Conversations in Paint: A Notebook of Fundamentals - Softcover

Dunn, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156305664X ISBN 13: 9781563056642

Publisher: Workman Pub Co, 1995

Synopsis

A fresh introduction to the fundamentals, conversations in paint (previously titled The Principles of Painting) is part painter's sketchbook, part philosopher's journal, part instructor's primer. If you paint, it will give new insight into your work. If you don't paint, it will inspire you.It is also a unique object in its own right, a book as work of art. Developed as a sketchbook, the pages are crammed with watercolor sketches that look as if they've been painted right on the page, plus diagrams, charts, and reproductions of old masters and contemporary artists. Quotations from Cezanne to such unexpected authors as Harvey Penick are printed in a specially designed typeface based on the author's handwriting, giving each spread the intimate, layered quality of Sara Midda's books. Indeed, the spread-designed with text, quotes, illustrations and captions, to be read and absorbed on its own-is the book's basic building block. Open the book anywhere and learn something new about painting. About seven ways an artist sees. About the language of line. About mood and the four ways to stimulate emotion. About perspective, light and shade, style, composition, drawing, technique, mass, scale. And, from a life-long teacher, a little section at the end of the book about "Learning-applicable to any area of life.

About this title

About the Author

Charles Dunn describes himself as a perpetual student. He took his first art lesson as a self-conscious adult at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967 and has been actively studying, teaching, painting, and showing work ever since.

From the Back Cover

A fresh introduction to the fundamentals, CONVERSATIONS IN PAINT is part painter's sketchbook, part philosopher's journal, part instructor's primer. If you paint, it will give new insight into your work. If you don't paint, it will inspire you. Open to any page and learn to see.

From the Inside Flap

A work of theory made practical and a personal notebook made public, CONVERSATIONS IN PAINT is an innovative introduction to the language of painting-and how to speak it fluently.

In a series of succinct, two-page "conversations," inventively illustrated and buttressed by quotations from famous artists and teachers, Charles Dunn explains the rules to paint by. Here are the four principles of design: contrast, gradation, theme and variations, and restraint. The linear versus the painterly. Expression and mood. Open and closed color. The three-value system. One-point, two-point, and three-point perspective. Pieter de Hooch's virtual textbook on representing volume. Underpainting and layering. Plus value systems, studio habits, drawing techniques, insights into learning, and much more. A lifelong painter and student of painting, Dunn has distilled his years behind the brush into lessons that will benefit anyone, from beginner to accomplished artist.

Reviews

Dunn, a marketing consultant, took his first art class at the age of 35. Thus, this volume, in the form of a "notebook," is written by and for the amateur painter with the attitude that all one needs to paint is desire. However, one of his major tenets?that talent is a myth?is a fallacy. Dunn covers the basic principles of design, contrast, theme, and perspective, but the design of the book itself muddies his intent. Structured more like an M.B.A.'s organizational chart, without chapter numbers as guides, the book is frustrating to work with. There is no lack of alternatives on the subject, such as Rex Brandt's Seeing with a Painter's Eye (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984).
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Workman Pub Co
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 156305664X
• ISBN 13: 9781563056642
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 207