Part 2, project 2, exercise 1: Still life – drawing with paint (artist research)

Updated on 22 February 2017 (Harvard referencing).

18 April 2016. Since I know perfectly well, and was reminded of this in the course feedback for Drawing 1 (with the result for which I was very happy, even if not taking into account the circumstances), that I need to rush less my projects regarding preparatory sketchbook drawing, experimentation with setups, comparisons with other artists and such like, I decided that I would need to investigate the style of some artists before starting my own painting.

I have always been drawn to paintings where the outlines of the depicted objects are clearly visible, sometimes in black, sometimes in hues corresponding in some way to the colour(s) of the object itself, as e.g. in Vincent Van Gogh’s famous self portrait (Fig. 1). He did not only use a darker tone of an object’s colour, as in his hat, to paint the outline, he also appears to have taken care to choose a complementary colour to paint the background: bluish hat – orange background, green coat – red background. This means, according to Chevreul’s colour theory, that the complementary pairs will reinforce each other, while other colours will not. This also means, if I am right here, that by choosing the mentioned colours van Gogh’s figure raises from the red-orange background without having to add perspective.

Figure 1. Vincent Van Gogh: “Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear”, 1889, oil on canvas. Source: Vincent Van Gogh (1889) [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons

The same effect should, by the way, be working in a painting by contemporary artist Denis Castellas, who I first read about in the book Vitamin P (Schwabsky, 2002, pp. 62-63). The painting, (Castellas, 2001) shows a lady in a red and green coat before a grey background.
Another artist working with outlines was Henry Matisse, a very famous example of which is shown below (3). His style appears less consistent than van Gogh’s with respect to colour theory. While the left side of the picture appears to be in one image plane apart from the hair, the right side is clearly divided into background and foreground by the dark layer of colour separating the red dress and green background.

Henry Matisse: “The Green Stripe”, 1905, oil on canvas

And another example I particularly like, by impressionist Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935) (4):

Samuel John Peploe: “Still Life: Apples and Jar”, ca. 1912-1916, oil on canvas

In the above example I find good ways of using outline in grey and white objects. I will have a very close look at the choice of colour and line in Peploe’s painting and attempt something similar in my own picture.

Resources:

Van Gogh, V. (1889) Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear [oil on canvas] [online]. [collection Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block]. [Available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_Willem_van_Gogh_106.jpg [Accessed 22 February 2017]

(2) Schwabsky, B. (2002) Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting. Phaidon Press.

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Stripe and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Stripe#/media/File:Matisse_-_Green_Line.jpeg

(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Peploe#/media/File:Samuel_Peploe_-_Still_life-_apples_and_jar_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

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Part 2, project 2, exercise 1: Still life – drawing in paint (step 1, choice of subject)

Updated on 20 February 2017 (Harvard referencing).

17 April 2016. Same as with Drawing 1. Since I am not the greatest of interior designers and we are not the owners of lots of things on shelves, I need to be very careful with what I select. Since now the things we do put on shelves usually indeed happen to be there, because there was room, with no design purpose whatsoever, they don’t mostly look great together, neither are the arrangements particularly interesting to look at. So, what I intend to do is to zoom into them and have a closer look at shapes and spaces without straining to attach them to a particular object, a bit like the Cubists approach. Since according to the study guide we are advised not to spend too much time looking, I will take my viewfinder and sketchbook to create some inkpen thumbnail sketches.

18 April 2016. After playing around with some Rubik’s cubes and an idea of trying to reproduce the colours on the squares as faithfully as possible I remembered another idea I have had for years and never had the time to try out. I have always been fascinated by the particular reflections produced by the taps in our shower and bath. Since the taps are metallic and the reflections consist mostly of shades of grey, this is, in my opinion, a great opportunity to use my new knowledge about mixing secondary colours. I took my viewfinder and sketchbook and tried several viewpoints. One of them was so awkward to get to that I had to take a photo and draw from that (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Thumbnail sketches of bathroom fittings

Of the four viewpoints I think that I like the one best which includes the plughole (top right in Fig. 1 above), because it adds to a sense of space, making the shower hose appear quite alive. At the same time the position of the plughole in the bottom left corner of the frame serves to balance the rest of the fittings. In addition the viewpoint includes reflections from our coloured bathroom lamp. One of these also helps to draw the parts of the arrangement together. It is a wide band of soft colour starting at the plughole and travelling some way up the bath towards the tap. One spot of bright colour is also included, a small, pink and violet, plastic fish my son used to play with in the bath. Its colour communicates with the reflections from the lamp and its position inside the loop made by the hose provides a point of attraction in this otherwise empty area as well. Only the shadows are less prominent from this position, but the viewpoint looks so much more interesting than the rest that I will have a go at it.