Module 4 - Light, Color and other Formal Elements

For this week’s post, the aspects of light, color and other formal elements such as pattern, actual texture, impasto, and frottage were discussed. Some of the concepts examined, relating to light, are used by artist to constitute 3D objects using the techniques of chiaroscuro as in the first image. This and other approaches to creating 3D portrayals of 2D objects are the topic of discussion here.

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is the use of gradient shading and chromatic colors to depict 2 dimensional objects as if they are 3 dimensional. The shading generates contour in the surface of the object by using the perception of a light source and the resulting shadows casted by that light.

Here is an example of the 3D effect chiaroscuro produces when used in creating works of art. This woodcutting by Albrecht Durer (1471 - 1528) uses the technique to create a life like rendition of a rhinoceros. Cross-Hatching is also employed by the artist to create contour in the woodcutting.

Rhinoceros
by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)
woodcut in black line, with blue-green tone block, 8.325” x 11.75”
Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Categories of Light

Artists use light in many ways in their artwork. The properties of light are described as being additive. This means that when the primary colors of light - red, green and blue - are added together or overlapped, they make up the spectrum of light seen by the eye. White light contains all three colors. Contrary to the additive process of light the subtractive properties of reflected light create the pallet of colors seen by mixing red, yellow, and blue. They are the primary colors. The various colors and shades created by the additive and subtractive process are shown below.

An artist who has taken this idea of additive and subtractive light properties literally and used it as the main focus of his work is Dan Flavin. Here he has used fluorescent lights of various colors to dispense his brand of artwork. If you look closely at the following picture of an installation done in the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, you will notice both the additive and subtractive qualities of light and color. From left to right the lights are made up of white, red, yellow, blue, and green fluorescent tubes in the vertical position with white light in the horizontal positions. The overall look of the light emitted is seen as white light, except where very close to the colored tubes. This is an example of the additive properties of light. The same light bouncing off the light colored walls also appears very close to white. The interesting part is where the light is reflected off the dark floor and the subtractive qualities of light are observed, where the colors of the tubes are evident, when the light reflects off the dark surface.

Untitled (to Don Judd, colorist)
by Dan Flavin
Installation in the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art
from University of California, San Diego

Arbitrary Color

The idea that trees are brown and green like grass, water is composed of shades of blue along with the sky, and people range from brown to pale shades of tan, are all notions of realistic portrayals of objects we see every day.  What Matisse did in his Sketch for “The Joy of Life” was to use Arbitrary Color when painting the objects in this piece.  As you can plainly see the sky is pinkish-purple the grass is yellow, the trees are orange, some pinkish-purple, and the people are all pink with brown outlines. All of which are arbitrary to what the natural colors of the objects in the painting.

Esquisse pour “Le Bonheur de vivre” (Sketch for “The Joy of Life”)
by Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
oil on canvas, 16” x 21.5”
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Analogous Color Scheme

As seen in the color wheel on the left, there are many variations of color and even more tints and shadings of those variations. Each of the colors on the wheel can be made up of the three primary colors; red, yellow, and blue; mixed with white to tint the color or mixed with black to shade the color. The orientation of the colors around the wheel has significance as well. Colors across from one another are complimentary, while colors next to each other are part of the analogous color scheme.

Moreon color schemes here.

Here is an example of the use of an analogous color scheme in the painting by Pierre Bonnard. Notice the overall tone of the hues in the painting that surround the analogous red color scheme. As one can readily see from the color wheel the colors used are within two steps to the left and right of red, with accents of the complimentary color from across the wheel, green. 

Bowl of Cherries
by Pierre Bonnard
oil on canvas, 11.875” x 16.5”in
The Phillips Collection, Gift of Marion L. Ring Estate

Frottage in Art

The term frottage is defined as the use of a technique where one puts a sheet of paper over a textured object and, using the side of the pencil, rubs the sheet of paper to impose the texture onto the paper. This drawing by Max Ernst (1891-1976) is an example of this technique. One can notice the chain-link fence diamond pattern along the bottom. While the form is that of a fish like object, the textured look of the scales is created by, the means of frottage having been incorporated into the drawing. It looks like a number of different surfaces were rubbed to produce the desired textured effects where necessary.

Escaped
by Max Ernst (1891-1976)
Drawing
University of California, San Diego

Impasto

Many works of art are comprised of varied Actual Textures, and impasto is one of the textural effects artists use to enhance their art. The oil painting by Claude Monet depicted here is an example of impasto. The layering of paint is so pronounced in this piece that it can even be seen in this picture of the original work. The impasto is a way of playing with light by creating shadows where the paint is heaped on the canvas. Most noticeable in the yellow and tan areas of this painting, the shadows are prominent and present a sense of depth. The areas where the shadows cannot easily be noticed, such as the aqua-blue areas in the center portions along the left and right do not have the same depth and are seen as being flat compared to the yellow area.

The Artist’s House in Giverny seen from the Rose Garden
by Claude Monet
oil on canvas, 80 x 90 cm
Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives