Understanding NMM better?
- Thread starter Kimmo
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Ok, you folks made me do this! I decided to expound on my previous thoughts, and offer them now to this community. Comments, corrections, and insights welcomed.
Regarding my interest in the techniques and styles of Bill Horan and Mike Blank, to my eye, both artists create quite realistic painting effects through their use of muted colors and softened shading and highlights. Although focused on traditional paintings, I found this short article on muted colors to be quite informative and reminiscent of Horan’s and Blank’s miniatures artistry.
Some of the following points from The Landscape Painter’s Workbook, by Mitchell Albala, may be reminiscent of the effects of zenithal lighting/priming widely used in figure painting. With that technique, generally only two or three colors are used, e.g. black and white, sometimes also a gray. That approach emulates the idea of value scales and endpoints, and yields similar results to what Kimmo has created above.
NOW: The following are MY interpretations, as a rank novice, of six of Albala’s teaching points (with page numbers in parens), and how they might apply to the range of sculpting, modification, and painting of busts, figures, vignettes, and dioramas. I expect my perspectives may change and evolve as I gain more experience and gather additional input (and actually get more painting time).
Regarding my interest in the techniques and styles of Bill Horan and Mike Blank, to my eye, both artists create quite realistic painting effects through their use of muted colors and softened shading and highlights. Although focused on traditional paintings, I found this short article on muted colors to be quite informative and reminiscent of Horan’s and Blank’s miniatures artistry.
Some of the following points from The Landscape Painter’s Workbook, by Mitchell Albala, may be reminiscent of the effects of zenithal lighting/priming widely used in figure painting. With that technique, generally only two or three colors are used, e.g. black and white, sometimes also a gray. That approach emulates the idea of value scales and endpoints, and yields similar results to what Kimmo has created above.
NOW: The following are MY interpretations, as a rank novice, of six of Albala’s teaching points (with page numbers in parens), and how they might apply to the range of sculpting, modification, and painting of busts, figures, vignettes, and dioramas. I expect my perspectives may change and evolve as I gain more experience and gather additional input (and actually get more painting time).
- Shape Interpretation (pgs. 20-33): Identify the fundamental structure of the subject in terms of major shapes. This helps focus the artist’s efforts and adjust the key relationships between them to create/improve flow (see number 4 below).
- Squint to simplify patterns (pg. 19): Squinting at the subject helps obscure/filter out details, revealing main structures, shapes, & relationships; squinting highlights areas to emphasize and areas to mute/de-emphasize.
- 80/20 rule applied to balancing large shapes and masses vs. details (pg.25): A profusion of details, especially intricate ones, can dilute or diffuse the viewer’s attention. But details should enhance the subject, not draw attention away from it. Of course, what constitutes “details” depends on what points and aspects the sculptor/painter wants the viewer to focus. (NOTE: this isn't the general idea behind the original expression of the "80/20 rule", but, hey ...)
- Determine, or establish, the directional energy (flow) of the piece (pgs. 43, 52): While this may be more apparent with vignettes and dioramas, busts can also benefit from understanding (or creating) one or more flow patterns, i.e. how the observer’s eye is drawn around and along the piece from point-to-point, background-to-foreground, top-to-bottom, side-to-side. The smaller the piece, of course, the fewer flows would seem appropriate; a bust, for example (sculpting, modifying, &/or painting), may be effectively organized around a single flow and point, such as from a background area to a foreground point/object, an upraised hand to a face, etc.
- Identify color groups (pgs. 137-151): To me, this perspective is related to the concept of a “mother color” to unify and harmonize all the colors used in a painting or sculpture. Planning color groups and associated palettes helps pull the piece together, and avoid unintentional color clashes and distractions.
- Use neutral/muted colors to de-emphasize some shapes (see point 1 above) and areas, shifting visual emphasis to target areas and paths/planes of motion (pgs. 127, 162; see point 4 above); also, to introduce/increase overall harmony of the work (pg. 127). Again, this is a key attractor for me to Horan and Blank.
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