- They can an be lightened where necessary, to bring the rel a tionships of Ughl and shadow to what they should be, Wb[k~ a. white shirt or amy white object 'could never actually ha ve .a blac k:: shadow ~ 'the con trast in a brillian t ligh t with ou t D1 ueh reflected light in. the s hadow . can be quite surprising,

There. are. man.y qualities of color which the old masters knew how to reproduce, and which. most modern painters appear tu have overlooked or forgotten: There is a particular quality of. "rad i ill nee," for instan ce r which we find in the gre,a, test WOlf ks 01' [he past. Rembrand t ~ti J:I rea ~.-. ired th is q uallt y and went far in developi ng i t, but it seems to have. gradually disappeared f ·om the 'work of later painters. This quality assuredly exists in na t !llr~ but IS more 'felt the. n seen ~ except by 'the most ·skil1fu:1 and pra .. cticed eye, To describe it in, words 1.5 extremely difficult. It is light visually cast into s,pace by light itself, This doe's not mean the effect of. rcflec ted light on other. 0 bjeers, but light surrounding and emanating from its source,

We know t hat the air ]s filled with minute particles w 11 ich have the property of picking: up Jig 11 t

and reflecting it bet ween the source and the sur-face upon which it falls. In ve-ry bright light such ,as, sunhgb t or the beam of a se a echligh t 'Or pro-f ector we ma y see the stream of' light. passing through the atmosphere, But now think of the SUI Iace that :].1;, being llgh~ed i This becomes a. secondary source of Hght~ casting i t away from the surf ace j so tha t i~ strikes the particles in the air around Hi

Thus a certain amount of halation, of which we ®.J re mot always a ware, surrounds all lighted surfaces, We. see a b.]UI' of light around a headHgh'l, or even around a cand le fl ame and we \VU uld normally show this j J1 pai nting. But a lesser .degree of. thi s same nalation is not se obvious. Such halation traverses its boundaries 01" 'toe. edges ofthe lighted STefl. The edge itscll !n:dY be quite distin et and 13 harply defined ~ btl ~ '[be spa.ce. around th .. e edge becomes Ughtoo. also .

A hflght moon may appear as sharply outlined ,ag a ins! me bat:lgrollnd of space. Bu t if we look carefully we see Lbat there is a gradation of light over the whole moonlit sky, which gm'nws biigh:ter as h approaches the source. The' same thin.g happens with a strongly lighted head ag,a.in bt a dark background, The dark I ightc.ns as ft t approaches the head, Of a white area, or even ~ny brightly lighted surface, Such lightening is hardly percepti bl e until we t]- a i I1 QUf' eyes to be: conscious of it.

Wha t is more, the color of th e 11gh t source extends itself into surrounding, space. This is actually a color influence rather than 8 repeated '~O]OI. The color of the light hl'e[ ds into the color of the ~ilckground. Paintings can be given a 'wholly new' q uality of rad i an ce ,,1 hen this phen omenon is stud ied a 11 d. re piO duccd I I [ is a f urthe r method of relating color to its environment and of un~fying the surrounding area,

A colored spotligh t: pro] ects color ina visible strea In through the dark of the the ater to the stage, The spotlight, of' course, has been focused to condense the light rays. The Ugh ted 8111 d a ce, however, sends its almost invisible rays in all di-

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