In the last post called Yogurt Holds the Blueberry, I talked about thinking of everything in a composition as an active shape, painting the spaces between things, instead of painting an object floating on nothing.
If we are painting the space between things, we start to see the “background” as an active shape on the page. Instead of an object on a background, it is one shape pushing up against another shape, like two friends sitting shoulder to shoulder. In real life, a house would fall over if it was pressing against still air, but a painting is color on paper. How would you paint still air as it presses into a building, to hold it in place?
In this way, instead of negative space, you can imagine that everything in your painting holds every other thing in place. This doesn’t work automatically, and not all shapes push back equally. They require some attention from the artist to activate each shape and make it work. When activated, a “blank” shape can push into a painted shape, and hold it there. Do you see it?
Take a look at these watercolors by Morandi, and see what you think about the idea we’re calling “yogurt holds the blueberry.”
Today’s SEQUENCE challenge: Create an instructional that no one will ever need. #howtodoeverything Post it To be eligible for prizes (yes prizes!) at the end of the month, post your work to Instagram with #30sal and #howtodoeverything so we can find your post. To find more followers for your page, you can cut/paste these to your post: #30sal #howtodoeverything #mansplain …
I heard the story about the mother who threw the sheet over her daughter so she could more safely give her a hug. I thought of these paintings of The Lovers by Magritte. I thought about these unusual times, when basic human connection could bring death to those we love. During these suspended and unnerving …
Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed Text from Stanford.edu: Throughout his long career, seminal California artist Richard Diebenkorn (Stanford BA ’49) always kept a sketchbook—a “portable studio,” as he called it—to capture his ideas. The books contain 1,045 drawings that span the artist’s career and represent the range of styles and subjects he explored—both gestural renderings …
While I was searching for rabbits yesterday I found a rabbit by Lucian Freud, and this Sleeping Cat. I’d seen neither of these before, and thought they were sweet. So unrecognizable as Freuds! Both were made in 1944, when Freud was 22. [image_with_animation image_url=”8842″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][image_with_animation image_url=”8829″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
Morandi’s Watercolors
In the last post called Yogurt Holds the Blueberry, I talked about thinking of everything in a composition as an active shape, painting the spaces between things, instead of painting an object floating on nothing.
If we are painting the space between things, we start to see the “background” as an active shape on the page. Instead of an object on a background, it is one shape pushing up against another shape, like two friends sitting shoulder to shoulder. In real life, a house would fall over if it was pressing against still air, but a painting is color on paper. How would you paint still air as it presses into a building, to hold it in place?
In this way, instead of negative space, you can imagine that everything in your painting holds every other thing in place. This doesn’t work automatically, and not all shapes push back equally. They require some attention from the artist to activate each shape and make it work. When activated, a “blank” shape can push into a painted shape, and hold it there. Do you see it?
Take a look at these watercolors by Morandi, and see what you think about the idea we’re calling “yogurt holds the blueberry.”
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Today’s SEQUENCE challenge: Create an instructional that no one will ever need. #howtodoeverything Post it To be eligible for prizes (yes prizes!) at the end of the month, post your work to Instagram with #30sal and #howtodoeverything so we can find your post. To find more followers for your page, you can cut/paste these to your post: #30sal #howtodoeverything #mansplain …
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I heard the story about the mother who threw the sheet over her daughter so she could more safely give her a hug. I thought of these paintings of The Lovers by Magritte. I thought about these unusual times, when basic human connection could bring death to those we love. During these suspended and unnerving …
Diebenkorn’s Sketchbooks
Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed Text from Stanford.edu: Throughout his long career, seminal California artist Richard Diebenkorn (Stanford BA ’49) always kept a sketchbook—a “portable studio,” as he called it—to capture his ideas. The books contain 1,045 drawings that span the artist’s career and represent the range of styles and subjects he explored—both gestural renderings …
Lucian Freud’s Sleeping Cat
While I was searching for rabbits yesterday I found a rabbit by Lucian Freud, and this Sleeping Cat. I’d seen neither of these before, and thought they were sweet. So unrecognizable as Freuds! Both were made in 1944, when Freud was 22. [image_with_animation image_url=”8842″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][image_with_animation image_url=”8829″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]