This will be my last post on the Harvey Dunn quotes. The blog is a labor of love for me and one of its perks is getting to correspond with other likeminded artists. Some of these people I have not met in person but still I am glad for their contact with me.
Kev Ferrara is one such person. I would like to thank Kev Ferrara for sending me some more Dunn images to post with the quotes. Between fighting the good fight on just about every art blog and forum I read and also offering his insight and knowledge about the art process to people, I don’t know how he finds the time to draw and paint. Thanks Kev! I hope we get a chance to meet some day.
To visualize the simple values, think of how things appear in the shadow when your eyes are accustomed to the bright light and of how things appear in the bright light when your eyes are accustomed to the shadow. How many values can you distinguish on coming from indoors into the brilliant sunlight and vice versa?
Lick touches of light into the shadow field to give zip to the points of interest in the quiet tones and to tie the light field and the shadow filed together, similarly put a few flicks of dark in to the light field.
Only the greatest contrasts are at first perceivable. The value range will be light, halftone, shadow. The subtler values will be lost. This is the effect to aim at when expressing strong light. To see simply is to see pictorially. In strong light there will be no color in the shadow. By using absolute shadow or black, to draw in the shadow forms, all the values can be painted in local color.
Balance: Opposition of lines, values, colors forms, textures etc. in unequal but related proportions.
Maintain the integrity of the local value of every form. Paint the black, black and the white, white as it appears. The light will unify the values. One fleck of light on the dark will serve to bring the whole form into light.
Ideas are intelligent active things which present themselves to your consciousness for expression. You can only be receptive and express them as they will be expressed. It is not possible for a man to sit down and cold-bloodedly think up ideas- ideas can only come to you when you have an open mind to receive them.
If your life is full you will paint full pictures If it is empty your pictures will be empty too.
Any picture that needs a caption is a weak picture.
Get it down and get it said, to hell with everything else.
