Building Your Personal Style | Part 1 w/ Bill Perkins, Ch 4.
Matrix
the underlying design pattern which may be defined through light and dark shapes at their greater point of contrast.
This division can be formed by the division of light and shadow, or Chiaroscuro.
Or through the division of light and dark, or Notan.
The matrix of an image may also be the result of creative integration of the two.
In Fig 1. The greater point of contrast is between the area in light and area in shadow.
In Fig 2. In Notan, it is a thing of light vs dark. This is all local values. A dark yellow vs a very light red.
We cannot dismiss one of the concepts. We can separate the ideas and then combine them as needed. It will make you a stronger designer to view things different as using light and shadow and then managing your local values with light and dark.
Fig 1. Man standing - the emphasis was on local values. The value changes are subtle. The shirt of the man is much whiter than the lit room in the background, that is not "realistic" but it was done by design.
When you look at Norman Rockwell paintings, we see the "form" but in reality he designed by Notan.
Fig 2. Painting by Dan McCaw? he has combined form, light vs shadow and mass vs form. In the painting he uses notan as a contrast to the bit of form, so it contrasts enough to guide the eye. His painting approach is textured, but you can see it well-designed throughout.
Sometimes you need an intermediate value (gray). In the landscape painting we have the light of the sky (white), the dark masses of the shadow (black) and the silhouette of the trees (grey).
7:27 mins
Another way to look at things
The image on the left was designed through chiaroscuro and the design of shapes replies on how the light and shadow falls on the shapes of the woman's form.
The image on the right, the contrast of local values is more dominant, and it uses local values and the patterns of light vs. dark.
Left, ambient soft light.
center, strong light that divides the ball into two pieces.
right side, combination, the images are made up of both chiaroscouro and notan.
There is a balance between the two concepts.
Light is not respecter of form
Charles Hawthorne.
Left, line dominant
Center, mass dominant
Right, light vs shadow dominant.
These are the elements of making images. How do you put them together is up to each artists.
If you create a credible context in your image, then it is believe-able. You have to have some means of understanding, relateable to the audience to draw them into the image.
If you are doing representational art, you are gonna build that relationship with the world and make it resonate to those in our world to make it believeable.
We all have our sensibilities, so it general comes down to what you are attuned too.
Line calls attention to the surface, sits on the surface of any panel or object. Mass defines its local value. Form is going to define/affect its light vs shadow approach.
Workshop Activity
Create a matrix that breaks the image down into 3 values. Block the image out.
