Today is the darkest day of the year, made extra dark this year by the pandemic. The good news is that from this day on, the days get brighter. I’ll hold my breath on the other.
Today’s post has a collection of low light and nocturne paintings by Sangram Majumdar, one of my favorite painters.
Look for the compression
As light decreases, so does color perception. In low light, the range of values compress into the lower range. The colors compress as well. The colors in a low light situation aren’t just dark, they’re dim. Notice how sometimes Majumdar darkens the values and dims the color, then uses pops of color to represent moments of illumination. Whenever there’s a pop of color, look to see what’s around it to see why that color is so brilliant. Cover that color pop with your finger, and see how much value and color contrast is in the rest of the painting. What percentage of the painting is bright, and what percentage is dark or dim?
Majumdar’s suggestion to painters: try replacing white with color.
[image_with_animation image_url=”8093″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Image above from Agora Gallery’s post “How to Recognize an Art Scam” In the last week, I’ve received 2 art scam emails. They read as personalized letters, including the title and size of my painting, mid paragraph. Neither email asked directly for anything, so no red flags, not right …
Children with jack-o-lanterns, a sketch by Katie Jo Keppinger, in Thursday’s class for drawing and painting. I love Keppinger’s marks, bold and sensitive like Kathe Kollwitz, moody as Edvard Monk. This drawing uses a variety of edges and plenty of dark values and contrast to produce the sensation of glow. Organic circles, strong angles, and …
While brainstorming for this 30 day challenge, I ran across other drawing challenges. One in particular caught my attention: Tales of a Kitchen Witch posted a template of an incomplete duck and asked users to “draw a duck and share your art.” After that, the “draw a duck” challenge went viral. Some of the responses …
[image_with_animation image_url=”6237″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Raymond Pettibon Wiki: Raymond Pettibon (born Raymond Ginn; June 16, 1957) is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. Pettibon came to prominence in the early 1980s in the southern California punk rock scene, creating posters and album art mainly for groups on SST Records, owned and operated by his brother, Greg Ginn. …
Majumdar’s Nocturnes
Today is the darkest day of the year, made extra dark this year by the pandemic. The good news is that from this day on, the days get brighter. I’ll hold my breath on the other.
Today’s post has a collection of low light and nocturne paintings by Sangram Majumdar, one of my favorite painters.
Look for the compression
As light decreases, so does color perception. In low light, the range of values compress into the lower range. The colors compress as well. The colors in a low light situation aren’t just dark, they’re dim. Notice how sometimes Majumdar darkens the values and dims the color, then uses pops of color to represent moments of illumination. Whenever there’s a pop of color, look to see what’s around it to see why that color is so brilliant. Cover that color pop with your finger, and see how much value and color contrast is in the rest of the painting. What percentage of the painting is bright, and what percentage is dark or dim?
Majumdar’s suggestion to painters: try replacing white with color.
Related Posts
Art Scam Emails
[image_with_animation image_url=”8093″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Image above from Agora Gallery’s post “How to Recognize an Art Scam” In the last week, I’ve received 2 art scam emails. They read as personalized letters, including the title and size of my painting, mid paragraph. Neither email asked directly for anything, so no red flags, not right …
Effects of Light: Children with jack-o-lanterns
Children with jack-o-lanterns, a sketch by Katie Jo Keppinger, in Thursday’s class for drawing and painting. I love Keppinger’s marks, bold and sensitive like Kathe Kollwitz, moody as Edvard Monk. This drawing uses a variety of edges and plenty of dark values and contrast to produce the sensation of glow. Organic circles, strong angles, and …
30SAL Challenge: Draw a Duck
While brainstorming for this 30 day challenge, I ran across other drawing challenges. One in particular caught my attention: Tales of a Kitchen Witch posted a template of an incomplete duck and asked users to “draw a duck and share your art.” After that, the “draw a duck” challenge went viral. Some of the responses …
Humor in Art: Raymond Pettibon
[image_with_animation image_url=”6237″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Raymond Pettibon Wiki: Raymond Pettibon (born Raymond Ginn; June 16, 1957) is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. Pettibon came to prominence in the early 1980s in the southern California punk rock scene, creating posters and album art mainly for groups on SST Records, owned and operated by his brother, Greg Ginn. …