Quick Tips from In the Studio Art Instruction

we've received a number of requests we keep receiving them over time people wanting me to talk more about other about master artists we've done some we decided to do this a little different this time we're in Roger Studio at salty live and we decided we will take Andrew WTH this time and then our next quick tip we'll give you another little surprise like this [Music] [Music] Andrew was is an artist who has influenced me for a long long time not because he can paint so realistically uh because the the life his paintings have as a result of how he places them on the canvas and of course the expression he gives them but the placing of the images on the canvas is one things that gives his images so much Intrigue so I thought I'd take this one this one as you can see is not pleasant to look at um it's one he's called the kerners you know he did uh spend lots and lots of time with uh these people an and uh Anna and Carl Kerner at their home he did many many paintings of them and their home inside and out and this is one where he was doing sort of a portrait of their lives together but it's not the meaning of the painting I want to talk about it's the placement of the images now a lot of times people will just Place their images just anywhere and then paint them because they're more interested in the image than they are in how people are going to look at it well that dog won't hunt in my world uh and then there are others that have these rules they want to follow rules are no good because you just have to memorize them and then you worry yourself to death be sure you follow problem but it's a good idea to learn what principles do and how the image how the way you place the images affect the whole painting now one of the uh principles that well let me say something else one thing I love about WTH is that he could twist a principle and I know people will say Break The Rules there's no rule broken here he's simply going beyond the principle he's using the principle but in an ingenious way now let me show you what I'm talking about here I'm talking about the way he's placed those images and how he's balanced them at the same time given them the meaning he's given them by the way he's balanced them so the principles of balance there are two major principles of balance he's working with here one principle of balance is that an image that is isolated such as Anna is here carries a lot of weight another principle of balance is that a large shape such as the whole negative space we see right in here a large space shape carries more weight than a smaller shape and this these are not rules but the these are the ways our eyes respond to what we're looking at on a two-dimensional surface another principle is that dark shapes carry more weight than light shapes of the same size and yet another balance principle is that the closer to an edge a shape is the more weight it carries and yet there's another one and that is weight is created by the direction in which an image is looking so by Anna looking in this Direction She's creating a weight weight that pulls in this direction but Carl looking in that direction he's creating a weight that pulls in that direction now how many principles of balance did I list there I I list some of the major ones that we are concerned about when we're painting now let me show you how brilliantly done this is in my estimation of all my years of study this is one of the most brilliantly composed painting ever done one of one of there are several but this is one of them and what I explained to you earlier about how the principle of balance is used plus this one other thing I want to point out to you uh shows you how why so brilliantly placed the images he created here so if you remember those of you who are kept up with our quick tips over the year over the years 10 past 10 years uh I there is one own reatment also pronounced reatment and that is uh the relationship are placing images according to the division of space the in a reatment it works a reatment is very very similar to the golden principle or the golden mean when the edge when the short side and and the long side let me say this way there is a square in two squares in every rectangle there is the uh Square on this side and then if you turn it around you see the square is on that side the extra part is the reot and see that can be switched around in any direction like that now in in the golden rectangle the proportion always Remains the Same that in the the law this is by the way this is Fibonacci tool let get this so Fibonacci tool you can get these on eBay I believe it is or it's Etsy no you can give it on X Fibonacci 2 is the golden mean proportion and you can use the golden mean proportion for placing shapes well if you'll notice this white space between Carl and Anna is creating a square by the way way the division is made with where he's placed Carl right here you can see that you can see the The Edge the this Edge is about the same length as this portion of this Edge and then this is rebot right here so that principle of rebot is one we'll all often use we use it in other ways too but often use if we've got two parts of the story we want to tell we'll have one part occupying the square and another part occupying the rectangle here where am I oh yeah right over here the rectangle so you see he's used a reatment here uh very very close to the golden rectangle the way he's placed these images now you would think that with Anna being here oh with with Carl being over here and being so dark in value that he would be carrying a lot of weight that would be throwing this off balance but the darkness of this and the direction he's looking and the fact that it's so close to the edge is balanced by the large space here anna being as isolated in that large space and one more thing the direction in which this rifle is poined the direction in which this rifle is pointing is pulling your eye right back to Anna helping create a balance that is create a balance that adds to the weight that the isolation is creating here and that the large space and the the balance that the weight of the large space is occupying here so if you look at it now uh you can also see that if you look at it vertically he's got that space at the top let's get it open I got to go get over okay here we go you see that space at the top there where you can see that space at the top is less than it's almost down almost halfway down can you see that it's not quite not quite exactly in the middle how many times have you heard people tell you don't put things right in the center you know how many times have you heard people tell you you have to have your space divided into thirds a third down thr it up but wife didn't do that he he dropped these images especially the very very heavy one here he dropped the image of Carl's Head almost down to the center line and Anna's head is right on the center line but it's so equally balanced that and and the way the images up here are just a very subtle difference in shape with the ceiling showing right is that the ceiling yeah ceiling showing I guess right up there um that change in value here with creating that horizontal Direction and that emphasize in emphasis on the vertical here that's going right behind his head pulling in this direction uh sort of subdivides his face this sh this shape sort of subsid it so we have a larger shape here and a smaller shape here that prevent that sort of 50/50 uh division of space from even being obvious he has balanced it by the way he has taken the principles of balance and combine them together and combine them together in the way that he has placed those images on his canvas and because the of the way they are combined together we get the meaning that we get that very very harsh meaning whether he meant to point that gun at onor we don't know but it does feel pointed at her and we can tell she's a very unhappy woman she was and we can just see uh the the sort of um us well you could say the expression in Carl's face is a very you may rough not gentle expression a very harsh uh personality type um he says other things too I'm not going to try to interpret the the painting everybody gets their own interpretation for it what I just wanted you to pay attention there is how ingeniously those images are placed and also what I challenge you to do now is if you can if you have a subject you're you're considering that has maybe two main parts to it uh consider some sort of composition that would use balance in the same way that uh wife has used it here and that would I think you would find that would be a lot of fun to do so the idea is not to try to follow rules but take the individual principles as what they will do and use them together in creating a more interested pain interesting painting uh in the way you place shap shapes according to what the principles do not just trying to follow a rule so give that a try I think you'll find it fun be sure and view all of our quick TPS while you're doing so subscribe to the channel click on the so you'll always get a notice when we produce a new quick tip which is every week if you have a question leave it in the comment section and we'll make a quick tip for you also take a trip over to dm.com where I have full length lessons downloads DVDs lots of other stuff there some free stuff for you and while you're there you can subscribe for the newsletter and that way you'll always be informed every time we do something new [Music] [Music] [Music]