Post by NaughtyOtsel on Sept 16, 2004 23:43:46 GMT -5
R. Hartman
Color Theory Final
9/14/2004
Color Masters: Diego de Silva Velàzquez
Diego Velàzquez was an oil painter from the 1600s who was sponsored by the Spanish monarchy. Not only did he paint portraits of the monarchy themselves, but he also was one of the few painters of his time to portray the court’s dwarves in a human light. Like most Renaissance painters, he painted religious scenes, but even they were quite realistic. Velàzquez was known for his fine technique is portraying different textures, substances, and super realistic portraiture. He used Earth tones almost exclusively.
Velàzquez was known for his use of brown, ochres, creams, blacks, and red tones. In fact, almost all of his art was done in warm colors alone; even his greens and blues were warmed up with brown to make them warm as well. Rarely he used pure red or orange. In “Queen Mariana” (1652) he used a subtle contrast of red, black, white and gray highlighted with gold in the style of Renoir. In his painting “The Waterseller” (1619), he used tones of tan, terracotta, and red to give the image an almost hot feel like the weather of the summer. He used delicate changes in tone to render the soft fabric of the clothes and the shiny stoneware of the pots. Even the goblet full of water is done ever so carefully to be completely realistic like real crystal. On the rare occasion he used blues or greens, he always warmed them up with brown to match the earthy tones of the rest of his works. Many of his paintings were done in nothing but shades of brown. The use of calm and dignified earth colors gave his work a regal and realistic look that fit his genre paintings of daily life and portraits of serious monarchs and quiet court dwarves. Realistic, neutral colors gave his paintings a truly human quality.
Highly structured renderings with subtle lighting and heavy shadows gave Velàzquez his trademark photo realistic look. Unlike many painters who would change the look of a person to make them more beautiful, Velàzquez painted exactly what he saw, even if it wasn’t the most flattering. This heavy shading gave the figures and shapes true roundedness that looked as if they could jump right off of the canvas. In some of his paintings he paired a photo realistic foreground with an almost impressionistic background. The shadows he used in his work are glazed transparent, not opaque tones. Instead of just putting darker value paint down, he would glaze over the normal color with a thin layer of black or darker brown to deepen the value in the area. He mostly used browns and grays to shade. However, at times he did use an impressionist style in the foreground on things like lace and fluffy skirts. This sometimes would cost him a commission or two because wealthy ladies wanted every last fold of lace painted. His use of different sized brush strokes helped him render velvets and satins as well as the natural environments he ended up painting. His works had the warm feel of a summer day in Spain, no matter what the topic, but they still had a darkness to them, like the time period in which he lived.
Velàzquez was a serious oil painter who made his own style of rendering. At times his use of value closely mirror’s Caravaggio’s but it was still his own. His humanistic approach to the painting of the court jesters and dwarves was sweet and realistic; he didn’t make them look like monsters like some artists did. When he painted children they had the fresh faced blush of youth and his older people looked as if he’d just snapped a picture of them. All in all he showed his technique as a master painter and colorist by his careful use of values and earth tones; something hardly any other artist did at that time.
Color Theory Final
9/14/2004
Color Masters: Diego de Silva Velàzquez
Diego Velàzquez was an oil painter from the 1600s who was sponsored by the Spanish monarchy. Not only did he paint portraits of the monarchy themselves, but he also was one of the few painters of his time to portray the court’s dwarves in a human light. Like most Renaissance painters, he painted religious scenes, but even they were quite realistic. Velàzquez was known for his fine technique is portraying different textures, substances, and super realistic portraiture. He used Earth tones almost exclusively.
Velàzquez was known for his use of brown, ochres, creams, blacks, and red tones. In fact, almost all of his art was done in warm colors alone; even his greens and blues were warmed up with brown to make them warm as well. Rarely he used pure red or orange. In “Queen Mariana” (1652) he used a subtle contrast of red, black, white and gray highlighted with gold in the style of Renoir. In his painting “The Waterseller” (1619), he used tones of tan, terracotta, and red to give the image an almost hot feel like the weather of the summer. He used delicate changes in tone to render the soft fabric of the clothes and the shiny stoneware of the pots. Even the goblet full of water is done ever so carefully to be completely realistic like real crystal. On the rare occasion he used blues or greens, he always warmed them up with brown to match the earthy tones of the rest of his works. Many of his paintings were done in nothing but shades of brown. The use of calm and dignified earth colors gave his work a regal and realistic look that fit his genre paintings of daily life and portraits of serious monarchs and quiet court dwarves. Realistic, neutral colors gave his paintings a truly human quality.
Highly structured renderings with subtle lighting and heavy shadows gave Velàzquez his trademark photo realistic look. Unlike many painters who would change the look of a person to make them more beautiful, Velàzquez painted exactly what he saw, even if it wasn’t the most flattering. This heavy shading gave the figures and shapes true roundedness that looked as if they could jump right off of the canvas. In some of his paintings he paired a photo realistic foreground with an almost impressionistic background. The shadows he used in his work are glazed transparent, not opaque tones. Instead of just putting darker value paint down, he would glaze over the normal color with a thin layer of black or darker brown to deepen the value in the area. He mostly used browns and grays to shade. However, at times he did use an impressionist style in the foreground on things like lace and fluffy skirts. This sometimes would cost him a commission or two because wealthy ladies wanted every last fold of lace painted. His use of different sized brush strokes helped him render velvets and satins as well as the natural environments he ended up painting. His works had the warm feel of a summer day in Spain, no matter what the topic, but they still had a darkness to them, like the time period in which he lived.
Velàzquez was a serious oil painter who made his own style of rendering. At times his use of value closely mirror’s Caravaggio’s but it was still his own. His humanistic approach to the painting of the court jesters and dwarves was sweet and realistic; he didn’t make them look like monsters like some artists did. When he painted children they had the fresh faced blush of youth and his older people looked as if he’d just snapped a picture of them. All in all he showed his technique as a master painter and colorist by his careful use of values and earth tones; something hardly any other artist did at that time.