Quotes from Harvey Dunn part 5

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.

Quotes from Harvey Dunn Part 4

Quotes from Harvey Dunn Part 4

The lightest light and the darkest dark is in the eye.


Do not be so afraid that your picture will not be seen. Who tells you to make everything hard the art editors? Why if they knew how to do it themselves, they would not be art editors, they could not afford to.



Commence your picture by first establishing the three main values of your focal center, as hair face and background; and work on that until you have it right. Then paint the rest of the picture in that tonal range and do not under any circumstances depart from it. With your main tones decided you have the key to all the remaining tones. Use all the tones you want within the established values.



A background can be painted in the same range of values as the foreground by reversing the light effect; painting the lights cool and the shadows warm in the shadow plane and warm lights and cool shadows in the sunlight plane.



Use separate brushes for warm tones cool tones and mixtures.



Use shadow tones of white for highlights on the dark.



You establish the key for the picture when you put down your first strokes for the flesh in shadow.



The center of the shadow tone in a large light area may be lightened to throw more light in the shadow, as the edge will carry the mass.

Paint related masses together as one. It will simplify the composition and give greater carrying power to the masses.



Where a few details will serve to convey the idea, don’t use many.



In a decoration do not go into factual detail or anything else that does not contribute to the decorative effect.



In design darks may be used anywhere, but in representing natural phenomena they must follow visual laws.



In decoration contrasts must be softened in receding planes.



The light pattern and shadow pattern of a design must be kept apart.



If the light source is cool the shadows must be warm.



If the shadow tone of white is high in value eliminate as much as possible from the background.



In design tie the sides of the shape together with a pattern of shadow. Then draw in the form with deep shadow (dark) leaving the light area to the last. The whole picture will thus fall into a simple scheme of light, halftone and dark.

A man of but mediocre talent who is furiously driven by deep desire will get somewhere. He who doesn’t desire deeply isn’t hurt much by failure.

Quotes from Harvey Dunn Part 3

These quotes are compiled from students notes. They were passed down to me from some of my teachers who studied with Dunn Students like Harold Von Schmidt and Kenneth Riley. Some of these quotes appear in a slightly different form in 'An Evening in the classroom'  I have two more pages of these to publish, about 1300 words in all. I have published two other posts of Dunn Quotes here
These have been a great source of inspiration to me over the years and I hope you find them helpful.

Try planning a picture in ivory black and raw sienna.

When we start a picture we begin with a shape. Our first problem is to introduce into the shape a form. It may be only a line that will tie the sides together.

If the distance is dark the values will grow lighter towards the foreground.

One authentic detail will make the whole picture.

You cannot paint a picture from the model.

Keep repeating your main values it will give your picture unity.

An arm is all one; paint it so with one stroke of the brush

Play up to one color note

Light and dark, warm and cool colors, in equal proportions produce static neutrality, balancing each other right out of the picture.

To simplify your scene, paint as many things as possible in the same value. Then vary the texture and edges. Let modeled form come against flat surfaces, detail against simplicity, hard against soft etc.

When the center of interest is established in its tonal relations, that becomes the key to the picture and you have to stick to it whether you like it or not.

Eliminate everything that is not relevant to the main purpose.

When two values nearly alike come together, paint them as one value.

Dark in light must be at least as the shadow tone of white. If the light is soft paint it soft.

Form is expressed in the light tones by dark accents, in the dark tones by light accents.

Pictorial art is relating tones to create beauty- like chords of music- not the faithful copying of the model.

In the model there is a confusion of tones that have no meaning in art.

Do not have an important dark and important light in the same picture they will destroy each other.

If you see a thing dark make it darker; large paint it larger; small paint it smaller, then your work will be positive.

One dark accent will give accent to a high key picture.

Make your picture either a figure with a background secondary or a landscape with a figure secondary.

One dark note in a passage of light will heighten the effect of light.

To make light more brilliant, raise the value of the shadow. The light in your picture must be kept separate from the shadow. If you bear in mind that the light on dark must be at least as light as the shadow tone of white, your values will take care of themselves.

Begin a picture by first laying in the values, and then clearly define the edges.

Paint the large areas as indefinitely as you like, but paint the details with integrity.