Painting more 'painterly'; learning to see colors in the subject?

[Minh Thong]

I've seen many paintings in which the portrait exhibits not just the usual gradations of skin tone - local color, cast shadow, turning edge, etc. - but also dabs of colors not generally associated with flesh tones. Portraits by Howard Sanden and Harley Brown immediately come to mind. The flesh appears to 'vibrate' with the addition of values of blue, purple, or green. It's a gorgeous 'painterly' look that escapes me completely when I look at a model and try to discern these colors, or even where these colors might safely be used in this manner even if I didn't actually see them. What I'm talking about isn't just the modulation of cooler colors to describe shadows, form, etc. But rather an often high-chroma passage of color not generally thought of as a flesh tone.

I've purchased, read, and worked thru books by Howard Sanden, Harley Brown, and Helen Van Wyk whose paintings exhibit this effect to one degree or another. But I still don't have a full understanding of how to actually 'see' and interpret these hues. When I look at a head I just don't see the greens, violets or reds nor where they could be used to create this fresh, 'alive' look. I have not yet found a resource that shows a reader the actual mechanics of where and how these colors are best applied. The Sanden and Brown texts contained beautiful examples of this style and there were explainations or tips on the use of these colors, but there was nothing for the slightly dense/slow folks such as myself that need a little more hand-holding to get the ball rolling. The Faragasso book talks about 'vibrating' colors and I've worked thru this book many times. But he says nothing about 'seeing' and applying them to a model. It's as if this is something most people can do automatically and since I'm still having trouble describing form in general, I was beginning to wonder if my eyeballs were properly calibrated.

Is anyone aware of a book, video, website that more specifically addresses this method/style of painting? Something along the lines of "... look in this area of the head (with a graphic) for the possibility of a hi-chroma passage to enliven the painting ..."

Thanks for any help at all.

Minh Thong

[Michele Rushworth]

I think it's purely a matter of personal choice whether to throw in some bravura strokes of high chroma color in the flesh tones. I don't think artists like Harley Brown actually see those fully saturated tones, they purposely exaggerate the subtler tones that they do see there.

When I look at a model's hand in window light, for example, I may see some greenish and bluish areas, particularly near the veins and as the form turns away from the light and away from me. I also see some dark alizarin and venetian red colors where the fingers come together. I could choose to greatly ratchet up the saturation of the colors in those areas if it served the overall purpose of the painting.

Some reasons for doing this could be that I wanted to bring attention to certain areas, or to create an overall high energy, high chroma effect.

Seeing the subtle colors that are really there in the first place is something I think comes with practice, especially in working from life. Subtle color changes are often lost in photos.

[Stanka Kordic]

Chris Saper's book may provide some insight. If the value is checked, complements work very well.

Best,

Stanka

[John Zeissig]

Hi Minh,

I agree with Stanka that Chris's book (or just examining her paintings) is a good reference for this question.

Another one is Karin Wells' article, "Pure color in reflected light " in the Subject-specific Demonstrations section of the forum, for a specific application.

I borrowed heavily from both those sources in a post "Redacted Kimmy" in the oil critiques section about a year ago, if you want to see what a rookie did with some of that info. Like Michele says, some of those things are artistic inventions that don't appear in either the live model or any photo reference. Maybe the best thing is just to try something and see if it works!

Cheers,

John

[Minh Thong]

I just had a chance to look at Chris Saper's book at lunch. It looks as if it would clear up alot of things for me. I don't know why I hadn't taken a look at it before. It's almost exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

And thank you very much for the explaination, Michele. You have no idea how far those few paragraphs went toward my understanding of the actual process of using hi-chroma passages. I realize my question was pretty basic stuff, but having never read what you just wrote, I really didn't know. I think most authors assume students would know that the information about color was being extrapolated or modified/punched up for specific effects. But I had no idea. I was wondering if I had missed something. Thank you very much!

Carl Toboika and a few other gracious folks helped out in another forum on a similar question - a question arising from the same frustrations - and I'm finally beginning to understand color a little better. I'm concentrating on drawing right now, but I try to work thru some color exercises or work up an oil or pastel sketch once or twice per week in preparation for eventually painting again.

Thanks all!

Minh
(Eating the elephant one bite at a time )

[Chris Saper]

Glad you found the book helpful.

I have studied with Harley, and have to say, no one uses those colors better than Harley!