Working with form and optical mixing

As I begin to develop my shape and form from the last posts do to consider exploring contrast and successive contrast exercises,

I realise that it would be easier to establish colour relationships by using colour blocks as Picasso did in his Weeping Woman.
I have realised that after initial noticing detail in form and tone in a subject it is important at my stage to go back a step and forget detail in order to envisage colour.

In the same way that I have had to learn to sacrifice initial drawing detail to establish form; I now want to begin colour planning without much tonal analysis. Tone and shade will follow during the painting stage.

Suddenly it hit me that I could cut out the key shapes to make colour blocking simpler. Then I realised that putting pieces on a black background would give me an opportunity to play with aspects of optical mixing. The rush of excitement and possibility that fills me at this time is rare and definitely one to cherish and remember in the many fallow idea times!

I was not able to enlarge the side profile without sacrificing the shadow shapes ai want to explore. This gives me a further opportunity to expand the project in a completely different way later.

Meantime I moved the head on the same plane to emphasise the LHS- enlarging this side of face and hands and flattening out this side of the nose. ( I chose the LHS as it is most in shadow which is what I want to develop. The Left hand has moved out larger and forward. This will help me to indicate shade and depth in my similar colours ( orange and red).

in pictures 4 and 5 above I increased the negative space between blocks.

in 1 and 2 I played with the classic candlestick negative space that I realised had appeared and is mentioned in a lot of well known samples of optical mixing.
2 shows a diagonal move to suggest different between the blocks but I note that it also show movement?

3 is an attempt to give significance to the space between the cupped hands. I have a notion to use tonal shading in this. Such spaces have been used by artists to represent the heart and also the centre of femininity in the reproductive system. I am still to develop where I choose to go with this!

Doing e recises to show complimentary colours together I can confirm colour theory findings that both are enhanced. The use of complimentary colours to frame a subject is particularly effective. While doing my weeping woman project I have discovered thr even though I like certain combinations eg blue , violet and pink it is of little surprise to see that Picasso’s choice of yellow , yreen and complimentary red wirk much better. Here lies a dilemma for artists!

Still life and still life with colour used to evoke mood.

The best example of this that I have is the kettle oil and tomatoes still life. Here I found it easier than usual to move through a fuller tonal range of red , blue and their mixes. Working on depth and looking at the result from a distance I was able to go back and add lighter and darker shades to give greater depth. Mixing more tones before would help me to make this more effective.

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In the fruit study I kept the study small and simple. Using red and yellow tones I believe helped to create a mood of warmth of these summer fruits. This is better than previous studies where I mixed in blues to cool it down unintentionally. This latter picture is not successful in terms of linear perspective. It does use a doorway to frame the scene which is a useful device. AS I struggled with appropriate shades of shadow under the table and worked into it while still wet I muddied the effect.

Where does inspiration come from? – Podcast | Tate

Fly under the radar, explore creative spaces, and discover the importance of drawing a sheep
— Read on www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pablo-picasso-1767/where-does-inspiration-come

I found the podcast interesting and inspiring, that artists do not just “wait for the creativity to descend upon them”. One contributor described that environment and emotion can be so exhausting that inspiration dries up. It is important to go back to what was found to give inspiration and work to recreate the feelings that gave ideas.

The Tate article also uses Picasso’s Weeping Woman to illustrate his drought period in the 30’s and how he moved on from this. Looking at the Weeping Woman in the context of the colour wheel and optical mixing I suddenly got part of what Picasso may have been saying. Immediately this became an inspiration to make a response and fulfilled the criterion of the still life exercise on P68 .

Project – response to Picasso’s Weeping Woman

An interesting web article on inspiration sources lead me to re-examine Picasso’s Weeping Woman. Wow- finally I am beginning to understand my own sense of something that Picasso is tiring to convey. For me I see his attempt to show the most important shapes in the human form. These are not necessarily allow a linear plane. He moves perspectives of the face so the half of face in shadow is front on and the lighted right side is a side profile. Why ? Perhaps to emphasise what are possibly the more attractive curves and line relationships? For example the shaped curves of shadow encompass the eye sockets, sweep round the mouth and flick down through the cheeks to the chin – creating a slightly different geometric pattern on each side of the face.
His genius takes this further for me as he effortlessly suggests pleasing combinations of colour triads ( two similar shapes in closely positioned tones of cold pale yellow and green matched with an almost complimentary partner purple). This had never occurred to me and took some time to work out as I worked through shape and form drawings to produce this:

It occurs to me that it has it has vocalised for me an idea that has been forming in my head for the last few years: the geometry and shape that shadow forms on the human face.

Now to add colour. I tried to use oil pastel lines to identify blocks of colour but found that this looked unconnected.

Following a Picasso’s blocking , I worked out my own triad shapes: red for the shadow side space on and orange for the right hand side of the face with the perspective swirled slightly to emphasise the light shapes on the RHS of my face.This is mirrored in the hands.
Using a black out line helps to differentiate.

Next steps:

.add whitened tones to suggest depth?

. emphasise the swivel in the right hand side of the face and hand

. add the third compliment colour blue. Picasso used this as shadow ( small purple triangles) I need to work out my response to this.