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Avoid lavish use of highlights. Avoid heaviness. Try reducing chroma with complementary color.
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Good planning is half the battle.
Keep looking for big simple shapes, not always easy in storytelling pictures."
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First image: "The Blue Hour," 1951. More at The Rockwell Center/Blue Hour
Second image: Burial of Sarah. From “Abraham, Friend of God,” National Geographic, December, 1966.
For more Lovell in National Geographic, see also:
Norman Conquest, August, 1966.
In the Footsteps of Alexander, January 1968.
The Vikings, April, 1970.
Tomorrow, a letter from Mr. Lovell in 1995, with thoughts on Pyle and color.
7 comments:
Jim,
Great stuff. Looking forward to his comments on Pyle.
thanks for the daily wisdom James, I need my fix ;)
Wow, great advice! But what does he mean by heaviness? Love you blog, by the way ;-)
Great illustrations, great advice!
Great stuff, one of the Kings of illustration.
Here's cool link to the Battle of Hastings.
Drawing, Oil sketch, finished painting.
http://www.angelfire.com/mb2/battle_hastings_1066/lovell.html
I notice that Lovell used a very limited palette, especially in the Biblical painting.
But this painting is very complex, and it must have taken him quite a while to finish it.
What do you think Lovell did?
Did he (a) finish the whole painting in one sitting?; (b) spread the work out over several days, and re-mix new batches of the same colors every morning?; or (c) mix these colors only once, and then save the left-over paint every night, over the several days it took him to finish?
IbisBill, I really don't know the answer to that one. I'd love to learn the answer, too.
Phiq, By heaviness, I think he means unrelieved high chroma color, without variation or vibrancy from complements, like using a solid red tube color for painting a sweater.
Jeff, thanks for that Battle of Hastings link.
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