All Things Fine Art

I have taught many hundreds of students over the years and know that words used by an instructor may mean something entirely different to a student. For that reason, instructors must choose words carefully and explain their meaning from time to time so that everyone is on the same page. I realized recently that in one of my classes there was a lack of understanding over what the term “general color” meant.  Adding “over-all color” or “averaging color” in describing the term, certainly helps students see, but does not quite explain the true purpose of the term. Consequently, a gap of understanding continues on the part of students. Let’s see if we can’t clarify this term, once and for all, for everyone’s benefit.

To begin, the purpose of a “block-in” is to establish the value key of a painting. Therefore, in the process of beginning, we “generalize” the observed color notes, later coming back to add lighter and/or darker notes on top of them.  What in effect we are doing in that initial block-in, is establishing a mid-tone color note (also known as a half-tone) for each of the major shapes.  For instance, take a line of background trees (they seem to be a problem for everyone in establishing the “color”). By squinting, we eliminate all details and “see” the overall color and its value of the combined shape of trees. This is the half-tone of the shape. I need to repeat that….THIS IS THE HALF-TONE OF THE SHAPE! We mix that color/value note on our palette and paint it on our support as a simple shape. We continue this process with the other major shapes until we have our entire painting blocked-in and keyed correctly. Even in the shadows, we must average the color and value.

By “averaging” the color note of any shape we immediately establish the correct “value key”.

Many students start with the darkest dark and by doing so, have no where to go to darken it further, if needed within the shape, during the painting process. They have already used their darkest dark. The resulting problem they may face, is not being able to get out of the darks, and their painting when finished, will be dark and drab because they “keyed” the painting too dark to begin with. In effect, they probably used mid-tones for their lights because they started too dark. This is a common situation with students if one begins with darkest darks. Even in shadow notes, one must squint and average the color/value note of the dark. By doing so, we leave room to go lighter or darker later in the process of completing the painting.

Squinting is, therefore, one of the most essential tools to be employed for painting naturalistic scenes. The student who fails to squint will never employ color, value and or intensities correctly in their work. By “averaging” the color note of any shape we immediately establish the correct “value key”. This allows the artist to then work in logical sequences towards the lightest lights and the darkest darks found within each shape.

Note: This article applies to all mediums except transparent, watercolor which by its very essence requires the student to begin with the lightest lights and work towards darks.