1. Part 2: The Formal Elements and Their Design
Chapter 5 Recap – Space
Thinking Back:
How does a space differ from a mass?
What are negative spaces?
How can three-dimensional space be represented on a flat surface using perspective?
How does oblique projection differ from axonometric projection?
Why have modern artists challenged the means of representing three dimensions on two-dimensional surfaces?
Due: Homework Chapter 6

2. Thinking Back: How does a shape differ from a mass?
Shape – 2D area (hxw)
Mass – a solid that occupies a 3D volume
1. What are negative spaces?
Empty spaces that acquire sense of volume and form by means of the outline that surrounds them
2. How can three-dimensional space be represented on a flat surface using perspective?
By means of illusion
Perspective – a system that allows the picture plane to function as a window
3. How does oblique projection differ from axonometric projection?
Oblique – all sides of object are parallel, with one side parallel to the picture plane
Axonometric – all sides of an object are parallel, all are at an angle to the picture plane
4. Why have modern artists challenged the means of representing three dimensions on two-dimensional surfaces?
They think that systems of perspective present a false sense of order in a disorienting and chaotic world

3. Part 2: The Formal Elements and Their Design
Chapter 6 – Light and Color
Thinking Ahead:
What are the “rules” of atmospheric, or aerial, perspective?
What contributions did Sir Isaac Newton make to our understanding of color?
What is a complementary color scheme?
How does local color differ from perceptual color?
Due: Homework Chapter 6

4. Light
Light creates space just like perspectival systems. Light creates shadows and helps define the contour of a figure or mass
Artists are interested in manipulating light. Natural and artificial light produce very different effects on the surrounding environment. These differences in turn affect the way we perceive our surroundings.
Let us examine the following ways light is used in art:
Atmospheric Perspective
Chiaroscuro
Hatching and Cross-Hatching
Contrast: Light and Dark
Value

5. Exterior view, The Dan Flavin Art Institute Bridgehampton, New York

6. Dan Flavin. Untitled (in honor of Harold Joachim) 3“, 1977
Dan Flavin. Untitled (in honor of Harold Joachim) 3“, Pink, yellow, blue, and green fluorescent light. 8 ft. square across a corner

7. Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall, 1996
Menil Collection, Houston

8. Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall (detail)

9. Atmospheric Perspective
Atmospheric perspective, or aerial perspective
Refers to the visual effect of the atmosphere on the appearance of elements in a landscape.
Leonardo da Vinci is credited for deriving the “rules” of how we perceive and depict this:
The quality of the atmosphere (the haze and humidity, physically, the actual air molecules that exist in the air) between large objects, such as mountains, and ourselves changes their appearance.
Objects that are farther away appear less clear, and are often more blue in color.
When objects are far away from us, their contrast between light and dark is also reduced.

10. The objects that are in the foreground (short buildings, trees) appear to have sharper details and brighter colors. They also have greater contrast between darks and lights. The buildings and landscape in the far background appear hazy, with a light blue coloration to them. This is because the vast amount of air and atmosphere between us and those objects that are far away block our vision from seeing them clearly.

11. Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks, c. 1495-1508
Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks, c Note the foreshortening of the Madonna’s hand as it reaches towards the head of the infant Jesus. We do not use linear perspective to sense the space of the distant mountains. We know the rock that the mountains are made of is brown, like those close to us, but the vast atmosphere that lies between them makes the distant mountains appear blue.

12. Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks, detail
Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks, detail. Even within the distant mountain formation, da Vinci emphasizes space by reducing the contrast as the mountains move further away.

13. J. M. W. Turner. Rain, Steam, and Speed—The Great Western Railway, Oil on canvas, 33 ¾ × 48 in.

14. Chiaroscuro
The word is derived from Italian, with chiaro, meaning “light,” and oscuro, meaning “dark.”
The word chiaroscuro refers to the balance of light and dark within the image, especially referring to the artist’s use of representing the gradual shift around a volumetric surface from light to dark.
The use of chiaroscuro to represent light falling across a curved or rounded surface is called modeling.

15. Paul Colin Figure of a Woman c
Paul Colin Figure of a Woman c Black and white crayon on light beige paper 24 × 18 ½ in.
Colin uses chiaroscuro techniques to model the figure. Drawing on light beige paper, he uses white crayon to create the impression of light and black crayon to create the shadows.

16. Three basic types of shadow include:
Basic Types of Light
Highlights: they directly reflect the light source and are indicated by white.
Shadows: there are various degrees of shadow, and they are indicated by degrees of black
Three basic types of shadow include:
Shadow (proper), which is lighter than and transitions into the core shadow.
Core Shadow, which is the darkest area of shadow on the object itself.
Cast Shadow, which is the darkest area of all. This is where no light falls, as the object blocks the light and casts the shadow.

17. A sphere represented by means of modeling

18. Tenebrism
Tenebrism, from the Italian word tenebroso, meaning murky.
As opposed to chiaroscuro, tenebrism is not really connected to modeling at all.
Tenebrism contains large areas of dark, which contrast strongly with smaller areas of light.
This style creates a sense of heightened drama, almost like stage lighting. The very deep shadows compete against the dramatic spots of light.

19. Artemisia Gentileschi Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes c Oil on canvas 72 ½ × 55 ¾ in.
It almost appears as if the figures are illuminated by a spotlight, with strong highlights against a dark and murky background. This intense lighting heightens the drama of the scene, and suggests that something lurks off of the picture plane, as we cannot see the light source.

20. Caravaggio David with the Head of Goliath c. 1610

21. Hatching and Cross-Hatching
Hatching and cross-hatching techniques are also employed to model figures. Think of them as linear methods of modeling.
Used especially in ink drawing and printmaking, where artist tools to do not lend themselves to creating shading areas
Hatching – an area of closely spaced parallel lines, or hatches. The closer the spacing of the lines, the darker the area appears.
Cross-hatching – one set of hatches is crossed at an angle by a second, and sometimes a third, set. The denser the lines, the darker the area appears

22. Mary Cassatt The Coiffure c
Mary Cassatt The Coiffure c Graphite with traces of green and brown watercolor Approx.5 7/8 × 4 3/8 in.

23. Michelangelo Head of a Satyr c
Michelangelo Head of a Satyr c. 1620–30 Pen and ink over chalk 10 5/8 × 7 7/8 in.

24. Contast: Light and Dark
Generally speaking, the greater the contrast between light and dark within an image, the greater the dramatic impact.
This is heavily employed by filmmakers, video artists, and photographers working in black and white.

25. Shirin Neshat Fervor 2000 Gelatin silver print 66 × 47 in.

26. Hiroshi Sugimoto, Seascape: Baltic Sea, near Rügen, 1996
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Seascape: Baltic Sea, near Rügen, The artist studies the meeting point of light and dark, water and air, at the horizon. The strong contrast of light and dark emphasizes the vast difference between the water and the air.

27. Value: the gray scale

28. When a full range of values is used, a two-dimensional object can seem three-dimensional.

29. Value in Color
Colors also have an inherent value. Blue is darker than yellow. But a single color can shift in value, by altering the tint or the shade.
Whenever white is added to a color, it concerns the tint.
Whenever black is added to a color, it concerns the shade.
Value also has a culturally assigned role and psychological impact.
In Western culture, since Biblical times, darker values tend to be associated with negative qualities, and lighter values with positive qualities.
Artists can use this system to critique the cultural symbolism.

30. Blue in a range of values

31. The pure color is located towards the center of the value scale
The pure color is located towards the center of the value scale. As the scale moves to the left, more black is added to the purple, it becomes darker, creating shades of the color purple. As the scale moves to the right, more white is added to the purple, it becomes lighter, creating tints of the color purple.

32. Pat Steir. Pink Chrysanthemum, 1984
Pat Steir. Pink Chrysanthemum, Oil on canvas, 3 panels, 60 × 60 in. each
Pat Steir. Night Chrysanthemum, Oil on canvas, 3 panels, 60 × 60 in. each

33. Nikolai Buglaj, “Race”ing Sideways, 1991
Nikolai Buglaj, “Race”ing Sideways, Graphite and ink Buglaj creates a double value scale, one using the value of the racers’ skin, and one using the value of the racers’ clothes. The racers are all depicted equally: no one is winning the race. But the artist is calling attention to how our “values” may change as we examine the drawing’s value shifts. Concepts of race (skin color) and class come into mind, and the drawing therefore points towards a lack of progress in “moving forward” with social and class relations.

34. Okun Akpan Abuje Nigerian funerary shrine cloth Commissioned in the late 1970s Cotton, dye 135 ¾ × 60 ¼ in.

35. COLOR
Sir Issac Newton first discovered in the 17th century that color is a direct function of light. Sunlight passed through a prism breaks into bands of different colors, into a spectrum.
Newton also was the first to conceive this visible spectrum into a circle, which gives us the color wheel. The color wheel is used to determine relationships in a subtractive system.

36. Colors separated by a prism

37. Conventional color wheel

38. Primary Colors Red Yellow Blue
The most primal and fundamental colors in the subtractive process. The subtractive process is what you will find to be familiar when mixing paint, crayons, etc. It is subtractive because when you mix all the colors together, you get black, or an absence of color.

39. Secondary Colors (in the Subtractive Process)
Orange
Green
Violet
Secondary colors are created by mixing primary colors together. (Yellow and blue make green, red and blue make violet, and so on…)

40. Intermediate Colors (in the Subtractive Process)
Yellow-Orange
Yellow-Green
Blue-Green
Blue-Violet
Red-Violet
Red-Orange
The intermediate colors are made by mixing a primary with a secondary color. Note how all the names begin with the primary color.

41. Subtractive Process
We understand the color wheel through the subtractive process.
Important groups of colors within the subtractive process:
Primary Colors
Secondary Colors
Intermediate Colors
It is subtractive because when you mix all the colors together, you get black, or an absence of color.

42. Color mixtures of reflected pigment— subtractive process

43. Additive Process
Colored Light behaves and mixes differently than the subtractive process.
The Primary Colors of the additive Process are Red, Green, and Blue.
The secondary colors are yellow, magenta, and cyan.
Our most common exposure to the additive process is when we look at television or computer screens (old screens, when seen close up, are comprised of tiny red, green, and blue dots). When more colors are added to one another, they become stronger and brighter than when they stand alone. When you look through the other side of the prism, the colors all join to create white, and hence, the additive process.

44. Color mixtures of refracted light—additive process

45. Hue
Hue describes a color as it is found on the color wheel. Red is a hue, as is blue, green, and so on.
There are 12 hues on a color wheel that shows the primary, secondary, and intermediary colors.

46. Intensity
Intensity refers to the brightness or dullness of a color. Colors in their pure form are at full intensity, primary colors are most intense, secondary colors next, and then intermediate colors.
You can lower intensity by adding gray (either white, black, or a combination of the two) to the color.
You can also lower intensity by mixing colors that are opposites on the color wheel (ex: adding red and green).

47. Michelangelo. The Creation of Adam (unrestored), ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Fresco. The Vatican, Rome

48. Michelangelo. The Creation of Adam (restored), ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Fresco. The Vatican, Rome

49. Color Schemes Monochromatic vs. Polychromatic Color Analogous Color
Color Temperature
Complementary Color
Simultaneous Contrast

50. Analagous Colour
Analogous color schemes are comprised of colors that neighbor each other on the color wheel.
Such color schemes are often based on the temperature of the color.
Reds, yellows, and oranges are generally received as warm colors.
Blues, greens, and violets are generally perceived as cool colors.

52. Jane Hammond, Fallen, The warm temperature of this installation recalls a sunny fall day. However, the initial warmth perceived by the colors contrasts with the knowledge that Fallen is about the fallen soldiers of the Iraq war.

53. Complementary Colors
Complementary colors are colors that lie opposite each other on the color wheel (ex: red and green, blue and orange).
When two complementary colors are next to one another, especially if they are pure hues, they will appear more intense. Without mixing, they appear brighter than when they stand alone.
This effect is called simultaneous contrast.

54. Red and green are directly across from one another on the color wheel, and they are an example of a set of complimentary colors. (Blue and orange are another set, and yellow and violet are a set as well.)

55. Cara Grande, c. 1960. Feather mask, Tapirapé, Rio Tapirapé, Brazil
Cara Grande, c Feather mask, Tapirapé, Rio Tapirapé, Brazil. height 31 in.

56. Gerhard Richter. 256 Farben (256 Colors), 1974–84
Gerhard Richter. 256 Farben (256 Colors), 1974–84. Enamel on canvas, 7 ft. 3 in. × 14 ft. 5 in.

57. Georges Seurat Le Chahut (The Can-Can) 1889–90 Oil on canvas 66 1/8 × 55 ½ in.

58. Georges Seurat. Le Chahut (The Can-Can) (detail)

59. Chuck Close Stanley (large version) (detail) 1980–81 Oil on canvas 108 × 84 in.

60. Chuck Close Stanley (large version) 1980–82. Oil on canvas 109 × 84 in.

61. Robert Delaunay. Premier Disque, 1912. Oil on canvas, 53 in. diameter.

62. Sonia Delaunay. Prismes Electriques, 1914
Sonia Delaunay. Prismes Electriques, Oil on canvas, 98 3/8 × 98 3/8 in.

63. Charles Searles Filàs for Sale (from the Nigerian Impressions series) 1972 Acrylic on canvas 72 × 50 in.

64. Brice Marden. The Dylan Painting, 1966/1986
Brice Marden. The Dylan Painting, 1966/1986. Oil and beeswax on canvas, 60 3/8 × 120 ½ in.

65. Color in Representational Art
There are 4 different ways of using color in representational art:
Local color– the color of objects viewed close up in even lighting conditions. The color we “know” an object to be. We know a banana is yellow and a fire truck is red
Perceptual color – color as perceived by the eye. Color can change depending on the light
3. Optical mix like Seurat
4. Arbitrary color for formal or expressive purposes

66. Claude Monet. Grainstack (Sunset), 1891
Claude Monet. Grainstack (Sunset), Oil on canvas, 28 7/8 × 36 ½ in.

67. Pierre Bonnard. The Terrace at Vernon, c. 1920–39
Pierre Bonnard. The Terrace at Vernon, c. 1920–39. Oil on canvas, 57 11/16 × 76 ½ in.

68. Symbolic Color
Color symbolizes different things, but these distinctions are relative to time and culture.
In America, at a stoplight, red means stop and green means go, but these are not universal rules.
In Western culture, in the context of war, red may mean anger, blood, or violence, but in the same culture, red may mean love (roses, Valentine’s Day).
Of course we experience art with our own associated values and heritage, but it is important to try to look beyond our own definitions to broaden our perspective. Color is contextual.

69. Vincent van Gogh. The Night Café, 1888. Oil on canvas, 28 ½ × 36 ¼ in.

70. Wassily Kandinsky. Black Lines (Schwarze Linien), 12/1/1913 Oil on canvas, 51 × 51 5/8 in.

71. Homework Multiple choice questions for Ch. 7: Other Formal Elements
Due: Next class, Wednesday, February 11
Next class: In-Class Art Project: Texture and Pattern