Rembrandt’s The Night Watch

I had a large number of paintings to choose from for this week, so why not Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” – the greatest painting by one of the greatest greats. Its colossal size (11.91 ft × 14.34 ft) would be enough to secure it’s place, however what sets it apart is its innovative composition, essentially an action painting, with the perception of motion in what would have traditionally been a static military group portrait.

This painting was completed in 1642, at the peak of the Dutch Golden Age. It shows the local militia, more a neighbourhood watch and drinking club perhaps, setting out on patrol, led by one Captain Frans Banninck Cocq. The incongruent female figure with a chicken (“Cocq”) hanging from her waist acts as a kind of mascot. There are plenty of other messages embedded in the painting.  I’m pretty sure Rembrandt had a bit of fun at the slightly ridiculous-looking group’s expense. By-the-by, the female figure was almost certainly modelled around his partner at the time, Hendrickje Stoffels.

In order to create a vibrant picture space, Rembrandt used plenty of diagonals. Look at how the muskets, walking cane, staffs, the drum…you name it…parallel each other, left and right. This and many other ideas are built into the composition and I’m sure that they were designed into the painting at an early stage: a complex composition, well worth referring back to as we proceed through the course.

As large as it is, the painting we see today has been been cut down from it’s initial dimensions. Luckily, a copy from the original exists.

For me, cropping has significantly changed the composition. As Rembrandt conceived the painting, the figures were more comfortable in the picture space: There’s a feeling of more air surrounding them. The entire company is set lower in a more cavernous backdrop. The central players are somewhat off-centre. Interestingly, both of these factors add a little more emphasis to the whole as a painting, rather than the (now larger, more central) portraits of the main players. I think Rembrandt’s original has been diminished by the cropping and I doubt he would have approved.

On a side note, I’m always looking at level of finish and how painters call a painting finished. The dog in the bottom right gloom: it’s barely roughed in and does the job famously. Love it.

 

Then there’s Rembrandt’s dramatic and incomparable light. Interestingly and particularly for our purposes, is that all of the light is sitting on what is essentially a low-tone base of dark paint. This painting is built upon a very limited palette of earth tones. The colour in flesh tones, clothes, armoury, flags, etc, was added onto this base when dry. This is a variation on the single-tone base painting that we tackled last week – Rembrandt gets his lights from the strong balance of values which was built into the painting early.

This week, we’ll explore this idea in charcoal and then go a little further… using blues with browns. Blues were expensive and less used in Rembrandt’s time, especially Ultramarine (“Overseas Blue”). What a revelation Ultramarine can be, pure and also when combined with other colours. Let’s take a look!

Value Studies

Previously, I proposed a couple of drawing exercises: gesture, and continuous line. An important third aspect of drawing (and painting) is value and creating believable lights and darks! It’s great fun to form shapes entirely with with lights and darks – placing darker areas behind light and vice-versa (forming the boundary rather than drawing it).

Here’s a great way to approach tonal studies which works really well in both charcoal and paint. It’s perhaps the most painterly way of drawing and the process translates easily into painting. It almost deserves its own category: neither drawing, nor painting, it’s rendering. It’s at the core of many pastels and paintings for example, and in this video I start off by using some nice messy charcoal:

Method

I begin with a mid-tone application of uncompressed charcoal – lightly rubbing charcoal all over my drawing surface, using the side of the twig. Don’t try compressed charcoal, which sticks to the paper a good deal more and is difficult to erase. I then pull out lights with a kneadable eraser (a must – I don’t think I have any square erasers anymore). I focus on the large shapes and relationship of forms in blocks of light. There’s typically a scary stage where nothing seems to be happening and then….Oh! there’s a ghosted image – faint but real. In portraits, the effect is a bit like the Shroud of Turin.

Now I switch to pushing in darks and then work away with charcoal on the darkest areas – again, shapes and not lines, with blocks of light and dark. When you see shapes, you’re creating a jigsaw puzzle, distinct and separate from the subject and this always works the eye rather than the brain – the brain typically being the bad guy: over-thinking , making assumptions, judging.

 

As if by magic, there’s an image, which only then do I reinforce with some line. An image built out of just 3 values: light, mid-tone and dark, set on a ground of mid-tone and quite unlike those pencil sketches which most are accustomed to.

It’s a technique so alien to many, but the light goes on and some find it a revelation. When I first encountered the approach, I almost felt it was cheating!

 

Exercise:

1. Take a couple of portrait references of your choice or from the Reference Gallery and develop a value study from a couple of studies starting from a mid-tone as above. Use uncompressed charcoal and a kneadable eraser  (as  mentioned earlier, compressed charcoal tends to dig into the paper and not lift out nearly as well).
2. You could also try a paint study using the same process: starting with a mid-tone wash, pulling out the lights with a rag and dry brushes (you have to be fairly quick in acrylic) and then putting in the darks with a stronger paint mix. This will work well with a neutral dark grey or brown.

Low-tone study or underpainting!

Now we’re getting to the really good stuff: with paints and also a little colour. A portrait study such as this can be a delight in it’s own right or a foundation to be further developed. The foundation or underpainting can be the most important stage of a painting. It’s the place to refine the composition, work through the value equations and evolve ideas. Maybe there will be a Eureka! moment, when the painting starts talking and you learn where it has to go.

In the following videos, I tackle a low-tone paint sketch. Notice that I start with an approach that is similar to the preceding charcoal exercise. In this case, the initial forms are very rudimentary, even discouraging, and as I keep going the image comes into focus:

In Acrylic

In this second video, I start with a previously toned canvas and develop the lights and darks in a similar manner –  the action is speeded up to show the process:

 

In Oil

 

 

Method

Underpaintings can be completed in any (typically subdued) tone: blues, browns, greys and greens can all work. Each will assert a certain feel into the final work – sometimes dramatically so, where the underpainting forms an integral part of the final image.

I’m known as a bit of a colourist, but typically evolve my images in a very limited palette, applying colour on previously established values. It’s difficult to deal with colour and value at the same time and adding colour is never a substitute for a lack in the value department – you can’t solve a value problem with more colour!

I generally favour using a brown and a blue as a limited palette variation of a pure monochromatic underpainting. The thing I like is that it allows for a variation of warms (browns) and cools (blues) that can almost complete a painting…without adding much colour at all. Don’t be frightened of blues in the shadows and features, you need them! My general rule is, the darker the value, the bluer it must be. Mid-tones and lights in brown, with darks all having a deep blueish tinge. Warm tones advance and cools recede, giving the viewer all the right messages.

Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue are my go-to tubes. These two colours work superbly together: warm browns mixing to cool, intense black and then blues, needed to establish a foundation. I add some titanium white to make some grey tones and highlights.

Exercise:

1. From the reference of your choice or the Reference Gallery develop a low-tone painting using a brown and a blue. Start from a mid-tone and proceed in a similar manner to the previous charcoal study. That is, make the primary focus the  lights, mid-tones and darks (3 zones).
2. The additional opportunity in this study is to make the darks cooler (that is bluer) than the lights, plus you can use white to reinforce lights (although I like to wipe out the lights whilst the paint is still wet).

In Watercolour

I like my watercolour portrait studies to be loose and expressive. I’m known as a bit of a colourist, but typically evolve my images in a very limited palette, applying colour on previously established values. It’s difficult to deal with colour and value at the same time and adding colour is never a substitute for a lack in the value department – you can’t solve a value problem with more colour!

In this video, I develop a low-tone study and walk through a typical progression:

Method

I often start with the beginnings of a likeness in dry media and then model the form in a very limited palette. I generally favour using a brown and a blue as a variation of a pure monochrome. The thing I like is that this allows for a variation of warms (browns) and cools (blues) that can almost complete a painting…without adding much colour at all.

Drawing and initial mid-tone wash:

Adding darks with a second wash:

 

Detailing features, adding hair:

Don’t be frightened of blues in the shadows and features, you need them! My general rule is: the darker the value, the bluer it must be, with darks all having a deep blueish tinge. Warm tones advance and cools recede, giving the viewer all the right messages.

Notice that I leave quite a bit of white space: that’s because I’m defining my shadow areas with the initial washes and I want to leave myself plenty of bare paper for some chromatic washes later on.

Here’s a second study, started with the same mid-tone wash in burnt Sienna, dulled with a bit of ultramarine blue. I followed this with a darker mix using the same two colours – but more potent and perhaps a touch bluer…..I go really dark and bluish to define my “darkest darks”, typically around the features:

The foundation of the original blocking is still very evident in the final piece, through the screens of some warm tones (Alizarin crimson and Hansa yellow) and cool accents (cobalt blue), applied judiciously:

 

I find this approach works well in many cases. Studies can be a good opportunity to go expressive with hair and experiment a bit…..well, it is a study and should be spontaneous!

Exercise:

• From the reference of your choice or the Reference Gallery develop a low-tone painting using a brown and a blue. Proceed in a similar manner to the above, using your own style.  Make the primary focus the  lights, mid-tones and darks (3 zones), reserving white space for the future! The additional opportunity in this study is to make the darks cooler (that is bluer) than the mid tones.