Impressionistic Broken Color

Notes for my students and just regular people.

In this post-

1. Vocabulary 

2. General painting tips

   

There’s a lot of jargon in the artworld.  Unfortunately, we haven’t settled on universal terms and definitions.

My recent workshop was on Impressionistic Glow in your paintings.

Here are some of the terms we used, and how I ( and many other people ) define them.

Glossary:

Broken Brushstrokes– These can be any color, but it refers to putting the paint on in dashes or dots without blending the paint.

Broken Color– a subset of the above!  This is when we put differing hues (colors) next to each other that are the same values (lightness or darkness). This can be done with any color of the same value, but it’s especially interesting when we use complementary colors.

Complementary Colors– Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. The main pairs are Red/Green   Blue/Orange  and  Yellow/Purple

Values–  lightness or darkness of a color.  An easy way to see our values without being distracted is by taking a photo and then editing it to grayscale.  If a phone pic, you can choose Edit: Color: Saturation– and slide all the way over until it’s black and white.

Notan-- Black and white shape simplification of a scene. More Values can be added in grayscale.

A good app for this is Notanizer. It's a one-time purchase of $2 at the moment. If you know of an app that will do this in color (without being $$$ or complicated or using AI) please contact me! Artist grid works ok for Android, but only has one setting. This is called posterize in color, but maybe there is another name for it. In the olden days Picasa was a champion at this, but Google decided to orphan that software. I guess it was too perfect for this world.

Saturation-- How pure a color is. This range is from "tube colors" the brightest a paint color can be to "grayed down" or desaturated colors. If you colors are too garish, you can "gray them down" or neutralize them by adding their complementary color a little at a time.

Warm and cool are relative terms!

In general terms, we say that blue and green are cool and red, orange, and yellow are warm.

However, there are warmer blues (teal), and there are cooler yellows (pale lemon yellow). 

Toning a canvas/surface-  This refers to a thinned paint that is more or less evenly applied before you begin to paint. Typically, it’s a warm color such as yellow ocher or raw sienna, but it can be any color. (optional technique)  I prefer to use a toned canvas because leaving that color peeping through helps to unify the color of the painting.

Underpainting- This is anything from a line drawing with one paint color to a full monochromatic  painting in a thinned color that is meant to be a value or drawing guide for top layers of paint.  Again, this is usually a warm color.  I tend to use Iron Red Oxide or a dark purple (Ultramarine blue plus Alizaron Crimson and a touch of white)--Also, a completely optional technique! 

It will be completely or almost completely covered up by top layers of paint, so use paint sparingly.  

The latest hooligans to take my workshop. This must be pre-prosecco break....

General Tips:

For shadows or other dark areas in a painting, use thinner paint (not thin as in diluted with thinner, but thin as in less paint on the surface of the painting).  The reason for this is that thicker paint tends to have a shiny surface that comes forward visually.  Shadows don’t come forward, so we want them to stay more matte. 

Where lit areas of an object meet shadow areas of an object, there tends to be a warm mid-tone connecting the two at the transition.

Edges- Anywhere we have harsh lines in our paintings draws the eye to that spot. Soften edges by lightly touching the wet paint with the tip of your finger. The softest edges should be away from the area of interest or focal point of the painting. 

Don’t get worms!  It’s so challenging to paint mountains and their shadows.  Instead of slavishly copying what you see and getting frustrated and lost, just aim for a simplified gist of it.

There’s a tendency to keep painting the lit portion until the shadows look like disjointed segments of gummy worms.  Many times this can be resolved by connecting some of the worms and adding thinner and thicker parts of a shadow.  It can help to look at your reference and get a sense of where the light is coming from.

Direction of strokes– It’s most effective to follow the form contour of what you are painting.

Distant trees- vertical strokes. Foreground trees- pay more attention as there are multiple planes you can use to guide you. Water reflections- straight down with the colors above the water. Straight across for reflected sky color in the water.

Skies- since there’s no form, this is a great place to play with direction. You can slant all of your brushstrokes- this gives more interest to a boring sky. A vertical stroke is good for adding energy to a painting.  Horizontal strokes in the sky are more calming. 

The top of the sky on a clear day is bluer, darker, cooler and gradually gets warmer and lighter closer to the horizon.

If you are trying to paint in an impressionistic way- step back from your work often (at least 5-10 feet) and take a lot of breaks. If you get too locked in- you are bound to overwork and over blend, which often leads to profanity and/or airborne canvases.

Most of all- remember that painting is not a magical skill that you are born with or not.

Just like playing the violin, you will make a lot of mistakes before you make beautiful music.

It’s not about talent.  It’s about brush miles and easel hours and not taking painting or yourself too seriously :). 

What did I forget? There was a lot! Thank you, Artists, for making me a better painter by forcing me to pay attention to what I do enough to use words about it. You are amazing, and I miss you already!