Lesson 24
1. Thought
Excerpt from an interview with Janet Kierstead talking about
5 years she spent working as an art therapist.
"The only danger of such training is that you begin to see
everything in art as a psychological revelation, and you don't
want to think like that every time you paint. A painting has to
stand on its own as a work of art." Janet Kierstead, American
Artist, July 92 p.49
Comment: that doesn't mean, of course, that your art can't have
a "message" or a psychological or spiritual impact.
Do some thinking on what you want your art to convey.
2. Words:
The term lightfastness refers to the ability of a color to resist
fading, of other color change, under conditions of extreme exposure
to a radiant source of light. For artists concerned with the durability
and permanence of their work, lightfastness is certainly a primary
factor to consider when making color selections. Lightfastness
does not, however, ensure permanence. While it is a critical component,
the effects of pollutants, temperature, humidity, acids, alkalis
and other factors must also be considered. Note that permanence
(as referred to in color markers) does not ensure lightfastness.
Fine artists should not incorporate markers into their works because
these are not usually lightfast. (Excerpted from Daniel Smith
catalog of May-July, 92
3. Practice: "Learning bears fruit when it is applied."
Color has value and it is useful to be very conscious of this.
I suggest the following exercise:
Do a value scale (from white to black) across the top
of your drawing page. Take each of the colors on your palette
and, on a separate row under the value scale, place the fully
saturated color at the correct point on the value scale. (For
instance, even a full hue of yellow would fit towards the white
end of the scale, while blue will fit towards the black end of
the scale.) Then, for each color, work back and forth on the value
scale, towards white by adding white, and towards black by adding
the complementary of the color you are exploring. As a final check,
take a black and white photo or take the completed exercise to
a copying machine and make a copy in black and white.
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