Unity

Celeste McCall · 01-03-2004, 07:13 PM

I have been studying a lot lately on different books and web sites about unity in paintings. This is the thing that I really want to work on this year as my goal for 2004. Unity and getting more of it in the painting.

I found a really interesting web site with the amount of color that one might use to keep unity within the painting. They cite some interesting 'harmonious proportions'.

http://www.justkiss.com/psp/cre_colour.htm

Be sure and scroll down toward the bottom of the page that discusses Harmonious Proportions and then the percentages that they suggest.

I think that it was Tim Tyler who pointed out the importance of using proportions for successful painitngs. His paintings are beautiful as are all the SOG artists.

Is anyone familiar with a book on this? Or, do any of you have a specific color proportion instructions like these. If so, I'd love to buy your book.

Celeste McCall · 01-05-2004, 05:21 PM

Hi all,
Regarding unity in a painting. I was told by one of my teachers a long time ago to "put a little peanut butter on the chocolate and a little chocolate on the peanut butter".

She was referring to integrating the colors. For instance:

If your painting had an overall background of warm analogous hues with the key color being Orange, and just for an example then let's say it is a formal room that is behind the subject.

Now, of course the subject will look very nice in blue clothing as a contrast against that nice warm orange room behind the subject.

So, If you have a child sitting on an orange sofa with the background being almost entirely analogous to the sofa color, then wouldn't you want to attempt to get a little blue into the background and a little orange onto the dress? To integrate it? Or have I been told wrong about this?

I think that I also read where Vermeer would not integrate his colors. Maybe it was considered verboten back then?

Yet, when you design a painting then it's kind of like designing an interior isn't it?

If you have a large zebra striped chair with 2 zebra striped pillows on it and a large tan/brown sofa with several pillows done in Gold tones.

Then in order for it to look like it goes together, wouldn't one put a gold (with tan/brown in it also)pillow on the zebra chair and take one of it's pillows and add another animal fur print type of pillow to the sofa?

Just wondering if I'm wrong about doing this on portraits as I'm currently planning an oil painting of an asian girl and I want to integrate the colors of her kimono with the background.

Michele Rushworth · 01-05-2004, 08:49 PM

The colors in your model, clothing, surroundings, etc. will integrate themselves to a great degree, without having to worry about putting colors in that aren't there.

I recently painted a mostly white bowl that was sitting on a green cloth. The underside of the bowl showed up very green because objects reflect the colors that are around them. This is true even of surfaces that are not particularly shiny, like skin.

If you have a dark blue background, for example, and a green kimono, the shadows of the kimono will automatically have a lot of blue in them. In turn, her skin will also show a lot of blue and green, especially in the shadows and reflections. It's just a matter of looking for these colors and how they all influence each other.

Celeste McCall · 01-05-2004, 11:31 PM

Thanks Michele,
I'm glad to know that it's not necessarily something that we have to follow strictly in order to have beautiful paintings.

I knew that I liked this type of color crossing such as in Chris Saper's work (I would post her painting here but I'm not sure if that is allowed).

http://www.chrissaper.com/daisies.htm

So this would be concerning where she put the flower color in the dress and the blue dress color in the backgound. But I was not sure if this is just something that is required or just something that certain artists do to create more color unity.

I've always done this myself as per my teacher's peanut butter and chocolate instructions of long ago. I just wondered if others did this on purpose as well.

I really like it, but maybe I like it because I was taught that it was good to paint that way. But it does appear to create more unity.

Michele Rushworth · 01-06-2004, 11:01 AM

Many artists intentionally put similarly colored objects in a painting to increase unity. The portrait I did of the teen holding the roses which is on my website was designed that way. I brought the red roses to the photo shoot to harmonize with the red curtain.

Celeste McCall · 01-06-2004, 11:53 AM

Dear Michele,
And your painting is beautifully done that way also. I love it.

Michele Rushworth · 01-06-2004, 01:27 PM

Thanks!

Timothy C. Tyler · 01-09-2004, 11:36 AM

Celeste, you are a great source of new bookmarks for me. I love color books/websites. The best ones really make clear how colors work (or don't work) together.

Celeste McCall · 01-09-2004, 11:55 AM

Dear Tim,
Your paintings are an inspiration to all of us. You are a real contribution to the fun and education on this forum.

Also, if I don't ever paint masterpieces in my lifetime, then I will still consider my 'art' life successful by the amount of educating that I have helped others with. Education is the most important thing to me so I put a lot of information that I find out there for others to see and learn from as much as I learn from them.

However, I sure am going to be miffed if I don't get to at least paint 2 or 3 masterpieces while here on earth.

There are lots of websites on chatty teachers and artists if you haven't checked them out yet. They are for all artists of any media.

http://porcelainartist.proboards25.com/