DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19954#0035
35
GENERAL MAXIMS IN COLOURING.
If the face were an entirely flat surface, in which the
features occasioned neither projections nor depressions,
nothing more would be necessary in painting a represen-
tation of it, than to cover it with a uniform flat tint of
flesh colour. But as there is scarcely any part of it which
is perfectly flat, the gradations of light and shade are in-
numerable. These gradations of light and shade claim
the earnest attention of the student, and are, perhaps, best
learned from a plaster cast, where they are separated from
colour.* The following general maxims relative to the
aerial perspective of figures should be well understood by
the student before he proceeds further with the painting.
Nature relieves one object from another by means of
light and shade, and we find everywhere light opposed to
dark, and dark to light.
The shadows of objects in the open air are less dark than
those within doors, because the former are lighted up by
the reflections of the sky and all the surrounding objects,
while within doors the light is limited, and reflections are
less apparent.
The colour of most objects is best discerned in the middle
tints; strong colours are reserved for the parts nearest the
* It is a good plan always to keep a white bust at hand as a guide
to the light and shade.
D 2
GENERAL MAXIMS IN COLOURING.
If the face were an entirely flat surface, in which the
features occasioned neither projections nor depressions,
nothing more would be necessary in painting a represen-
tation of it, than to cover it with a uniform flat tint of
flesh colour. But as there is scarcely any part of it which
is perfectly flat, the gradations of light and shade are in-
numerable. These gradations of light and shade claim
the earnest attention of the student, and are, perhaps, best
learned from a plaster cast, where they are separated from
colour.* The following general maxims relative to the
aerial perspective of figures should be well understood by
the student before he proceeds further with the painting.
Nature relieves one object from another by means of
light and shade, and we find everywhere light opposed to
dark, and dark to light.
The shadows of objects in the open air are less dark than
those within doors, because the former are lighted up by
the reflections of the sky and all the surrounding objects,
while within doors the light is limited, and reflections are
less apparent.
The colour of most objects is best discerned in the middle
tints; strong colours are reserved for the parts nearest the
* It is a good plan always to keep a white bust at hand as a guide
to the light and shade.
D 2