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Art Tutorial
Transparency - A Key to Spatial Depth in Painting
Part 1, Black/White
Monet,
The Corniche of Monaco, 1884,
Oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 37 in. (75 x 94 cm)
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
This online tutorial is a
transcription from a 2002 lecture I gave at the Courage of
Your Perceptions Conference (Satellite to the EC's Vision
Scientists' Conference) in Glasgow, Scotland.
We have examples of artworks
from 30,000 years ago to the present in which artists have
worked with spatial depth in their drawings and paintings. I
have been fascinated by this phenomenon and, for years, I have
asked myself how did these artists achieve these startling
effects. The result of my query is the formulation of the
concept that:
Given a two-dimensional
surface, transparency and contrast are the means to place forms
in spatial depth.
Transparency
will place the forms in depth away from us and contrast will
raise them towards us.
Great artists
are doing other spatial things as well: lighting, modeling form,
and perspective drawing. But for this talk I will focus on this
transparency issue.
The
first figure shows a gradation of light to dark stripes on a
white background. The stripes ascend like steps towards us as
they get darker. The darkest "pops" out in contrast to the white
background. Conversely, the lightest of the stripes recedes into
the distance of the white surface.
Similarly, the
discs "move" through space because of their relative
lightness or darkness to the background and each other. The big
black disc jumps forward.
Notice what happens when
the large disc is changed to light gray, it recedes
significantly beyond the small black one.
Chavet Cave, 30,000 B.C.
Horses' Heads from the
Chavet Cave dated 30,000 years ago. Notice the gray scale of the
receding heads and the black modeling of the head closes to us.
Also notice how the light gray of the surface also comes through
the receding heads literally making them transparent.
Monet, The Thames at Westminster, 1871
Oil on canvas, 47 x 72.5 cm (18 1/2 x 28 1/2")
National Gallery, London
This Monet is an excellent
example of this idea. We first see the blackness of the pylons,
and the other objects dance back into space by the degree of how
transparent they become, how close to the gray of the background
they match.
When the background changes to
black, the principle of transparency still holds true. The
closer to black tone of the background the discs become the
further they recede; the white pops forward.
Here we have two white discs,
a large and a small one, now we have an example of perspective;
the bigger one comes a bit more forward than the small one.
Rembrandt, Hendrickje Bathing in a River, 1654
Oil on panel, 61.8 x 47 cm
National Gallery, London
Due to the extreme lightness
of her body she comes forward off the background off the dark
background. Notice the transparency of her left shoulder, it
sends her left arm back away from her chest.
Rembrandt is essentially
working with a gray/brown/black scale not with a full range of
color. He sets objects back by making them merge to this dark
tone.
Compare the brilliant
lightness of her shift to the middle tone glow of
the material behind her on the bank. Her lightness is popping
her forward.
Here we have a gray
background, the discs that come forward have become more white
or black respectively.
Michelangelo, Christ on the Cross
In Michelangelo's Christ
the closest part of his body to us is his right knee, then
it would be his right big toe, and then his left chest. These
areas have the greatest contrast between light and dark. Compare
the high contrast of tone of his right foot to the more muted
left foot behind. Or compare the transparent area of his left
knee to the intense light and dark of his right knee. Also
notice that his arms share a depth of space and have an equal
range of tonal value that is less high in contrast as his
forward knee. Also notice how delicately transparent the
background figures are.
Newberry, Glass Jar in the Classical Style, acrylic on
canvas board, 14 x 18", 2002.
Collection Geir Friis
Unfortunately, the subject
being a transparent glass jar complicates this study but notice
how the rocks come forward in front of the jar--there is a high
contrast between their whiteness and the very dark shadows
underneath them, which pulls them forward, as a unit, in front
of the jar and book.
I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of
Transparency - A
Key to Spatial Depth in Painting. Part 2 will cover how this
theory works with color.
Michael Newberry
New York, May 2006
Other related art presentations you might enjoy.
copyright 2012 by Michael Newberry |
