Lip, Berm, Brink, Perimeter, EDGE!!

Greetings everyone:

Is there anything more filled with promise than the first day of the New Year! I am excited about being back in the studio creating new work - stretching myself to get better at expressing what is in my mind and heart; and as you know, that is the on-going challenge for us all.

This is the first of a weekly "conversation" that will be arriving in your inbox with a nugget of information that I hope will prove to be valuable to you. I'll do my best to make them informative and if you have ideas for subjects that would be helpful to you, please do send me an email at artist@evelyndunphy.com and let me know. And if anything isn't clear to you, tell me. Chances are that someone else feels the same way.

Iif you would like to pass these studies on to other artist friends, please do so.  

Still Life Discovered on the Road to Eyeries, Beara, Ireland

Just look at the texture of the old stone wall, the battered iron bars and the pots. There are several important lessons in this one photograph, but for this conversation we shall focus on edges.

Just for fun, before you scroll down to my discussion, make a list of the different edges that you can see, identify them as "hard", "lost", two similar values melted together, whatever you see.

      What Do You See When You Look at the Place Where Two Planes Meet? 

When I first started painting, a well-known artist from Santa Fe told me that "edges separate the professionals from the amateurs". Then and there I decided to make it a priority to learn everything I could about edges!

 

Look at the large pot that is mostly in shadow on its right side. Squint so that you see the bigger shapes and don't get caught up in the details.  

Here are the questions I would like you to ask:

• What value change do you see between the edge of the large pot on its shadowed side and the wall? Which is darker? (don't count the light patch on the wall, it's just a variation within the darker value). 
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• Does the edge between them disappear in places? Is there a change of color between the pot and the wall? 
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• Now look at the bottom left hand corner where the edge of the pot and leg meet the background. A very different edge with a high-lighted rim and a high-light on the leg. 
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•  Painting the dark edge of the big pot against the dark mottled background.
  
  I've just painted the area where the pot meets the background as one wet in wet wash to show you the "lost" edge. Now I could add some darker value marks on the edge of the pot to separate it from the background if I wished.  
  Notice how the shapes join together to unite the two pots to the background. We paint "shapes", not "things".
  
  
  
  
  Now observe the smaller pot hanging against the right hand side of the wall. It's in the sunlight and there is only a small piece of the bottom that meets the wall..
  
  
  • How would you describe the edges all around the pot with the exception of this small piece?
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  • That small piece gives you an opportunity to join the dark shapes together (again, if you squint, you will see this more clearly).
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  • Do you see a value change here at the edge of the small pot, and also a color change? Is it the same, lighter or darker than the value change between the large pot and the wall?
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  • What's the difference in value range between this pot and the wall that's in shadow? The sunlit background has not been completed in this demonstration. 
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  • These questions are intended to alert you to sharp observation of the edges in your reference material. Look at how each shape meets the adjacent one and ask yourself what the value difference is, how the color changes, does the edge disappear or remain crisp, is one color on an edge warmer or cooler than the adjoining edge?  Look for all of the similarities and differences.
    
    
    If you do this, you will see several varieties of edges in one photograph (or in the landscape elements if you are painting out of doors).  
    
    
    Ask yourself: "what do I know how to do that will make it possible for me to paint this kind of edge convincingly"?
     
  
  
  There are many kinds of edges, but not very many different techniques required - what is necessary is that you can identify what you are intending, and be clear in your mind how you can do it. If you just can't figure it out, take a few minutes and imagine:

• putting a dark brush stroke on a light background. Result: a sharp (hard, crisp) edge. 
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• Mixing two juicy (not watery) puddles of paint of different colors and try to have both mixtures about the same ratio of water and pigment. Paint a shape of each mixture beside each other, letting the edges touch. Result: a "soft" edge (lost, merged)
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• Mix a dark green puddle, an ochre-brown puddle and paint them next to each other, but not touching. Leave about ½" of white paper between them. Then mix a mid-value red-violet with less water than the first two mixtures. While they are still damp, paint the narrow strip between the green and violet.
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• If the ratio of water and pigment is satisfactory, you will have created a "color bridge" between the green and violet which will make two beautiful edges. The red-violet is a complement of the other two mixtures and helps "knit" those two very different planes together without a hard line between them. This, in turn, creates a sense of distance and recession.
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• If you were to paint the dark green shape onto a dry ochre shape with a hard line, it would be a very different effect. Both are necessary at different times. It all depends on what you are trying to describe.
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  EXERCISE

   
  Make a sketch of the photograph.
  
  Paint the sunlit part of the wall. Only the values are important for this exercise. I would use Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre in varying values for the stone, and mix a mix-valued neutral "mauve" for shadowy areas. I like cerulean blue and a tiny bit of cadmium red to create that neutral mauve. You can also use cobalt blue and red.
  
  Mix a rich dark for the two pots, and a warm dark value for the wall that is in shadow.
  
  For the pots, I used ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, quinacridone burnt orange, and yellow ochre. I let these pigments mix on the paper and then at the right hand edge, I charged in a brush stroke of Holbein's Verditer Blue. This is an opaque pigment and I added just a tiny bit of water so that the blue stayed where I put it, creating a soft, lighter area in the shadowed wall. Opaque pigments do not "travel" as extensively as the transparent pigments. 
   
  
  Now paint the side of the large pot that is in the shadow, and continue into the shadowed wall, letting those two edges merge into a "lost" edge. Since these two shapes are very close in value, you do not need to stop at the edge, merely adjust the color to the next shape.
  

  The small pot can be painted in the same way, with just one edge meeting the dark shadow.  
   
  
  
  NEXT WEEK I'LL TALK ABOUT SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW AS IT APPEARS IN THIS PHOTOGRAPH. IT'S THE PERFECT ILLUSTRATION OF A VERY IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE. SEE YOU THEN!
  HAPPY PAINTING,
  Evelyn
  www.evelyndunphy.com
  artist@evelyndunphy.com