4. LEARN TO ANALYZE THE TECHNIQUE OF A PAINTING

Classic vs. Romantic

You've heard of the "right brain versus left brain debate," right? The left side is rational and deals with words and numbers (think Mr. Spock). The right side is emotional, intuitive and colorful (think Austin Powers). Most people slightly lean toward one way or the other.

It's the exact same way with paintings: the left is "classic," and the right is "romantic."

  • Classic artists are more interested in the world as they know it to be (conceptual) rather than the world that meets the eyes (perceptual). Their works tend to be calm, balanced, cerebral, patterned, geometric, structural, and rational. Artists of this kind tend to find more important the underlying structure of things rather than the surface appearance. For a fine example of a classical work, check out this painting.

  • Romantic artists are more interested in the emotional effect of their work. Their art tends toward the theatrical, and they are more concerned with the surface appearance than underlying structure. Their works tend to be colorful, intuitive, dynamic, organic, and have movement and drama. To wallow in a romantic work, look at this painting.

Remember that these are broad categories and many works have characteristics of both. Some artists start out classic in their younger days only to grow wild in their old age.

Linear vs. Painterly

So you're standing there, you've already attracted a crowd by talking loudly about figure/ground and classic vs. romantic. You've got 'em eating out of your hand. Where to go now? Linear vs. painterly. An easy way to categorize works as either classic or romantic is by identifying the use of these two common painting techniques:

  • Classic works tend to be linear -- that is, the shapes are bounded by lines, sort of like cartoon characters. Botticelli's Birth of Venus is a perfect example. You can also refer to every Peanuts comic strip Charles Schulz ever drew (regardless of what anybody says, it is art).

  • Romantic works tend to be painterly--the boundaries between shapes are blurred somehow, usually with brush strokes. You can clearly see the brush strokes; the artist isn't even trying to hide them. Some call it lazy, we call it painterly. Frans Hals barroom works fall into this category.

Composition

Composition is about putting things in the right place. Like the way you arrange the objects on your desk or the furniture in your living room. Everything in art (as in life) has its own color, weight, texture, etc. When you put these visual elements, together they interact. For instance, colors may fight or harmonize (or both). A triangle sitting on its base looks stable; turn it on its point and it looks unstable. How the artist arranges the elements of color, shape, and size is a means of expression, and in some ways is the heart of the exercise.

As you gather experience looking at art, you'll become sensitive to what the artist is saying through composition. You see that a mob scene with a hundred randomly scattered figures isn't as strong as a mob scene with carefully composed groups of figures all working together. You look at Leonardo's Last Supper and you'll note that the disciples aren't just sitting at the table, they're clustered together in groups. Christ is at the center, alone. His head is in the center of the window behind him. All of the lines of perspective lead to him. These are just a few of the compositional elements that make The Last Supper a masterpiece.

Once you get the hang of composition, not only will you actually be able to appreciate art more fully, you'll probably get a hearty round of applause from the museum crowd, who by this time will have tossed their rented cassette players to openly hang on your every word.