|
See art in a fresh way. |
|
|
|
Mini-Tutorial: Details Don't Mean A Thing If They Ain't Got That Swing |
||
|
Artists often agonize over the
completion of a painting. The bugaboo for many realists is the
detailing. Details are the crowning touches and yet, more often
then not, they can rob the painting of its vitality. There are many great artists that manage to solve the "detail" problem. Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is brimming with life and her famous smile is one of the most detailed details of any painting. I have viewed her close up and have seen how da Vinci has broken down the form of her lips into hundreds of tiny planes. So why is it that when other artists pay special attention to details, they do not come up the same results? I believe the answer lies in the swing of the big forms. In other words, details only work when they maintain the integrity of the big forms and their place in space.
|
|
|
|
Stepping back and looking at the Mona Lisa as a whole, you can see that her head "sits" in the middle foreground, while her chest and hands rotate towards us, "locking into" the foreground. |
|
|
|
Here you can get a sense of
"leap-frogging" from her hand in the immediate foreground, to
the corner of her breast, and then further back to her lips. If da Vinci had painted too strong of contrasts, or gave too much, or too little, volume to her lips, he would have killed the lively dynamic of the swing of the forms through space. There is no simple technique for placing objects in space. Contrast of light, dark, and color play a role, as well as high definition, perspective, and expanding the forms. All of these contribute to bringing objects forward. Transparency, less contrast, and blurring help make forms recede.
|
|
|
|
Very similar in set up to the Mona Lisa is this Rembrandt. Her head "sits" in the middle foreground and the corner of the breast comes forward. |
 Rembrandt, Young Woman at the Window
|
|
|
If you look for it, you will see how Rembrandt is wrapping the figure in light; he is swinging the light current around, behind, and up front on her form.
|
|
|
| Notice the meticulous detail of the leather cord and metal key around her neck. |
|
|
|
The earring also has extremely
fine detailing, yet it occupies space way behind that of the
cord and key.
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
An interesting contrast to the
above paintings is this Picasso. It is all form with very
little detail. It is extremely deceptive in its simplicity. All
the forms work in space as they do in the Rembrandt and da Vinci.
It only takes a little painting experience to discover that details are time exhaustive. Picasso opted to save time and sacrifice details. If you are detail orientated, try to establish the big forms, like Picasso has done here, and then embellish the forms with as much detail you like. Be careful not to flatten the form!
|
|
|
| Here is a 16th/17th Century Flemish still-life. It is loaded with detail, but it is a flat painting. It is as if the flowers have been compressed and share a two-inch space of depth; as if the flowers have been painted from side to side, but not front to back. I would call this an example of indiscriminate detailing. The artist is not considering the interrelationship of the flowers' positions nor their forms, hence, sacrificing the vitality of depth for superficial decoration. |
|
|
|
The swing of forms through
space excite eye movement and, for many observers, this creates
an emotional response. Details that embellish and complete the
forms bring with them an irresistible reality. Adding details to
big forms is a tour de force of artistic skill. I hope you enjoyed seeing art in a fresh way.
Michael
Newberry
|
|
Online Tutorials
|
|
|
|
|
©2006 Newberry, All rights reserved. |