Tonalism:The intersection of Art and Music

The term Tonalism describes a style of American art beginning in the 1870s focused primarily on depicting landscapes that emphasized tonal values to express mood or poetic feeling. James McNeill Whistler’s work identified the style that used musical terms such as nocturnes in his titles. Just like musical arrangements, Whistler compared paintings to musical compositions by arranging tonal values and colors just like a composer would score a series of related notes. The style, known as "Tonal School," focused on closely related colors that emphasized color, line, and shape and that evoked quiet contemplation and emotion. The palettes were often cool, and the subjects were often scenes with softly brushed color harmonies. The favorite time of day was dawn, early morning, dusk, twilight or evening during late autumn, winter or early spring, all seasons of quiet and often hazy light..

Three different approaches to Tonalism during this time, the Barbizon School, the Aesthetic Movement and Symbolism, addressed atmospheric painterliness and close tonal harmonies.

Tonalism became the precursor of 20th century American abstract art.

Passing Trains, by Clarice Beckett

The Invention of Paper; Transforming Mankind Through Art and Literature

It can be said that nothing transformed the course of history, including the evolution of mankind, more than paper. Starting with the invention of papyrus as early as 2900 BC, paper has taken many forms, including parchment, vellum and plant pulp.

The earliest form of papermaking that we still use today began in 50 AD. by a Chinese court official named Cai Lun. Cai mixed tree bark pulp with gags and hemp fibers to provide the first durable and transportable paper surface. The Chinese stitched paper and bound it to create the first books, and went on to become the leader in book production. In the Middle Ages, Monks illustrated manuscripts commissioned by the church known as codices. These became the oldest examples of art on paper dating from 400 AD.

Woodblock printing on paper began in Asia and spread to Europe in the 18th century. German artist Albrecht Dürer was known for his woodblock prints and engravings and even used paper for paintings. In 1754, James Whitman invented wove, a smoother surface than the textured laid paper. It was treated with gelatin to make it strong and absorbent. This made it useful for a variety of art forms.

As paper mills sprung up all over Europe, it became more affordable than paintings on canvas. As a result, more people could afford works of art on paper. In the 19th century, Impressionists used paper for drawing, pastels, printmaking and watercolor. Japanese color prints introduced Asian art to the world at this time and was very popular. Edgar Degas discovered monotype, a unique print, loosely painted, made by applying paint or printing ink to a flat sheet of metal, glass, or plastic. The painted image is transferred to paper either by manually rubbing or using a press.

Today, you can find paper is a variety of textures, colors and sizes. Handmade paper is seeing a resurgence. Two artists, Helen Hiebert, and May Babcock offer instructions on how to make your own paper. Helen can be reached at helenhiefertstudio.com and May at paperslurry.com.



Albrecht Dürer - St. Christopher Crossing the Stream

The Principal of Fat Over Lean

Some oil paints, especially student grade, contain fillers, such as chalk and additives, that thicken the paint and sometimes make it hard to apply. The first inclination is to thin the paint with odorless mineral spirits such as Gamsol, but be careful! In the early stages of a painting, thinning the paint with mineral spirits is okay as long as the ratio of oil to mineral spirits is no more than 50/50. As you build more layers of paint, however, you want to lessen the amount of mineral spirits and increase the amount of oil (if the paint needs thinning). 

Some artist grade paints have plenty of oil, so the addition of oil or mineral spirits is not necessary. Thinning paint with mineral spirits tends to weaken the paint and makes it susceptible to cracking. It will also tend to ‘sink’ the colors, causing the gloss in the paint to flatten and become dull. If you apply paint that is thinned with mineral spirits over a fat layer of paint, the upper layer will crack because it will dry faster than the layer under it. Use a refined or cold pressed linseed oil to extend the viscosity of the paint as you build layers, but use only enough to make the paint easy to apply. Both are thin oils, versus a stand oil, which is thick and dries slowly.

The Art of Fresco Painting

Recently, I went on a week-long trip to Italy, the birth of the Renaissance, and the birthplace of one of my favorite artists, Michaelangelo. Even though the trip didn’t include many museums, I managed to visit a few in my free time, including the Sistine Chapel, where some of the most famous artists, including Michaelangelo, were represented. I found that a lot of Italian art were in the form of frescos, many of which are still visible after hundreds of years of pollution and water damage. I realized that I didn’t know how these paintings were made, so I did some research.

The word fresco is derived from the Italian word for "fresh." Fresco or Buon fresco is a technique of mural painting applied to freshly laid lime plaster made of pozzolana (volcanic material, predominantly composed of fine volcanic glass), water and lime. The artist would combine dry-powder pigment with water and apply it to the plaster. The colors had a translucent quality at first. As the pigment was absorbed into the plaster, a process called carbonization occurs. Carbon dioxide in the air combined with the lime in the plaster formed a rock-hard surface of calcium carbonate, cementing the pigment into the wall surface.

The under layer, called arriccio, is laid slightly coarsely and is left to dry, usually for some several days. Using a full-scale drawing, the artists transferred the outlines of the design onto the wall from a tracing made of the drawing. On the dried arriccio, in early frescos, the artist sketched the sinopia, using a dark reddish-brown natural earth pigment. Once dry, the wet layer, the intonaco, is applied. Intonaco is an Italian term for the final, very thin layer of plaster. The intonaco is painted while still wet, in order to allow the pigment to penetrate. This layer was only the size of the surface that was expected to be completed that day, the giornata (Italian for “day”), sometimes matching the contours of the figures or the landscape, but more often just starting from the top of the composition. A layer of plaster will take seven to eight hours to dry. The artist would start to paint one hour after the application and continue until two hours before the drying time—giving about five- or six-hours’ working time. Once a giornata is dried, any unpainted intonaco must be removed with a tool before starting again the next day.

Some pigments did not work well applied on intonaco because of alkalinity of the plaster. Blue was a particular problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco (“dry”), because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli, the only two blue pigments then available, would work with wet plaster. Colors applied to dry plaster required a binding medium, such as egg tempura, glue or oil to firmly attach the pigment to the wall. Over time, Buon fresco paintings lasted longer than a secco, since it bound well with the plaster.

Artists transferred their paper drawings to the wall by tracing along the larger areas of the drawing with a thin piece of wood that pierced the paper and left a light indentation on the surface. Another technique called pouncing involved pricking the paper along the lines of the drawing with a pointed instrument leaving small dots. The artist would hold the drawing on the plaster surface and, with a bag of soot, rap the surface of the paper over the dotted area, leaving a line of black dots on the plaster surface.

A technique used in the popular frescoes of Michelangelo and Raphael was to scrape indentations into certain areas of the plaster while still wet to increase the illusion of depth and to accent certain areas over others. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark “outlining” of his central figures within his frescoes.

The fresco painting technique has been employed for thousands of years, but is most commonly seen in early Renaissance art. During the sixteenth century in Italy, wall painting began to include oil painting on canvas as the need for portability and the support from wealthy merchants competed with church patrons.

Shadows Revisited: Color

In continuation of my blog on shadows, we need to address the effects of color. When we first think of shadows, we might automatically assume that they are gray or black. In reality, it’s more complex than that. The color of a shadow depends on two things, with some exceptions:
The color of the light source
The color of the surface the shadow is falling onto

The color of the light source

I tell my students that when there’s a cool light, you will see warm shadows, and when there’s a warm light, you will see cool shadows. By warm shadows, I mean that there’s a hint of a warm color such as red or yellow, and by cool shadows, there could be a hint of blue or purple in the mix.

Surface color

In addition to these colors, you need to look at the color of the surface.

For example, on a sunny day, leaves casting a shadow onto green grass would look different to leaves casting a shadow onto a brown dirt path. The green of the grass would affect the color of the shadow, and the color of the dirt path would affect the color of the shadows from the leaves.

You would have the same shadow color that would be purple/gray or blue/gray initially, (because of the warm sunlight) but then it would be altered by the general color of the surface that the shadow is falling onto.

There are a couple of exceptions to these rules:

Translucent objects: When you have a translucent object and light can pass through it, like a stained-glass window, or a liquid in a glass bottle. The shadow colors would be altered by the color of the object.

Reflective objects: When you have a reflective object, like a white building and the ambient light reflects off the surface and bounces into the cast shadow.

Recap

Step 1 – Observe the shape of the cast shadow. This is in direct response to the shape of the object casting the shadow and the shape of the surface the shadow falls onto.

Step 2 – Observe the edge quality of the shadow. How far is the shadow from the object you’re painting? How much has is softened (even in hard sunlight)

Step 3 – Observe the color temperature of the light source. Warm light, cool but very muted shadows, cool light warm but very muted shadows.

Step 4 – Observe the local color of the surface the cast shadow is falling onto.

Step 5 – Observe the value of the shadow.

Drawing Simplified, Part II: Shadows and Form

One of the basic foundations of a good drawing or painting, besides rendering the proper shape, is good form. Form turns a two-dimensional object into a three-dimensional object, and gives interest to a picture. All objects have form, some more subtle than others, depending on the light source. Shadows provide form to objects and are denoted in values. The number of values (the dark and lightness) to a form depends on the light source, how close it is and how strong it is.

Shadows

Shadows provide dimension to an object. The shadow shape is the most discernable shape of value of an object. It is opposite the light source and reveals both the form (a solid shape with volume) and plane (a flattened area of a form) of an object.

Shadow Edges

Depending on the object, the edges of a shadow can be either sharp or soft. Observing an angular or planed object, as one plane meets another and turns away from the light, the shadow edges are sharp. For a curved object, the shadow edge is soft with a gradual shift in tone.

Distance also plays a part in the edges of a shadow. If the light source is close to the object, the cast shadow is softer on the edges. As you pull the light away from an object, the cast shadow is longer and has sharper edges.

Painting Shadows: Edges and Value

There’s so much to share about painting shadows, so I’m going to break it into a two-part series.

When we look at shadows, we are looking at the negative space, which is the area around the subject. This space is filled with shapes that are cast by the subject from either direct light or diffused light. A cast shadow occurs when an object blocks the light and casts a shadow on a surface. It is usually a darker shadow than the shadows on the object.

Changing the level of light will change the length of the cast shadows. The lower the light on the object, the longer the cast shadow. In this case, care should be taken that the shadow doesn’t become the focus of the picture, rather than the object itself.

Direct sunlight or a strong indoor light gives us a hard light source that creates clearly visible shadows and produces a hard crisp edge to the cast shadows, usually.
A cloudy sky gives us a soft light source which gives much subtler shadows with soft blurry edges.

When you’re painting a sunlit scene, the hardness of the shadows cast depends on the distance between the subject and the surface where the shadow falls. If the distance is only a few inches, it will tend to be a hard-edged shadow. If the distance is a few feet, as from a tree, the edges tend to be soft.

Value

Besides the edges of the shadow, it’s important to note the value of the shadows. Remember, value is the lightness or darkness of a subject. You can use a ten-point value scale to help you figure out the value of a shadow. also notice how they become lighter in value towards the edges.

You also need to take into account reflected light. Outdoors, shadows are often lighter than you think due to the sunlight bouncing back into them. Because of the amount of bounced light outside, a white object will reflect more light into its shadows.