"Intensity" vs. "Chroma" and Understanding Munsell

Ever since I found Rational Painting a couple years ago, I've been puzzled by Munsell. There's a colour wheel and that's about all I could recognize about it. As you know, most kids in art classes are given the colour theory of the Impressionists and that's the first thing that comes to mind when I think about my early colour theory education—Monet, Seurat...If you could use colour theory to create works like them then you fully grasped colour. That's what I learned and that was fine because there wasn't anything else, at least not what my teachers knew about.

Looking back to my early attempts at mixing “intensity scales” and monochromatic scales...all sorts of scales, I realize they didn't really help, not when it came to painting what was in front of me because the standard mixtures were not sufficient, they were too arbitrary. I quickly realized that not all pigments fit into these pigeon holes and the colour wheel stopped working and became this mysterious thing I felt I needed magical powers to make work for me.

Painting became something I could do one day and not the next. I could never mix the same colour on the fly one day and get again the next day and I accepted that as part of what painting is. That's why drawing was always better for me; value is value, there's no confusion there. I thought “Why can't paint do that?” When I found this site and saw these strange Munsell notations, it went straight over my head. I heard the term “chroma” before and it sounded familiar to me, then I saw people using it synonymously with “intensity” and I relaxed again because I know about Hue, Value and Intensity. Then I found that actually didn't help me understand chroma at all.

Intensity seemed to block my understanding of chroma. I read some people saying it's the same as chroma, some people saying they are completely different. I figured artists disagree frequently and that's all that is, but after attempting a self-portrait and trying to mix my skin tone day after day, I had to get to the bottom of this issue. I knew Munsell had to solve this problem but I couldn't grasp it if I couldn't grasp chroma. Intensity and Chroma could not exist together in my mind and reading this excerpt from A Colour Notation by A.H. Munsell, I finally understood why.

“Intensity is a misleading term, if chroma be intended, for it depends on the relative light of spectral hues. It is a degree rather than a quantity, as appears in the expressions, “intense heat, light, sound”--intensity of stimulus and reaction...The word becomes especially unfit when used to describe two very different phases of a colour—as its intense illumination, where the chroma is greatly weakened, and the strongest chroma which is found in a much lower value.”

That's like fresh air rushing to my lungs. How did I survive without this hundred-year-old information for so long? It really is unbelievable. Now I can actually start learning and using Munsell.

Ahh, that's better.

Drawing In Progress: My Friend Part 7

Here's a truer representation of the drawing. Compare that to last week's iPhone photo...this one is so much better! I worked on the hair shapes a bit more. I forgot how time consuming dark areas are to shade in and even-out. The teeth are better (I really hate dental work in drawings, it's very challenging). The eyes are still ambiguous, I still need more information to fill them in more. Overall I feel much better about it than I did last week but I think this may be my last drawing in graphite...

Drawing In Progress: My Friend Part 6

So this paper is a huge problem (I knew it would be). It's not so much an issue in person but getting a good photo of it is a nightmare. The graphite glare on the raised areas of the paper are really distracting. It just gets worse in the darker areas, the light areas are fine.

Anyway, I've done a bit more but I'll have to figure out whether or not I can selvage this drawing based on the paper. It's something to do anyway, keeps my mind off the pain I'm in sometimes which is great for not having to take pain killers.

My Website Is Down

I was just informed that my website (crystalcbrown.com) isn't working so I'm in the process of either fixing it or dropping it all together. Right now my host is asking that I pay extra to fix whatever happened and I'm not happy about that, it doesn't make sense. So if this doesn't get resolved I'll be looking for a new host. Sorry for the inconvenience if you've tried to check out my website lately.

Update*: I'm back in business! Everything should be up and running now. PHEEWW!

General Update

It really has been a while since my last post. I am still working on that drawing of my friend but it's slow going. That happens often with me, when I get to a certain point sometimes I lose momentum. I just have to push through while I start some new projects.

It's been hard lately with some recent (not too serious) health issues, to think about "work" but I'll work through it eventually. I would say that drawing is about 60% done. I'm going to hope for the best and try to get back into a routine soon. Thanks for checking out my blog!

Drawing In Progress: My Friend Part 5

Here's update, finally. I've started working in some half-tones and softening edges. Just that little bit made a huge difference, she's starting to look real. There will be more soon. Comments are welcome and thank you for following :)

Drawing In Progress: My Friend Part 4

Still putting in those darks. This is helping me see the overall value range. I had to make sure I put the dark part of the hair in so that I could judge the values in the face better. She's looking like a brunette right now but she's actually blonde. What I'm doing is laying in a base to erase out of, which is the easiest way I know of to create realistic hair. There's a lot of edges to blend and I still don't know how I'll finish the bottom. Maybe I'll fade the bottom out...I don't know.

Thanks for checking it out!

Drawing In Progress: My Friend Part 3

*Note: Blogger seems to dull the contrast a bit on these photos.

My trusty 2B pencil (by Koh-I-Noor, my fav brand) snapped last night and I was forced to stop. Since there's no art store nearby I settled for Staples which carries some basic drawing supplies, but not Koh-I-Noor, Staedler. Of course, Staedler's great too but I have sentimental attachments to Koh-I-Noor because theirs were the first serious pencil set my mom bought me in high school. I must say they served me well.

In any case I got pretty far last night. I'm starting to remember some of the pitfalls of graphite such as shine of course which makes me have to tilt my paper to get my tones even at every angle. Also, I have to manage the graininess while not pressing too hard on the paper. Sometimes I get concentrated spots of shine that way...not good.

As you can see in the pics, I'm working strictly in the shadows for now so it looks a bit strange as it's only 50% of what makes something look 3D. My drawings never really look spot on until much later anyway, lol. I'm keeping things pretty basic for now, no details yet until I establish convincing form. I'm also not going to round off all my shapes yet, that will come with softening edges. After I'm done with laying in my tones, I'll go back over everything to get a smooth finish.

Thanks for following, and comments are welcome :)

Drawing In Progress: My Friend Part 2

There was a little scare earlier because I couldn't find my camera but I found it, YAY! So I get to post this update afterall. If you enlarge the picture above, you'll see how I'm using a bristle brush to push and spread the graphite into the paper. I'm doing this because the paper has too much tooth for me to get a smooth finish with just the pencil alone. If I were using a hot pressed paper like Stonehenge, I would skip this step. Once that's done I start placing some general dark areas within the shadow shape to start to gradually break things up. I'll show that step in the next post.

That brings me to the issue of "smudging": I don't like smudging, that's why I will have to go over this whole drawing with just my sharp pencil and refine my tones. Basically, this is the only time in the drawing I'll be using my brush or anything else in that manner. It'll be my pencils and my kneadable eraser from now on. That being said, holy crap, this drawing is gonna take forever! There's a reason why I don't love graphite, this is why. But graphite does have that subtle shine that can give a drawing that special quality, unlike any other medium.

I'm showing a little picture of my pencil as well to show you how it looks. I really can't use a pencil that's not sharp on this paper because every stroke needs to be clean, I can't have any graininess. But I'll explain more about how I'm shading with it next time. Thanks for following so far!

Drawing In Progress: My Friend Part 1

I finally started this drawing on Sunday and this is about a day's worth of work so far. As you can see, I'm concentrating on getting the shadow shapes right because that is the key to capturing the likeness and once that's done, I'll probably get into the eyes since that's always a good place to start. The paper is off some pastel drawing pad I had from about 4 years ago. It's a muted blue but I originally wanted a flesh tone...I just wanted to get started and I couldn't bother to go on another hike to the nearest art supply store, so I thought "This will have to do."

I'm using graphite for the entire drawing for the first time in years. It'll be a challenge on this paper because it's not smooth, it has a bit of tooth but I'll have to just use my bristle brush to work the graphite into the paper more. That's it for now, check back for more!

The Next Painting

I've been busy entering shows/competitions lately so I haven't had anything to blog about for a while but there should be another portrait in the works soon...In the next 2 weeks if I stay on top of things. I've been planning a full length portrait of my brother which will be fairly large. That's a scary thing for me because I haven't done anything like that in years--I work much smaller these days. But I think a larger scale portrait is necessary for me right now just to take things up a notch. The other thing I'm worried about is buying more brushes since I only have sizes for smaller scale paintings. I'll need a few large brushes and if you're a painter you know that can get very expensive indeed. It's all for a worthy cause though and I can't wait to start!

New Self-Portrait: It's Finished!

Blogger really doesn't show these pictures well at all but here it is. It's all done and now I have to find something else to start. I've been wanting to do a life size portrait from head to toe for a long time so I think I'll do that next but I'd like to do some drawing in between. Thanks to everyone who checked out my work here and stay tuned!

New Self-Portrait Painting (In Progress) Part 4

Since my last post, I've done my hair, the dishes in the cabinet, the background, the chair, and a bit of my left earring. You can see there's a lot of glare from the sun. I'm hoping I can get this done by Sunday because it needs to dry and get a retouch varnish.

New Self-Portrait Painting (In Progress) Part 3

A lot has progressed since the last update and I think I'm halfway there. I need to do more on the face and other parts but I thought I'd oil out some areas first using linseed oil so I could see the correct values again. Right now my favourite part is the top I'm wearing because I really got that satin texture right, YAY! I'll post detail shots later on. Also as a result of oiling out, some mistakes popped up. That "mustache" looking part, for example, only showed itself after oiling out so I have to fix it. Could you imagine me doing the final varnish and mistakes like that one popping up? And no time to fix it??? So glad I'm avoiding that!

New Self-Portrait Painting (In Progress) Part 2

This is actually my 2nd attempt at the face, I won't bother showing you the first. It was really tight and stiff before. I hated it so much I tried to sand it down but I just painted over it. I have renewed faith in this painting and my skills in general, lol. For anyone who's curious, these are the colours I used for my skin:

Base: Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ocher Pale, Alizarin Crimson, Ultra Marine Blue Deep (Old Holland).

Shadow: Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue Deep.

Lights: Titanium White, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna

That's the head so far and tomorrow I'll be working on it some more plus a bit of the background if I really push myself.

New Self-Portrait Painting (In Progress)

I started this painting on the 17th, and this is how it looked yesterday. Now the real work begins. I need to straighten lines, get my skin tone going and a lot of other things...

Figure Practice

I haven't been able to be in front of a live model in forever but I heard about posespace.com and I used a pose from there to do this study. It's not the same experience as it could be from life but it'll do for now. This one is in charcoal. I learned a lot from this one just by using compressed charcoal; I found out I don't like it. I prefer carbon pencils much more.

Self-Portrait ("Listen", Carbon Pencil on Paper, 2010)

This was about a month of work. I learned a lot about my features and used this piece as an opportunity to introduce a conceptual element. I'm never without my music and I thought I should include it somehow. Some may pick up the earphones and some may be confused but either one is fine by me. The biggest problem I had apart from the drawing is getting a good photo of it so I ended up scanning it. It's still not the same as the original but it'll do for now.

4-Hour Portrait Sketch

This is a painting I had to get out of my system today. I made my brother sit for me, that wasn't easy. But here it is, it's about life-size, oil on canvas. I may tweak some things but I'm glad I finally did a portrait of a family member!

5 Hour Still-Life

I challenged myself last night with one of the most difficult objects I've ever painted. I bought it at Value Village, and I'm not sure what it was used for but it was a great find. I only gave myself 5 hours to paint it so I didn't get to every detail but I'm liking the results. The only thing is the background colour is too dark so I'll have to change it. Here it is so far:

First Foray into Landscape

For those who have been reading my posts, you know I really wanted to try landscapes. Well I'm in the middle of one and...I don't know, maybe it's too soon to say. I'm not sure I love it. I love when other people do it, it's mesmerizing. This painting is photo-based as I don't have a portable easel right now but it's winter so I'm faced with a lot of bare branches and dull colours. I am not big on colour in general but I like there to be enough colour in front of me to manipulate as I please (tone them down if I need to). Also I'm not sure I love the act of painting grass or foliage. I mean art is tedious by nature but this kind of tedium makes me want to stab my canvas. Mind you, it's not necessary to paint every detail for realism, but shortcuts often degrade landscapes.

That all sounds really pessimistic but I still have hope for this genre, the only thing is I think I'd rather make landscapes up--just construct them from imagination because I'd feel less constricted. I'd still do studies from life (in more appealing weather) but I really like the idea of just creating my own world. I know many artists do this and I think it's a great idea and I'd love to be able to do that in a naturalistic way or, in other words, a non-artificial way.

As for my current landscape, I'm not sure I'll finish it. I know I should just to finish, you know? Because it's no good having unfinished work lying around, it's very demoralizing. I also know I'm very hard on myself and even though this is my first real attempt at landscape, I expect only good or great results in my eyes. Others may love it, I don't know but I won't be including it in my portfolio, LOL.

New Projects Started & Other News

I just finished a commission this past weekend which you can view on my website. I've also started a couple of exciting things which I can't wait to show everyone but it's not time yet. One of them is a drawing that is nearly done and the other is a painting that is a new direction for me. When they are at least 80% done, I'll give you a sneak peek.

Me? On Camera?!?

Yup, I finally decided once and for all that if I'm going to have a Youtube channel, I actually would like to be on it. I don't like cameras, they are not my friend but I tried to get passed it to get across some information about my favourite drawing tools. It's really weird seeing yourself on camera as you're speaking and trying to imagine someone behind the lens that you can try to have a conversation with. Meanwhile, you're talking to yourself out-loud, it's freaky! Well hopefully I'll get used to it. I was tired coming home from work, didn't bother too much with appearances because I didn't want to get distracted but I do sound tired. Next time I'll definitely get a tiny bit more makeup on, haha.

What else is going on...Still awaiting the day I get to order that stationery, and there's other things in the works but I won't go there now. Why? Because I'm making a change this year. I think that (for me) telling everyone about my plans inevitably ruins them, and a lot of times they don't even get started. Don't fear though because I'm almost ready to show my new painting, which is a couple of days away from completion. Look out for it in February, that's when it's being delivered. I can't show you now because it's a gift for someone. But anyway here's my new video and if I'm not too traumatized there will be more.

New Website Is Up! www.crystalcbrown.com

I'm so excited my official website is finally up. It took awhile but it was worth it. This year I'm really trying to do everything I can to increase my presence online so as many people as possible know about my work. I also designed some stationery so I'll be ordering that soon. It sounds like it's not such a big deal but it is when you don't have those things. Like business cards for example, not as many people have them today but artists still really need them because of the nature of what we do. We need to do everything we can to make sure people can contact us for work. The stationery thing is a bit of an extra, but not really because it all contributes to your image. For those of you who don't know, stationery can consist of things like letterheads, envelopes, cards, etc. and will have your logo and contact info and it looks really professional. I've always wanted that and now I have a legitimate reason to get it, lol.

All this stuff (the website, business cards, and stationery) isn't cheap at all but it's one of those "spend money to make money" things. If you're going to be in correspondence with potential clients or galleries, some beautiful customized stationery could be that extra thing that gets you in the door. So we'll see what happens...