The
college has been approached by someone from the BBC researching for a programme
on 'Painting by Numbers'. You might think this is some sort of child’s play
nonsense for CBC but painting by numbers goes back a long way and has embedded
within it a series of very important issues.
A very
short history:
Painting by numbers kits
were first issued for the general public in the 1950s, and were designed by Max
S. Klein, an engineer and owner of the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit,
Michigan and Dan Robbins, a commercial artist. At the time they were very
contentious, on the one hand they were hailed as allowing everyone access to
the ability to paint realistic paintings, on the other hand they were derided
as childish.
But…
There are
some things you might want to consider before dismissing these 1950s kits as
worthless.
The
breaking down of forms into simple flat colour areas has a long and honorable
history. Roman mosaics for instance were first of all sketched out as line
drawings and then filled in by coloured mosaic tiles. At the dawn of the
Renaissance Giotto was developing classic fresco techniques which consisted of
breaking down images into simple line drawings, having these drawings converted
into ‘cartoons’ which when used to apply simple drawings onto wet plaster,
operated as guides to the fresco painter, who because you cant mix ‘buon’ or
true fresco paint, but simply apply it flat onto the wet plaster with which it
bonds, had to learn how to paint flat sections that would appear to the eye as
solid.
Giotto
A how to do it wiki which is basic but pretty accurate is to be found here
If course
Giotto also used fresco secco (dry plaster painting techniques that allow
you blend colour, as well as working in the golden hour introduced in the wiki link)
During
the 19th century there were several technical developments in colour
science that had a significant effect on artists. Probably the most important
was the work done by the French colour theorist Chevreul. In
particular his law of the simultaneous contrast of colours and his use of
colour wheels to explain how and why this worked. See this link
The outcome was that
artists started to understand how small patches of colour could be applied in
such a way that effective ‘plain air’ images could be made, these ideas of
course influenced Impressionism, Post-Impressionism , Pointillism and
Divisionism.
The other scientific
advance to revolutionise how artists would use colour was the Munsell colour system. This was a spatial colour system, using the
three colour dimensions of hue, tone and chroma. (Munsell used value for tone,
hence tonal value and we often use saturation for chroma, or colour purity)
Most
importantly Munsell was the first person to provide illustrations of colours in
three-dimensional space.
A slice through Munsell's colour system
The
control of colour could now be achieved by a combination of the way light acted
as a colour and how pigment could be mixed in relation to an understanding of
placement within a three dimensional set of co-ordinates. These co-ordinates
also allowed the colour industry to develop a number system whereby colours
could be identified. The Munsell company still exist and has a very good website that deals with ongoing issues surrounding colour as both a pigment and
light phenomena.
I put up a post a
few weeks back about Louise Lawler’s tracings and pointed out that she employed a
children’s book illustrator to make these. See
The issue was
that she needed a professional to do these tracings because tracing is no job
for an amateur. This is why the Palmer Paint Company needed the skills of Dan Robbins, a commercial
artist. He was doing a similar job to the children’s book illustrator working
for Lawler.
So
why is this job so difficult? Try and trace around a photograph and convert it
into a series of convincing flat shapes that still look three dimensional when
you remove the tracing from the photograph. It is much harder than it seems and
it only works if you already have a strong grasp of form. If you have this you
begin to design your selections so that they add up to make convincing ‘solid’
forms. If the image has to be then ‘toned’ a different selection is needed and
if coloured in a further refinement is required.
Hopefully
you can see from this potted history there is more to ‘painting by numbers’
than you might at first think, which is why this post is going up.
Finally
the researcher has suggested that students might like to get involved. If so
let me know and we can look at the issues concerned in a bit more depth and
perhaps try making some ‘painting by numbers’ drawings.
PS an ex LCA member of staff is quite central to the history of how painting by numbers was taken up by post-pop artists. See Willem Volkers' website
PS an ex LCA member of staff is quite central to the history of how painting by numbers was taken up by post-pop artists. See Willem Volkers' website
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