This article is the overview article for Contrast and I have subdivided each area into individual posts to make it easier to target information relative to you. If you find this post too long, enter your search term in the search box to find the targeted articles.
Once you become aware of contrast in a painting and start intentionally playing with it, you will notice a dramatic improvement in the way your painting reads as a whole and in the way that it comes to life. The ability to play with contrast in a painting will deepen as you pay attention to how we as humans understand and interact with the world.
Contrast what is it? If your first thoughts are that it has to do with the difference between areas of light and dark, you are right but only partly so. Contrast is a very deep well that intersects with colour and of course brushstroke and at the root of it is really about pattern recognition. I could easily have called this section Pattern recognition and may have been more accurate in doing so but contrast tells us which area of pattern recognition is important in painting.
Contrast is not just about having enough contrast in your work but it is about having the right contrast that is relevant to your concept.
The Sublime:
Humans have a very highly developed, sophisticated ability to recognize pattern and to imbue it with meaning. Most importantly this ability is instinctive and happens quickly before we pass it though analysis. It is so important for a painter to play with this in terms of making elements of the painting appear from within the work through brushwork but skillful play with contrast will also engage, confuse or bore your viewer.
Last Breath Advice:
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