Most individuals characterize Vincent van Gogh’s work for its daring, swirling strokes. However he was rather more dynamic than simply that. I’ve spent the previous couple of weeks wanting over his whole portfolio, together with over 800 work, to get a really feel for the way he painted and his most popular strategies and processes. Listed below are my findings.
Portray the Panorama (Free Workshop)
I’ll stroll you thru the whole course of utilizing considered one of my latest work. You’ll see how I’m going from concept throughout to reflecting on the completed portray.
Daring, Directional Brushwork and a Sense of Motion
Let’s begin with the plain one: daring, directional brushwork. Most of his work characteristic this brushwork in some kind or one other. His strokes take you on a journey across the portray as they twist, flip, and swirl across the topic. This provides his work a singular sense of motion and vibration. The directional strokes additionally reiterate the topic’s kind and contours.
For these daring directional strokes to work, van Gogh will need to have had an uncanny sense of motion and area. Take his iconic Starry Night time, for instance. He didn’t research physics, but his depiction of the sky’s motion and turbulence is surprisingly correct. (This video explains it effectively: The sudden math behind van Gogh’s Starry Night time.) That’s why his work learn effectively, albeit dramatized.
If you happen to look carefully, you’ll see that every daring and impasto stroke leaves tiny solid shadows and highlights on the portray. This provides a dynamic three-dimensional high quality. As you progress across the portray and have a look at it from totally different angles, its look will change barely because the tiny shadows and highlights transfer and the impasto strokes develop into kind of pronounced (extra pronounced from the facet). I seen this after I visited the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in my early 20s (no images, sorry). I additionally noticed it to a lesser extent on the European Masterpieces exhibition right here in Brisbane. Van Gogh’s portray, The Flowering Orchard, was on show. It’s not his most textured work, however there are just a few impasto strokes.
Under is a closeup I took. Can you see the tiny solid shadows and highlights on particular person strokes?
You can too see a high-resolution picture of the portray right here. Make certain to zoom in on the small print.
Outlining
Van Gogh usually used darkish outlining to intensify objects. This was possible the affect of Japanese artwork and woodblock prints, which he was significantly keen on.
Outlining is an easy however highly effective approach in order for you one thing to face out in your portray. But it surely’s extra stylistic than reasonable. We don’t see objects on this planet neatly outlined by darkish outlines. They merely exist and there’s a direct transition between one object and the encompassing colours. That’s why you don’t see outlining used as a lot by extra reasonable painters like John Singer Sargent or Joaquín Sorolla. They focus extra so on tonal shifts to outline objects. But it surely’s nonetheless a strong approach to have in your again pocket, irrespective of your portray fashion.
I bear in mind being impressed by van Gogh’s outlining in my portray, Montville, Tree in Mist. I used ultramarine blue outlines to assist distinguish the fern leaves from the encompassing nature.
I additionally used van Gogh-like outlining and swirls in Maleny, Late Afternoon. I lifted paint from the floor with a cotton bud to create mild outlines across the clouds.
Tip: When exploring the work of different artists, it’s best to all the time be looking out for strategies and processes you might undertake in your individual work. This isn’t copying, as one approach doesn’t outline an artist and also you’ll invariably put your individual spin on it. Over time, you’ll develop an unlimited and vertisile vary of strategies at your disposal.
Pointillism
There are a number of examples of pointillism in van Gogh’s work. Pointillism being the usage of many tiny dots or dabs of colour to convey the topic.
He sometimes used it for busy and up-close nature compositions, resembling Undergrowth. The colours vibrate and dance on the canvas and there’s a top quality of realism about it, regardless of the sturdy stylization. Van Gogh additionally used the tiny dabs to convey motion and exercise, as if the grass and leaves are blowing with the wind.
One other instance of van Gogh’s pointillism is Inside of a Restaurant. He used it to inject life into the partitions and flooring. Discover how totally different colour mixtures recommend totally different surfaces.
Most artists related to pointillism—Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Henri-Edmond Cross, and so forth.—have been outlined by the approach and used it solely in a lot of their work. However van Gogh used it extra sparingly, usually as simply considered one of many different strategies. In Inside of a Restaurant, he used pointillism for the partitions and flooring and extra refined brushwork and flat colour shapes for all the things else.
In his Lilac Bush portray beneath, he mixed pointillism with darkish outlining and some flat colour shapes. He additionally assorted the character of his brushwork to match the totally different elements of the topic. For the sky, he used extra horizontal strokes; for the characteristic crops, he used extra variance and distinction; for the grass on the backside, he used punchy, vertical strokes.
Use of Coloration
Van Gogh began his artwork profession with a boring and restrained colour palette. Grays and browns dominate his early works. There’s additionally a disappointment about them.
Round 1886, when van Gogh was in his early 30s, he discovered colour and didn’t look again. If I needed to decide a turning level, it might be his Le Moulin de la Galette portray, with its wealthy blues, reds, oranges, and greens.
At his finest, van Gogh may push the colours so far as they may go with out showing garish or overdone. He did this by pushing within the path of the topic and by following sturdy and logical colour themes. He may use hotter and brighter colours for a sundown, richer blues for a transparent noon sky, or extra good greens for crops and foliage. While he did exaggerate and stylize the themes, he all the time stored one foot in actuality.
It’s additionally value mentioning his fondness for yellow. A lot of his work are a tribute to yellow’s brilliance.
Wheat Subject With Reaper and Solar is especially gorgeous. It glows like daylight itself.
He additionally mentions yellow in lots of letters, usually with fairly vivid descriptions. In a letter to considered one of his sisters, he wrote:
“Now we’re having lovely heat, windless climate that could be very helpful to me. The solar, a light-weight that for lack of a greater phrase I can solely name yellow, brilliant sulfur yellow, pale lemon gold. How lovely yellow is!” – Vincent van Gogh
Letter to his sister, 1888 (Supply)
Pace
Van Gogh labored quick. In simply over a decade, he created over 2,000 drawings and work. His latter years have been significantly prolific and yielded a lot of his most iconic works, resembling Café Terrace at Night time and Starry Night time. It’s as if he was hit with a wave of concepts and creativity that he needed to get out onto the canvas and knew he didn’t have for much longer to work. Monetary constraints could have additionally performed a task, as portray quick could have meant much less wasted paint from drying on the palette.
His fast strategy performs into the allure of his work. There’s a way of spontaneity and honesty about it. It’s as if he didn’t have time to refine his ideas and concepts; he simply needed to get them out onto the canvas.
It additionally possible influenced his alternative of instruments and strategies. He did no matter was essential to attain the specified marks. That included utilizing palette knives, his fingers, paint straight from the tube onto the canvas, ratty outdated brushes, mixing on the canvas, and the blunt finish of the comb. It is a good strategy to strategy your instruments. Be open-minded and keep in mind that nothing is out of bounds. Don’t restrict your self to pondering that you should all the time use “X” software to color “Y” (like a fan brush to color leaves).
After all, this strategy gained’t work for everybody. In untrained arms, it can solely result in frustration and a multitude on the canvas. To color quick, you should have a stage of expertise and instinct to again it up. You might also merely choose a extra managed and calculated strategy, and that’s fantastic.
Emotion and Stylization
Van Gogh’s work has a powerful emotional basis. He didn’t simply paint what he noticed; he painted how he felt and skilled the topic. That’s why his work seems to be relatable and sincere.
His work recommend he was fairly delicate to the world round him and all of the feelings and emotions that include it. I think about he felt all the things and he felt it sturdy, along with his work starting from deeply saddening portraits to colourful and cheery landscapes.
Tip: Statement is a vital a part of being an artist, however that’s not restricted to observing the bodily world round us. It’s additionally about observing the extra delicate facets of life—the temper, environment, and feelings.
Similar Topic, Totally different Circumstances
There are a number of examples of van Gogh portray the identical topic time and again beneath totally different circumstances. Under are just a few of his orchard work from 1888. Maybe this was to check adjustments in mild and colour. Or maybe he needed to seize totally different facets of the topic. Claude Monet additionally did this however on a a lot bigger scale and with a keener and extra obvious curiosity in colour and light-weight. If I needed to guess, I might say van Gogh was extra all for exploring the emotion and character of the topic than the research of colour and light-weight.
It’s value taking a short look by way of this chronological record of van Gogh’s work to see frequent topics and different patterns and themes.
Thanks for Studying!
I recognize you taking the time to learn this submit and I hope you discovered it useful. If you happen to ever wish to be taught extra, I invite you to affix Coloration Masterclass. Enrollment is open for the following week.
Pleased portray!
Dan Scott
Draw Paint Academy