|
Karin,
This isn't neurosurgery. It's observing, relating, measuring, and making an effort to paint
what is before us. Why have the subject sit if he is to be ignored because we have a supposed better knowledge of what is there than the truth before us? None of this is easy, but I trust my eyes more than a laundry list of what supposedly might be there.
Let me restate what I said in my previous note. I said "four or more colors." More can be any number above four; that's not "very limited." I don't understand the infatuation that so many artists have with formulas, recipes, tricks, supposed secrets, and "lost knowledge." I think that if an artist abandons his or her judgement and vision and instead depends on formula, he is lost. The highlights, lights, halftones, shadows, reflected lights, etc. can be warm or cool, or any color, depending on the circumstances. Their true color can only be discerned through observation of the subject in a particular setting, time of day, time of year, color of dress, etc. No one can know this by relying on what Rubens or anyone else did on the day he painted his portrait.
Steve
|