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 Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Big Picture
Posted by richard
 [Anne here] While Richard is enjoying a short holiday from the blog, I thought I'd
treat you to an excerpt from his latest column, "Seeing the Big
Picture," appearing in the latest issue of The Pastel Journal:
When starting a painting, it’s best to begin with a few simple elements
before proceeding to the more detailed components. Detail is something
to which we’re all attracted. We focus on the writing on a page, the
fabric patterns on a dress and the sunlit leaves of a tree. As
interesting and attractive as these may be, however, they’re not good
places from which to begin a painting.
Robert Henri, in his 1923 book, The Art Spirit, admonishes painters for this, encouraging them instead to learn to see below the superficial to the strength of what lies beneath. It’s the positioning of the skeletal system and muscles that creates the flow of a garment, and the underlying nature of the tree and earth that creates the character of the landscape.
I joke with my students that we spend too much of our painting efforts
trying to cram the cake under the icing—a messy undertaking indeed.
Instead, by simplifying a scene to a few large shapes and by
associating a general value and color sense at the painting’s onset, we
can more easily see “the big picture.” We bake our cake, so to speak.
Then the icing can be added to individual taste.
You'll find the complete article in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of The Pastel Journal on sale now. [pictured above] Winter Morning (top; pastel) with the initial shape drawing.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 3:34:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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