Comparative Study:Technique and Use of Color

By: Martha Gonzalez

Introduction: I will be assessing the uses of color and technique within four different artists and their
works. I will be using Vincent Van Goghs Starry Night Over the Rhone, Leonid Afremovs
Midnight Wonders, Timothy Meyerrings Naked Lady and Schieles Standing Nude Girl. Four
different artists, four different techniques and four different uses of color. From vibrant impressionism
to simplistic realism, these four artists and their works will allow me to go in depth with techniques and
uses of color in detail.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) grew up the oldest of six. With two brothers and three sisters, Vincent was closest to
Theodorus, commonly known as Theo, his younger brother.
Theo was Vincents closest friend and confidant who supported him emotionally and financially which allowed him to
dedicate himself completely to his art.
In many instances, it is said that Vincent was often
quite mean to Theo. Despite that, Theo remained kind
hearted and no matter how cold Vincent was toward him,
he took him under his wing and kept supporting him
throughout his life.
It is obvious how close they were given the fact
that, throughout their lives, Theo and Vincent sent many
letters back and forth to each other and were very close.

Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888, Vincent Van Gogh

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/

Van Goghs Starry Night Over the Rhone,

created in 1888, expresses specific technique
(Impressionist styled techniques) and use of color. From
November of 1881 to July 1890, Van Gogh painted around
900 different paintings, all in which show the same use of
technique.

http://vangoghletters.org/vg/context_1.html

artble.com - Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888

Leonid Afremov was born July 12, 1955, and is a RussianIsraeli modern impressionistic artist who works mainly with a palette knife
and oils. Because of the way he paints, he has developed his own unique style that cannot be mistaken for other artists or their works.
For a while, Leo was a struggling artist until he began to sell his artwork on eBay and later on to exclusive online art buyers with very
little exhibition or involvement with many art dealers.
In March 2010 Leonid decided
to take on early retirement recommended
by his doctors and moved to Playa del
Carmen, a popular resort town near
Cancun. Leonids children were so
involved with his art business that they
too moved to Mexico. In the months in
which tourists flourish, Leonid opens up
his own gallery and sells his work.
Leonids piece Midnight
Wonders, located in Boca Raton,
Florida, is an excellent piece that shows
unbelievable uses of color and
impressionism. Leonid, like Van Gogh,
has created a style and technique of his
own. Both artists works could never be
replicated, at least, not with the same
level of talent.
http://afremov.com/Leonid-Afremov-bio.html

Midnight Wonders, Leonid Afremov

Both artists use a very specific pallet and technique to be able to portray what they
want on their canvas. While one uses strokes of a brush, the other uses a pallet knife to create
such strokes.
The pallet knife allowed for a smoother kind of choppy. Impressionism originated
in 19th-century France, it was a kind of style or movement that characterized by a concern
with depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect
of light and color.

Detail shot of Midnight Wonders by Leonid Afremov

Leonids art shows his understanding of impressionism and excels in his own style.
By using a pallet knife instead of a brush, Leonids art shows smooth sections of color and
little blending when changing from one color to the next.
In contrast to Leonids pallet knife technique, Van Gogh used a series of
brushes to give him the look he wanted. This painting, like a significant number
of his other works, show a use of blended sections of color and vibrance.
Van Gogh and Leonid share a quilty in art that cannot be replicated or
mistaken by anyone. Van Goghs work shows a very specific color scheme,
unlike Leonid who uses vibrant colors to depict the night, Van Gogh uses cold
colors for the majority of the painting besides the use of lights, their reflections
and the stars that shine above.

Detail shot of Starry Night Over the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

When it comes to understanding why their uses of color is so different,

we must take into consideration that Van Gogh saw the night as it was without
any modification by street lamps.

Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888, Vincent Van Gogh

When looking at both pieces, I focus not

only on the scenery, but on whatever figures are
portrayed in the painting.
In both painting, at least one person is
being depicted. Their bodies arent given any solid
features, whether its only a body from behind or
of a couple walking. No distinct features are
presented to us. Van Gogh does not give us any
facial features, all we can really tell from his piece
is that its a man and a woman walking.
When looking at Leonids piece, a figure is visibly noticeable, but he doesn't give any suggestions that its a
woman or a man, child or adult. he makes the figure very blunt, making it nearly impossible to know for sure what age or
gender the person seems to be.
Van Goghs figures, on the other hand, do not simply look like figures. It is visible, when you really look at
them, that its a man on the left and a woman on the right. What makes this apparent is the use of clothing that the figures
in Starry Night Over the Rhone. Back in Van Goghs time, there was a set fashion which would not be seen much at all
in modern day.
Given two very different time periods shows us all just how different both world are. In the time Van Gogh was
creating art, whether it be behind the door of an asylum bedroom or from a hill, his art would have never looked like
Leonids works.

Midnight Wonders, Leonid Afremov

Timothy Meyerring (known as Timo) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1963. He spent a
good portion of his life working in hospitals throughout the Midwest and Southwest as a respiratory
therapist and received his BFA in Graphic Design from Arizona State University in 1997.
When visiting the Timo Gallery down in the Historic Third Ward, I instantly was drawn to this
piece. There was no name given to this painting so I will be referring to it as Naked Lady.
Timo doesnt normally work with figures, most of his work is shapes or close ups on flowers
and occasionally does landscapes. This was the only figure painting that I saw at the gallery and it was
by far the most captivating. He was very nice about me taking photos, in fact, he told me that if I
wanted to I could take a photo of him as proof that I met him.

Timos range and interests as an emerging contemporary

artist are as varied as his mediums: oil, acrylic, encaustic, ink,
metal, earth - as well as straight film, digital, transfer and
alternative processes photography and printmaking.
He opened Timo Gallery in April 2010 as a
workspace/showcase to broaden his capabilities and to sell his
original works.

Naked Lady, 2014, Timothy Meyerring

http://www.timogallery.com/

Egon Schiele became most famous for his

signature graphic style, embrace of figure disproportion ,
and bold defiance of conventional norms of beauty.
His art was quite modern when you think about
it. Today, many try to do exactly what he did without
knowing it. His figural distortion and defiance of what
was thought of as beautiful is something many artists try
to portray.
Creating about three thousand drawings over the
course of his brief artistic career, Schiele was both an
extraordinarily prolific and unparalleled draughtsman.
Standing Black-Haired Nude Girl, created in 1910 was one of the many drawings
Schiele created.
Theres bags under her eyes, her hands are abnormally large and her body completely
unproportionate. Yet, shes still quite beautiful to look at.

Standing Black-Haired Nude Girl, Egon Schiele, 1910

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-schiele-egon.htm

For both works, the artists obviously used the female

body as a model. One a drawing, the other a painting.
The female body is quite the perfect model when it
comes to figure drawings or paintings.

Naked Lady, 2014, Timothy Meyerring

You could say that both are disproportionate, one

more obvious then the other. Schiele elongates his figures and
gives them abnormal features such as large hands. Timos
distortion comes more with the size of certain parts of the
womans body.

Standing Black-Haired Nude Girl, Egon Schiele, 1910

Timos use of black, white and grey make for

excellent blending and highlighting. Despite Schiele working
with a drawing instead of a painting, he still uses some kind
of shading to give the girls face and body detail.

Standing Black-Haired Nude Girl, Egon Schiele, 1910

When it comes to drawing, Schiele

seems like it was simple, but as someone whose
artistic career took off with a graphite pencil, I
can tell you the small sections of detail are not
easy to create with such precision.
The way the bodies are proportioned are
not the only difference visable. No, not the
mediums either. If you look at the backgrounds,
it comes to you. One is black with watered grey
streaming down and the other a white patch or
two around the model.

Naked Lady, 2014, Timothy Meyerring

Bodies hold more beauty in them then

what we think. Especially a womans body.
When it comes to highlighting and shading, a
womans body is much smoother.

Naked Lady, 2014, Timothy Meyerring

Timos light source is coming from the left, which

explains why he only highlights certain areas of the womans
body. Schieles technique did not involve a light source, that is
why he does not highlight or shade in any certain way, his
shading is more detail based rather then given by a source.

Standing Black-Haired Nude Girl, Egon

Schiele, 1910

Schiele does give more details when it comes to the

lower half of the woman. Timos light source would most
likely shed light on that area of the body, but he may have felt
that painting in any details would have made his painting
completely inappropriate. Schiele did not hide that, even if it
may have been inappropriate or even if he felt discomfort
while detailing the woman, it didnt stop him.

Naked Lady, 2014, Timothy Meyerring

Though both men show beautiful bodies, one is more

detailed than the other, but while the other is less detailed, it
makes up for it in its smooth transitions from dark to light.

Standing Black-Haired Nude Girl, Egon

Schiele, 1910

Midnight Wonders, Leonid Afremov

Now, were taking a deeper look into color, blending and technique.
First off, keep in mind that one painting is realism and the other is impressionism.
Technique wise, its not hard to see that one painting was using a palette knife and the other
an assortment of different sized brushes.
When it comes to blending, Timos Naked Lady excels in highlighting and shading
the womans body. Leonid, obviously, did not blend his colors as much as Timo did.

The detail shots

provided allow me to show
just what Im talking about.

Naked Lady, 2014, Timothy Meyerring

Leonids Midnight
Wonders shows some
blending when it comes to the
light source showing through
the leaves of the tree.

Just like when Naked Lady was compared to

Midnight Wonders, you can see almost the same thing
happening when you take it and compare it to Starry Night
Over the Rhone.
Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888, Vincent Van Gogh

Naked Lady, 2014, Timothy Meyerring

The blending in Van Goghs work is much more visible

than it was in Leonids piece.
I made this observation before, even when you compare
Van Gogh to Leonid, its clear that since Van Gogh used cool
colors mostly, his blending is much smoother and comparable to
Timos work.

Standing BlackHaired Nude Girl;

Egon Schiele, 1910

When you look at the detail shots provided, there seems to be no connection whatsoever, but thats not the case. The hair
in Schieles drawing is more chaotic. Technique wise, impressionism is quite chaotic. They go based on movement instead of
specific pattern.. This doesnt occur throughout the entire work, only specific places. In Schieles case, the hair is unpatterned and
the lights in Starry Night Over the Rhone show little to no kind of pattern when they were painted.
Starry Night Over the Rhone,
1888, Vincent Van Gogh

Midnight Wonders, Leonid

Afremov

Even if both paintings are impressionist paintings, the way theyre portrayed is completely different. For one, the use
of color is stronger in Midnight Wonders (shown above) than it is in Starry Night Over the Rhone (shown below).
Van Gogh uses a specific color scheme relevant to what he saw, unlike Leonid who probably exaggerated some things
to make them pop. Given that they are from completely different worlds, it wouldnt be much different if Leonid had painted
the exact same scene as it is now rather than what it was then.
Starry Night Over
the Rhone, 1888,
Vincent Van Gogh

Starry Night
Over the
Rhone, 1888,
Vincent Van
Gogh

Continuing on with the visible differences between two amazing impressionist works, we can see just how drastic the color scheme
and technique used to create the piece really are.
Whats being shown here are the reflections of light and things around the light sources. In Starry Night Over the Rhone (shown
above) the lights are very obvious as they glisten in the waters. In Midnight Wonders (shown below) the lights reflect the colors of the
leaves on the trees surrounding them.
Midnight Wonders,
Leonid Afremov