The paintbrush holder pictured here is a great tool to help you avoid the problem of crossing values. It consists of 33 slots organized into three tiers of 11 holes per level. The diameter of the holes reduce in size as you step down, enabling small brushes to fit snugly in the slots on the bottom row, medium brushes in the middle, and large brushes on the top row. From left to right in each row, the holes correspond to values as established by Albert Munsell's color system; from 10 (white) to 0 (black), with nine equal value steps in between. In each column, the brushes are dedicated to a specific value, regardless of the hue. This way all you need do is wipe the excess paint off the brush as you switch to a new hue of the same value. The benefit of this is that it prevents value shifts created by the deposit of unintended leftover paint which had remained in the bristles (providing you put your brush back in the right spot), and it eliminates the need to clean the brush with solvent between switching colors (and taking the risk that leftover solvent will be transferred from your brush to the painting, damaging a finished section). It also keeps your brushes from rolling onto the studio floor!
I based my brush holder off of the one Marvin Mattelson used when I first studied with him. Knowing how he lays out his palette, it makes perfect sense to use a holder like this with a value based painting system. Marvin later made improvements to his version, including stepped slots so the top row can hold all three sizes of brush handle (I tried this using 3 different size drill bits in each hole, but it didn't seem to work as well as his special bit, which was designed to cut all three widths with a single pass), and angled slots (90˚ in the top row, 60˚ in the middle, and 30˚ on the bottom) so the brushes were fanned out, making it easier to take and replace brushes (in mine, the brushes are all aligned perpendicularly). Occasionally, he makes a couple of dozen of these and sells them to his students, but only when his schedule allows.
Someday, when I can set up a woodworking shop again, I hope to make more of my own studio furniture, and more painting tools like this one.
8 comments:
That seems like an interesting idea. I dont know how easy it would be to use outside, but I suppose you could.
Anything to help keep those values straight. It would make you think twice about each value choice too.
I wouldn't want to lug that brick outside with me! I ended up drilling some holes in the palette extension that goes with my Open Box M to keep the brushes separate. I use fewer brushes outdoors anyway.
Breaking everything down to values on the palette was really great for me. I can really struggle over color choices, and once I had everything separated by value columns, all I had to do was think "lighter" or "darker" and just worry about the hue. I naturally think of hue,value, and chroma - not COLOR - so it worked for me. Oddly, premixing has helped me now to be better at mixing on the fly.
Do you have a post of that mixing in values on your palette on the blog?
I sometimes use premixing in another way by pre mixing of the value/ colors for the main shapes of a painting. Say 7 or 11 maybe even 13 colors and then go at it. I wonder how close this is to what you're talking about here with the value palette.
I would set up the Mattelson palette, which I think you've looked at before.
http://underpaintings.blogspot.com/2008/06/mattelson-palette.html
The rows are a neutral, a yellow, a warm red, and a cool red, laid out from left to right, light to dark (11 steps from white to black- just like the brush holder). Mixing is done in columns; in other words, you can dip into any paint pile in a single column to adjust hue without any change in value. You mustn't cross columns, or the value will be altered.
Any other colors I needed (eg. viridian, ultramarine blue, etc.) I would mix up a value string corresponding to the premixed (and pre-tubed) neutrals. Sometimes I'd just mix up a few: values 5, 7, and 3, and make intermediary values on the fly when needed.
Thanks for the link Matt. I see that I have read that post before. Forgive me for being lazy in asking you about it instead of looking through back posts to try and find it.
It is something very different than anything I have studied.
I'll need to read through it again and maybe try something like that. I find that I really need to mix the colors myself rather than read about it to remember what is happening.
I call black 10 too not white. Odd.
Thanks again.
Don't worry about it. I was just pretty sure you had read that post, because I think you had commented on it.
I learned the value scale in the same way you did. (0=white, 10=black). When I work in Munsell space, I have to translate everything in my head, first, like someone who learned a foreign language late in life, and can't master fluency. ("This is dark; it's an 8, which means it's a 2 in Munsell."). This is why it's just easier for me to think in terms of lighter or darker steps.
It makes sense with black as 10, as this scale corresponds to printing, where white is the color of paper, and 10 (100%) is black, with every step between a percentage of black ink.
I'm not sure why Munsell decided to reverse it. Perhaps it was just to distance his model from printing. Their are real advocates out there for using Munsell to solve everything in your painting, and those adherents would know more than I. If you join the Rational Painting group, you can read a lot more about it. (http://rationalpainting.org)
My best.
I always love visiting your blog. So much useful information. Thanks for sharing so much with everyone.
Thanks, Bill. That means a lot to me. I hope I can continue to offer things which might be useful.
All my best.
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