Serial Painting

This concept of creating a "storyboard" of a day is so cool. Serial painting is to paint the same scene several times a day in different lighting, or similar scenes one after another. (Color and Light, pg. 208)
 Gurney suggests that perhaps on a train ride, you make several sketches, only 1.5 inches wide, of the scenery. Since it passes so quickly you depend on your memory, and this leaves the general feel, or "characteristic" of the landscape in your painting.

(Nathan Fowkes, serial painting)

(Claude Monet, Houses of Parliament series, 1900-1904)

Atmospheric Effects

(Color & Light, pg. 174)
Sky blue - the color of the sky changes based on where you are in relation to the sun, and in relation to the horizon. Gurney makes a lot of explanation, but basically you should  have at least 4 colors mixed for clear blue sky.

Atmospheric perspective (pg. 176) - the air is illuminated, which means that the further away you are from something, the less bold and clear those colors will be. They will gradually come closer to the color of the sky. "Warm colors advance, cool colors recede".

(http://adamforfang.blogspot.com/2011/11/atmospheric-perspective.html)

Random notes

There's this chapter titled: "Subsurfaces and Effects" (pg. 151) but I don't really get how that has anything to do with these particular topics, so I titled this post differently.

Color zones of the face. (pg. 156) Gurney says you can split up the face into 3 colors: The forehead is yellowish, the nose & cheeks are red, and the chin is blue-green. He mentions that some artists will accentuate this blue - green color to bring out the color of the lips.

                                                                                        Image credit: James Gurney

(Gilbert Stuart, Portrait of Washington)

Hair: (pg. 158) 

 To keep hair from being stringy, use big brushes, simple masses, soft edges, and controlled highlights. Where the hair meets the head, try not to have every individual hair enter the head - look for masses (eg. curls at the nape of the neck) and focus on the shape of the whole. 

(Justin Park, concept painting, 2010)

(Anders Zorn, Marie Cohn, 1900)

Edges and Depth

Okay, I'm not gonna lie - I saw this painting and wondered why anyone would paint something this ugly.

(James Gurney, Giant Rodent, 2009)

But on the topic of edges and depth, this painting is a good example of focusing in on an area by making the lines crisp and defined. Gurney explains how artists tend to make every area in a painting crisp because we look around and our eyes refocus on every detail. However, in reality our eyes (and cameras) choose an area to focus on, and leave everything else more or less blurry. 

Mixing Color Strings

Pre-mixing is preparing a palette of the colors you will use before you begin painting. It's convenient because you use less space on your palette, and it saves time because you don't have to keep making the same mixtures over and over.

Usually 4-5 value steps will work. (Color and Light, pg. 123)

Color Relationships

Warm and cool colors have different affects on their viewer, and can be used to emphasize a particular feeling. James Gurney says, "The cool colors evoke feelings of winter, night, sky, shadow, sleep, and ice...blue suggests quietness, restfulness, and calm. Warm colors make us think of fire, hot spices, and blood. They connote energy and passion." (Color & Light, pg. 112)

(Ananta Mandal, Wandering in the Desert, 2014)

(William Flanagan, Blue Morning)

Warm colors include red, orange, yellow, and yellow-green, while cool colors are purple, blue, and blue-green.

 When mixing colored light, it's called additive color mixing, and behaves differently than pigment. The shadow in warm light will be cool, and the shadow in cool light will be warm.

(James Gurney, Dinotopia)

Warm Underpainting

I LOVE this technique. Basically pre-toning the surface of the canvas, underpainting gives you a good base and allows some highlights to show through. I read this in Gurney's book, but another artist, Heather Theurer, talked about this practice in a lecture she gave at our school.
Gurney says a Venetian red or burnt sienna make great bases, and make blues & greens stand out.

                                         (http://painting-course.com/lesson/still-life-layers/)

 (James Gurney, Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, 2006)

                                                     (Heather Theurer, Yellow Ribbon, 2016)

Grays and Neutrals

 "More paintings fail from too much intense color than from too much gray." (James Gurney, Color and Light)

 Grays allow colors to be more vibrant. Gurney later talks about the "fruit salad" problem of too many colors, where using just one or two colors with complementary grays can make color "sing".

(Nicole Pletts, The Dull and The Drab)

(Jan Havicksz Steen, The Parrot Cage, 1660 - 1670)

(James Gurney, Humboldt on the Orinoco, 1985)

Shadows & Light

Our minds tell us that white is lighter, however, in direct light black may be lighter than white in shadow.

James Gurney tell us, "As you walk across the shadow, imagine yourself looking up at all the bright patches around you, not just the blue sky, but also the white clouds, buildings, or other bright objects. Those patches of color determine the lightness and color temperature of your shadow." 

(Gildar Graphics, Provençal Cafe, n.d.) 

Light Sources

In the second chapter of his book "Color and Light" James Gurney talks about sources of light, what's generally easiest, and how to approach each situation.

Direct Sunlight:

The sun is the greatest source of light, then there is blue sky and reflected light. The sky and reflected light should always be softer than the direct sunlight.

Overcast Light:

Overcast is generally easiest - the colors are straightforward, and there are no drastic shadows. 

Window Light:

This is popular because it simplifies the light and is constant. 

Candle & Firelight:

Yellow-orange in color, this is a weak light that drops off rapidly. 

Gurney mentions a few others as well, but these are the ones I liked the most.