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.
Todays SEQUENCE Challenge: What’s the next form of plant or animal species? Show what it looks like now, then show what it will evolve into. (The first part of this challenge is optional.) #evolve Remember, media is always artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, collage, assemblage, or play with your food. Post it To be …
Welcome to the 30SAL Creative Challenge! Broaden your creative skills Every day this January we’ll post a creative challenge to our V. Notes blog. Subscribers will receive these posts in their inbox. Designed to foster a wide variety of creative skills, our challenges are not restricted to any style or genre, and medium is artist’s …
Henry Darger’s “Vivian Girls” (…) look like the angelic young girls of the magazines and media from Darger’s day, except he often rendered them with penises. Today, from our more gender-fluid point of view, they might be considered the earliest transgender superheroes. – Artsy You can see more artworks, and read about the personal story …
We spend our lives around and within the internet, using email and text messages. But these digital layers of information have yet to integrate into our paintings. Why? These images present us with quandaries. How do we combine the “real world” with “online world” … and should these screen images really be put in paint at all? How many …
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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Todays SEQUENCE Challenge: What’s the next form of plant or animal species? Show what it looks like now, then show what it will evolve into. (The first part of this challenge is optional.) #evolve Remember, media is always artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, collage, assemblage, or play with your food. Post it To be …
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Welcome to the 30SAL Creative Challenge! Broaden your creative skills Every day this January we’ll post a creative challenge to our V. Notes blog. Subscribers will receive these posts in their inbox. Designed to foster a wide variety of creative skills, our challenges are not restricted to any style or genre, and medium is artist’s …
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Henry Darger’s “Vivian Girls” (…) look like the angelic young girls of the magazines and media from Darger’s day, except he often rendered them with penises. Today, from our more gender-fluid point of view, they might be considered the earliest transgender superheroes. – Artsy You can see more artworks, and read about the personal story …
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We spend our lives around and within the internet, using email and text messages. But these digital layers of information have yet to integrate into our paintings. Why? These images present us with quandaries. How do we combine the “real world” with “online world” … and should these screen images really be put in paint at all? How many …