Studying the Masters
5yr
So, I am gearing up for a new course on making a master copy. In this diagram I am looking at John Singer Sargent and how he uses complementary colors to create a stronger color effect while maintaining a very naturalistic sensibility. Super impressive stuff.
The orange background and purple clothing also seem to play off each other. I find this stuff fascinating. I wonder how much Sargent deliberately calculated and how much was a natural feel for getting the right colours.
In a master copy I'm experimenting with at the moment, it's surprising how the flesh colours change as the background hues change. Shadow colours on the face that looked too green (actually low value yellow) looked much more natural as the background also tends towards green/yellow.
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5yr
That's part of the beauty of Sargent- all the years of calculation and well studied color led him to be able to improvise and paint with feeling.
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5yr
This is awesome! I thought this was very useful
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5yr
Thanks, Kristian. I originally developed these info-graphics for my Insatgram audience to get across as much of an idea as possible without using any text... of course then I use text in the description but, well, you get the idea 😅
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5yr
Im excited for this course. Do you know about any color mixing habits from these masters? For example in school I was taught that when you want to shift the hue while maintaining the value, you should mix the target hue in the same value, then add it to the original hue. Not just mix in the target hue straight out of the tube and then try to fix the value. I wonder if Sargent ever talked about palette cleanliness or staying organized while mixing.
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5yr
There is some documentation of Sargent's opinions and practice- not as much about exactly he would prescribe to learn. For that there is much more from Carlos Duran, his teacher, about how he learned to paint. For Duran, it was always value first and then color. As far as mixing practices we have this (by tone he refers to value): "We were supposed to mix two or three gradations of yellow ochre with white, two of light red with white, two of cobalt with white, and also of black and raw umber to facilitate the choice of tones." -Sargent
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5yr
Follow up question, are you more interested in the boldness and simplicity of a portrait by Sargent or the subtle rendering of an early Rembrandt?
Rembrandt wins out for me, the subtleties are the meeting of so many plans & marks coming together in the end I find it really difficult to break down and analyse how to get there? Sargent's boldness is 'easier' or at least at first glance to understand
The Sargent example wins out for me. I find Sargents a joy to soak in, interpret and appreciate boldness and nuances of his suggestions via brushstrokes. This Rembrandt example feels accurate and very descriptive, but just not as intriguing in that way to me as a viewer. Plus Sargent’s rhythm is otherworldly.
