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RELATIONSHIPS  - How  parts of the picture relate to each other

 

Here we are looking at the way you build features and colour within a picture to achieve the best

Balance,  the way parts of your picture relate to each other and how you want them to relate

 

Your reference may well be attractive, but the picture you will produce will be your own version of the scene and you are at liberty to change elements within the picture to produce a more satisfying image.   

 

The eventual viewer of the picture ( possibly the buyer (?)) will not have the benefit of seeing your

reference and will judge your picture on its own merits.  If it is a scene well known to the viewer, any changes or omissions in major elements could be noticed.  Minor changes of features like moving trees or altering the exact position of a building will probably not be noticed.  Having said that, if you are commissioned to produce an image of something, you are duty bound to do just that - warts and all -

unless the commissioner agrees.

Otherwise, it is quite usual to leave out some elements if they interfere with the overall shape of the

picture, though cars and people add to the impact of street scenes and help give scale, so should not be

totally omitted.  If there are a lot of distant houses, boats, cars etc, is is sensible to reduce the number if they are not central to the picture.

 

We have considered the relationship of colour elsewhere, and the way we can heighten the interest by placing green against red, yellow against purple, orange against blue.  All these colours are immediately opposite to each other on the colour wheel and strike a strong contrast with each other to draw the eye.

 

Consider the relationships of shape and position

 

HORIZONTALS : VERTICALS            a break in a pattern will attract

                                               a church spire among a groups of distant houses

                                               a tree in a hedge line

BREAKS IN REPETITION    a gate in a fence,

                                    a ripe apple in a box of green ones

                                   a lemon in a box of onions

You may need to make some changes in the actual positioning of the elements of your picture to make it ‘sing’.  This is where sketching out a set of thumbnail pictures can settle a decision fairly quickly

     

 

What is the central feature of your picture?

How do you take the eye towards this and stop the eye travelling off elsewhere ?

 

Consider relationships of tone and colour

Apart from the use of complementary colours ( red /green etc )

Anywhere where you want to draw the eye, you can attract it by bringing the following close together:

 

 WARM  :  COOL              BRIGHT  :  DULL           DARK  :  LIGHT

 

Where these are close together in your picture, the contrast will attract

 

Where you want the eye to take in a general scene - as in a background, or to the edges of your picture

you can keep your tones and colours low key and avoid bringing contrasts together.   These parts of your picture will then provide the background music to your main theme.

 

Keep in the back of your mind, as you plan out your picture, the fact that moving elements around, changing the sizes of neighbouring features and looking at the overall scene through a different coloured filter, can make a major change in the success of your finished work.  Nature rarely composes a perfect picture.  Nature provides the pieces, it is often up to you to arrange them.

This is where the artist has the advantage over most photographers

You have an ‘Artists Licence’   USE IT !

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