Monday, October 25, 2010

the palette...

to continue the previous discussion:  This otherwise poor photograph has the entire autumn palette -- the various greens, including chartreuse, the shots of madder red, the warm yellow-gold-orange range, and the grays/browns.   Notice the way the limbs sketch through like charcoal strokes.  It's particularly apparent in the maple tree on the right.  The grays are critical to the result, and I'll bet it's the sketchiness of the darks and the 'grounding' effect of the grays that have eluded me.

svb

2 comments:

  1. I think you hit on something--the sketchiness of the darks--it means doing some very small number of stitches (not that easy, maybe with duplicate stitch?) or picking a lighter color than the deep, deep brown that it actually is. Remember optical mixture. Look at how the leaves obscure the branches in so many places. The overall effect is a softening of the dark/heavy brown colors, effectively lightening their impact over all. And, remember, too, that a really dark color will just read as black unless it appears in large enough quantity to establish its presence (which may then throw off the whole thing). Maybe a tweed?

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  2. Thanks, Laura. You're right about the bits and sketches -- I've been using blocks. svb

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