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.
We are one week into our 30 Day Challenge for January. We’ve had a lot of fun looking at all the posts! Some were technically impressive, others highly creative, and some made us laugh. Here are a few of our favorites so far. Day 1: Before & After Self portrait on Jan 1 2020, vs …
Once a year, the League sponsors a 30 day creative challenge open to artists everywhere, working in any media. Daily challenges will be delivered to your inbox via V. Notes starting January 1, 2021. Subscribe to V. Notes. They’re fun and they’re free! Will there be prizes? Yes, there will be prizes. The 30 day challenge starts soon. Who …
Welcome to the first faves fresh from the henhouse of this year’s 30SAL Creative Challenge. On January 1, 2022 we asked you all to make a self portrait with an egg, and you did eggzactly as we requested. We found more than 8 dozen hard boiled, cracked, and a few scrambled, all served to Instagram …
In the most recent post I referred to the round topped brushes as “Filberts” because in the post prior to that post I accidentally referred to them as “Philberts.” Perhaps you think this is all very serious. This is where further corrections are in order. I’m sorry to tell you that there is no Dr. …
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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30SAL Faves from week 1
We are one week into our 30 Day Challenge for January. We’ve had a lot of fun looking at all the posts! Some were technically impressive, others highly creative, and some made us laugh. Here are a few of our favorites so far. Day 1: Before & After Self portrait on Jan 1 2020, vs …
30 Day #salchallenge starts January 1, 2021
Once a year, the League sponsors a 30 day creative challenge open to artists everywhere, working in any media. Daily challenges will be delivered to your inbox via V. Notes starting January 1, 2021. Subscribe to V. Notes. They’re fun and they’re free! Will there be prizes? Yes, there will be prizes. The 30 day challenge starts soon. Who …
One Dozen Egg Heads #30SAL
Welcome to the first faves fresh from the henhouse of this year’s 30SAL Creative Challenge. On January 1, 2022 we asked you all to make a self portrait with an egg, and you did eggzactly as we requested. We found more than 8 dozen hard boiled, cracked, and a few scrambled, all served to Instagram …
Filbert, a correction of a correction
In the most recent post I referred to the round topped brushes as “Filberts” because in the post prior to that post I accidentally referred to them as “Philberts.” Perhaps you think this is all very serious. This is where further corrections are in order. I’m sorry to tell you that there is no Dr. …