Optical Versus Intellectual Modes of Painting

In the course of studying with artists at the New York Academy of Art and Grand Central Atelier over the years I have come across several very different modes of observation when painting from life.  At the highest level of generalization these modes of visual thinking fall into two approaches: 

• Optical or “Paint what you see” (reacting to observed color)
• Intellectual or “Paint what you know” (modeling the form with value based on the direction of the light source.)  

The Optical Mode

The first style of visual thinking, the optical mode, tends to generate paintings that are highly chromatic with a stimulating range of hues.  Form is created primarily through temperature changes (contrasting warms and cools).  The virtues of this style are graphic impact, energy, movement and emotional effect.  The vices of this approach are a patchy, crude or "posterized" look. In my opinion, this approach is exemplified by artists like Ben Fenske.

The Intellectual Mode

The second style of visual thinking, the intellectual mode, tends to generate paintings that are tonal, with a subtle variations in values and a limited palette of hues and subdued chroma.  The virtues of this style are a subtle, poetic, and intellectually sophisticated look. The vices of this approach are a stylized mannequin-like polished feeling and a static lack of energy.  In my opinion, this approach is exemplified by artists like Scott Waddell.

Of course, in practice great painters combine both approaches fluidly, alternating between the two modes at different stages of the painting.  This level improvisation requires a a high degree of skill, experience and confidence which few of us can readily achieve. Fortunately in painting,  “The Process is the Product” and those of is who are mere mortals can bake the benefits of both approaches into our process. 

The Process is the Product 

I recently tried intentionally alternating these approaches during a six-hour portrait study session at Grand Central Atelier. 

Stage 1: Block-In

Stage 2: Optical Impressions

This stage is focused on reacting visually to color and identifying regions of color that can be grouped together.  This stage involves keeping each region of color generally flat and relying on brush application and edges for the transitions rather than “modeling” transitions with blended gradations of value.  Form is turned towards or away from the light with relative temperature changes (warmer or cooler). The values are intentionally compressed into the middle ranges.    

Stage 3:  Intellectual Modeling

This stage is focused on “modeling form” by conceptually understanding of the surface planes as they turn towards or away from the light sources.  Starting in the shadows, gradations of value are applied that gradually working out from the shadows and into the lights.  The value range of the painting is expanded by working from the darkest darks to the highlights.  

The combination of these two modes of visual thinking, each at a separate stage of the process, seems to yield a more nuanced and balanced result than favoring one approach at the exclusion of the other.    

  

Five Hour Portrait Sketch

In this post I'd like to walk through an alla prima portrait sketch approach.  Here is the final result:

Preparation

The canvas is prepared with an oil-based ground of Gamblin Oil Painting Ground thinned to the consistency of milk.  This "sizes" (water seals) the canvas and makes the surface less absorbent so that the paint will flow and the strokes will hold up their shape without sinking into the canvas weave.  A warm semi-transparent tone is then applied to the canvas  using a mix of raw umber (50%), yellow ochre (30%),  ultramarine blue (10%) and alizarin crimson (10%), thinned with mineral spirits. 

For a convenient self-portrait the canvas can be placed directly on a long mirror so that you have the option of painting in "sight-size" where the reflected image in the mirror is exactly equal in height and width to the drawing. 

Stage 1: Block-In

The purpose of this stage is to lay in a rough drawing, capturing the major simplified shapes and their relative proportions using a warm, dark transparent wash that approximates the main shadow color.  It's best to use large bristle brushes and create the initial drawing using straight lines and simplified shapes which will make it easier to evaluate the relative proportions. 

  

Stage 2: Open Grisaille

Once the major proportions of the shadow shapes have been defined, bristle brushes are used with plenty of thinner to scrape away the under-tone and indicate the light areas by allowing the white of the ground to show through.  This is called an "open" grisaille because white paint is not used.

Stage 3: Posterizing

The "average mid-tone" colors for the 3 or 4 largest shapes are mixed and laid in side by side so that their relationship can be compared on the basis of temperature (warmer / cooler) and value (darker / lighter).  Typically this is the background, shadow shape, light fleshtone and clothing. These colors are laid in as flat "poster" shapes for easy comparison.  Once they are all adjusted to work harmoniously they form the basis of the value structure of the painting.   In mixing the "average" it is best to err on the side of darker middle values and low saturation.  It's also important to keep a bit of clean thinner in the brush so that this layer will dry quickly.  Pay attention to edges and "service the big shapes" by resisting the temptation to paint in smaller details.  Maintain the simplest, biggest shapes possible. 

Stage 4: Mid-Tone Mass-In

At this stage the brush is loaded with medium (50% stand oil, 50% thinner).  The major shapes are broken down to the next level and the large mid-tone colors are massed in with large brushes starting with the shadow shapes and working into the mid-tones.  The values are kept in the middle range for now. 

At this stage the drawing needs refinement, and a more precise exploration of the anatomical shapes.  I find it helpful to do a quick exploratory study of the major planes and shadow shapes, in keeping with the anatomical shapes identified by John Henry Vanderpoel in his classic "The Human Figure".

Using the drawing as a guide yields further refinement.  The "architectural integrity" of the major planes is maintained, with well-defined edges that blend into each other without losing their borders.  This way the sense of form and the structure of the head does not become "mushy" or "wobbly":

Stage 5: Modeling

At this stage more sensitive modeling is painted using a wider value range, crawling across the form from the shadows to the lights, but using "temperature" changes rather than exaggerated value changes to articulate the turning of the form.

Stage 6: Finish

Now working all around the painting rather than "crawling" across the form, the highlights, dark accents and saturated "broken color" passages are used to make important features like the nose extend out into space and draw attention to important moments such as the red of the lips, the high points of the chin, and center of interest in the model's right eye. 

Here is a detail of these finishing passages.  Note the "broken color" on the chin, and the transition from the "hot" pink of the right cheek to the "cooler" pink of the same value as the cheek turns:

Painterly Printing

I was introduced to the monotype printing method at the Salmagundi Club's recurring Monotype Parties which are hosted by Master Printmaker Robert Pillsbury.  The monotype (or "monoprint") technique creates a single, unique print and allows a very painterly approach to printmaking.  Ink is rolled onto a metal plate and then wiped away by using the "subtractive" method that is identical to creating an "open grisaille" or "wipeout" underpainting.  In the subtractive method, the plate (usually copper but can be plexiglass for tracing a drawing)  is covered with ink and the lights are "rubbed out" with a variety of brushes, styluses and other mark-making tools.

When the print is pulled on wet paper, the result is Tonalism at its best: smoky, atmospheric, and moody with loose, expressive edges. This style was exemplified in the 19th century by painters like Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, George Inness, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

"East Hampton Beach Path No. 1",  2012.
Monotype Print, 6x9 inches, by Thomas Shelford 

Monotype printmaking tips:

• Create a medium-value  "ground by covering the plate with a  "mid-tone" using a soft rag.  Soften the ground tone into a cloudy, smoky haze by brushing it with a soft makeup brush such as the type that is used to apply blush.
• Work into the ground tone both additively (by adding ink) and subtractively (by scraping away ink).  
• Work soft-to-hard by beginning the drawing with a broad, soft, hazy application, (for example, by using Q-Tips to loosely "draw" the light areas)  and then gradually hardening selected edges at the center of interest as the drawing progresses. 
• Use two types of ink, sepia and cold black, and mix them together to create a rich color with a unique warm-cool balance that is to your liking. 
• Use a very diverse combination of drawing tools to obtain a wide variety of surface effects and a "layered" feeling.  Makeup Q-Tips, makeup brushes of all types,  bristle brushes, wooden chopsticks and toothpicks leave unique marks.  

Charles Brand Printing Press

Tools of the Trade

A great place to learn and practice monotype printmaking is The Lower East Side Print Shop which offers residencies to working artists, providing 24x7 access to their facilities which include a Charles Brand press.  I recently completed a residency at LESPS and exhibited the results, a series of monotype landscapes, with Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor.

Lastly, here is a recommended book for learning about the history of monotype printmaking:

The Painterly Print: Monotypes from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, by Sue Welsh Reed.

"It's Been Done"

I was listening to stories from the landscape painter Albert Handell at the Salmagundi Club's "American Masters" exhibition.  In the 1950s Albert was considered to be a very odd walking anachronism indeed for painting realistic landscapes, in spite of his ability to capture the volume and movement of water with broad expressive brush strokes that would put his contemporary Mr. Pollock to shame. Albert often heard the following rebuke when he mentioned that he was a realist:

"Realism is a waste of time, it's already been done by the Old Masters.  Why bother with a stale format? Do something original!"

"Rocky Mountain Stream", 24 x 40 in. by Albert Handell

Fifty years later, and it's still difficult to have a discussion about this topic in the current culture, where novelty is given the place of honor, and the definition of Art is so broad that it is almost impossible to engage in a meaningful dialogue. Instead, I give up on "ArtSpeak" and look for insight by re-casting the argument in a musical context in order to see how it holds up.  


For example, take a mature artistic genre in the musical space, such as guitar-based Rock N' Roll.  I can imagine a conversation with Bono in the year 1982, as U2 was about to release the War album.  In this thought experiment, some fictional critic might have asked him:

"Hey Bono, why are you bothering with this Rock N' Roll format? Your primary instrument of expression, the guitar, dates from the 1600s!  The Rock N' Roll genre itself is 40+ years old already, and it's already been done by Chuck Berry and Elvis!  It's now 1982, do you actually think you're going to have a more unique sound than the Beatles, using that same old arrangement of lead guitar, bass, drums and  vocals? Do you really expect your silly U2 experiment to be more original in an artistic sense than the Velvet Underground, or David Bowie?  Forget it, Bono! Rock N' Roll is a dead horse, as done as Latin!  

Not to mention, in terms of the limitations of the medium, there are only 12 major chords on the guitar.  Furthermore, there is the issue of subject matter and relevance.  In popular Rock N' Roll  music, isn't it always about romantic heartbreak or about rebellion against authority?  So limiting!  And you Mr. Bono want to extend the genre by singing about politics for heaven's sake? Bob Dylan already did that 20 years ago!  You're going to be better at it than the poet radical?  Do something original!"

And so on...


Obviously, no-one would make such a ridiculous argument in a musical context, even concerning a 
well-worn  genre such as popular guitar-based Rock N Roll music, with its standardized AABA format and song structure of introduction-verse-build-chorus-bridge-solo-finale.  


Yet in spite of the fact that the guitar originated in the 1600s, has only 6 strings and 60 standard chords, it's been one of the primary sources of original modern popular music since Django Reinhardt in the 1930s.


By contrast let's get back to the subject of painting, and limit the sub-genre to naturalistic, representational oil painting on canvas.

• The subject matter: All  of visible nature.  In contemporary figurative realism alone the range of expression varies from the floating outer space bodies of Odd Nerdrum to the hyper-realistic psychological intimacy of David Kassan to the lyrical poetry of Jeremy Lipking.
• The mode of expression:  Millions of color combinations. The Munsell Color System corrals the oil paint color gamut into quantifiable chunks at regular intervals of hue, value and saturation and still ends up with 1500 pleasing visual chords. 
• The medium: Oil paint, with its infinitely variable optical properties of transparency and texture is applied in thousands of brush strokes, each carrying a unique signature.  A painting is a layered physical object, a cast or mold preserving the thousands of movements of the painter's body over many hours.

Detail of a head study painting by David Kassan

The capacity of realistic oil painting for diversity and originality of expression is astonishing, and each generation points this infinitely versatile medium at its contemporary subject matter.  


As the undaunted Mr. Handell said to me at the end of our conversation, 

"So, it's been done, eh?

Well, it hasn't been done yet by ME!"