Character
by Armand Cabrera
When
painting from life, the first concern of the artist should
be capturing the character of the person, place or thing
depicted. The character of an object is often ignored
when painting. Any sensitive observation to the character
of objects adds interest and raises the quality of the
art. By using intuition and deduction, you will find the
important aspect of the things you wish to represent.
This is no easy task. Regrettably, so many artists exaggerate
to compensate for their lack of ability.
How do you find the character of something? You do it
by comparison. When comparing objects, you will become
aware of their similarities and differences. It is these
differences that give the objects their uniqueness, their
character.
Differences can be the color, texture or shape of something.
An object’s color is relative to the things around
it. The components of an object’s color are its
temperature, value, saturation and hue.
All objects are dependant upon the light falling on them,
which defines their forms. By observing how rough or smooth
an object is you can discern its texture. The shape of
something is carried by its edge; how complex or simple
that edge is helps to define the form. How solid an object
appears and how similar it is to the area around it establishes
its edge quality, the softness or hardness of an edge.
Often an object or objects have a line of action. In
a moving object, it is the direction, speed and balance
of the thing. The course of a river has a speed to its
line of action; we say a lazy river when it winds excessively.
Even stationary objects follow a line of action; the angle
a tree grows or the direction of a stand of trees growing
on a hillside.
An object has an essential element that defines its character
better than its other parts. Each artist will respond
differently to what is beautiful and what is ugly; what
is important and what is not. A great artist paints the
essential by using emphasis and avoids exaggeration and
affectation.
