You may recognize Morandi for his dusty still life bottles, carefully and quietly clustered in the center of the canvas.
Recently, I’ve been revisiting his lesser-known but more personally inspiring collection of landscapes.
In classes, we’ve been talking about simplifying a composition into shapes, and applying those shapes to pull you through the composition with a series of pathways, arrows, and repeating motifs. We’ve also been looking at extension of values (light to dark) or compression of values (low-key, mid-key, or high key).
It’s easy to get distracted by detail and color, supposedly they are vital elements to the success and energy of a painting. But when I look at what simple shape and tone can do for information and mood, I wonder why we get hung up on the other stuff.
Morandi in simplified shapes and mid-key tones
The simplification of shapes is an exercise I always find surprisingly challenging. It looks so simple when it’s done for me! But to do it myself always takes much more work than I think it will to get something to really settle into place. Take a look at this simplified sketch, and the accompanying scene it was taken from. See how much he edited?
Now imagine he did that much editing for each one of these compositions (because he did). Don’t take the simplicity for granted!
(detail)
So – back I go to my sketch. I had simplified it, but clearly not as much as I could. It’s still hung up on detail. More work to do! Thank you, Morandi.
[image_with_animation image_url=”7550″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Using a ruler and colored pencils/pens on paper, or string and nails, or by fastening skewers, use straight lines at intervals to make a curve. There are a lot of ways to approach this project. For a simplified “How To” with 3 printable templates, click here. To print out graph …
On a computer screen, the detailed cells of color in Chris Crites’ paintings look digital-perfect. In person, I’m compelled to creep closer, closer, until my breath fogs up the glass. It’s then that I can see the thousands of tiny brush strokes neatly aligned within each penciled form. He says it’s OCD. I say it’s skill and …
COMING SOON TO A WALL NEAR YOU! We’re getting ready to paint our name on the side of the building, and ended up finding this little gem of a video about the disappearing art of sign painting. I’m disappointed that human hands so rarely touch the common objects in my life, dismayed that makers of things …
[image_with_animation image_url=”11306″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]” img_link=”https://drawinglics.com/photos/8771703/mille-fiori-favoriti-an-autumn-drive-over-kenosha-pass-to-buy-a-bear-an-autumn-drive-over-kenosha-pass-to-buy-a-bear.py Most of the information in this post is straight out of a podcast called Lexicon Valley, with John H. McWhorter. McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University, and Lexicon Valley is one of my favorite podcasts. I was listening to a recent post about color, in particular the …
Morandi’s Landscapes
You may recognize Morandi for his dusty still life bottles, carefully and quietly clustered in the center of the canvas.
Recently, I’ve been revisiting his lesser-known but more personally inspiring collection of landscapes.
In classes, we’ve been talking about simplifying a composition into shapes, and applying those shapes to pull you through the composition with a series of pathways, arrows, and repeating motifs. We’ve also been looking at extension of values (light to dark) or compression of values (low-key, mid-key, or high key).
It’s easy to get distracted by detail and color, supposedly they are vital elements to the success and energy of a painting. But when I look at what simple shape and tone can do for information and mood, I wonder why we get hung up on the other stuff.
The simplification of shapes is an exercise I always find surprisingly challenging. It looks so simple when it’s done for me! But to do it myself always takes much more work than I think it will to get something to really settle into place. Take a look at this simplified sketch, and the accompanying scene it was taken from. See how much he edited?
Now imagine he did that much editing for each one of these compositions (because he did). Don’t take the simplicity for granted!
So – back I go to my sketch. I had simplified it, but clearly not as much as I could. It’s still hung up on detail. More work to do! Thank you, Morandi.
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[image_with_animation image_url=”7550″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Using a ruler and colored pencils/pens on paper, or string and nails, or by fastening skewers, use straight lines at intervals to make a curve. There are a lot of ways to approach this project. For a simplified “How To” with 3 printable templates, click here. To print out graph …
Chris Crites
On a computer screen, the detailed cells of color in Chris Crites’ paintings look digital-perfect. In person, I’m compelled to creep closer, closer, until my breath fogs up the glass. It’s then that I can see the thousands of tiny brush strokes neatly aligned within each penciled form. He says it’s OCD. I say it’s skill and …
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COMING SOON TO A WALL NEAR YOU! We’re getting ready to paint our name on the side of the building, and ended up finding this little gem of a video about the disappearing art of sign painting. I’m disappointed that human hands so rarely touch the common objects in my life, dismayed that makers of things …
The Language of Color
[image_with_animation image_url=”11306″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]” img_link=”https://drawinglics.com/photos/8771703/mille-fiori-favoriti-an-autumn-drive-over-kenosha-pass-to-buy-a-bear-an-autumn-drive-over-kenosha-pass-to-buy-a-bear.py Most of the information in this post is straight out of a podcast called Lexicon Valley, with John H. McWhorter. McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University, and Lexicon Valley is one of my favorite podcasts. I was listening to a recent post about color, in particular the …