Posts page for the Painting School of Montmiral

Axes of symmetry & receding surfaces

Axes of near-symmetry

I have to thank two short women and a tall man for revealing to me that “axes of near-symmetry” are intimately related to the phenomenon of “orientation constancy”. The tall man was looking over a low wall and he was depicting its top as sloping down from left to right. The short women drew it as horizontal. The fact that the man could see a particular field beyond it that the women were unable to see, meant that he was the only one of the three that was being influenced by what I later came to call the “bakery facade illusion”. The women were right that the top of the wall was horizontal. To find why the man was also right, click on the link below to Chapter 18 of my book “Drawing with Knowledge”. Its title is “Axes of symmetry, recession and the constancies”.

 

CHAPTER 18 : AXES OF SYMMETRY & RECEDING SURFACES

 


Some photos showing axes of near-symmetry and receding surfaces

 

axes of symmetry
The old bakery facade, before restoration. The axis of near-symmetry clearly slopes upwards, away from the viewer

 

axes of near-symmetry
The old bakery facade transformed into new homes. The wall top, the roof bottom and the axis of near-symmetry are very nearly parallel.

 

axes of near-symmetry
The “bakery facade illusion” in rue de a Porte Neuve. The axis of near-symmetry of the retaning wall to the left slopes up away from the viewer.

 

receding surfaces
Receding fields with vertical cypress tree as guide  to analysis

 

receding surfaces
Setting off into a receding landscape. The lowest part of the white house is not far off being the height of the walkers above  their heads

 


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Eye-line problems

Finding the eye-line

Establishing an eye-line is the first step if you are going to use the the rules of linear perspective for constructing an image. The same is true, if you are using the same rules as an aid to drawing from observation. However,  whereas its use in construction is straightforward, its use in drawing  from observation is far from it. The purpose of this Post is to explain why. Below you will find a link to “Chapter 16 – Finding the eye-line“. I have also included a slightly edited version of the Introductory to that chapter.

CHAPTER 16 – FINDING THE EYE LINE

Introductory

After the session in the studio, we move out into the street. From the demonstrations using the opening window, we have learnt that any straight edge that lines up with the eye-line remains horizontal no matter at which angle it is relative to our line of vision. If we are to make use of this knowledge, we need to find the eye-line. As a general rule, students who come to my school assume that this is easy to do, but the evidence of the drawing they make suggests that they are likely to be deceiving themselves.

 

eye-line
Making it easy to see the slope of the esplanade wall

 

Eye-line
Asking for trouble: explanation why in the chapter

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Chapters so far published from

Book 1 and Book 2 of “Drawing on Both Sides of the Brain” (Volume 1 of the series of four volumes)

Contents list for both BOOKS

BOOK 1 : “DRAWING WITH FEELING”

Chapters so far loaded:

BOOK 2 : “DRAWING WITH KNOWLEDGE”

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The eye in diagrams

The surprising eye

The eye is full of surprises. The biggest ones come from the structure of retina that is situated at the back of it. The purpose of this Post is to provide a link to images and explanatory captions that tell us more about this starting gate of visual processing. At first sight, much of what we find strikes us as bizarre. But, when we delve more deeply, we discover the considerable advantages of the way things actually are. It turns out that nothing would work nearly as well as it does, if things were arranged any differently. The images and their captions will go a long way towards explaining why.

In the process, they will help readers to get a better understanding of how the eye/brain combination makes practical use of the information contained in the ever-changing patterns of light coming into the eye.

The link to the diagrams

Click on the link below to access the images and captions referred to. They are extracted from ‘The Glossary‘ to the four volumes I am in the process of publishing on this website.

 

GLOSSARY DIAGRAMS (1)-THE EYE

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What happens next

Upon leaving the retina, the neural signals travel in two directions. Some go up the optic nerve to the region of the neocortex known as ‘Visual Area 1′. Others take a completely different route that makes contact with the regions of the “Old Brain”. These play a central role in visual perception as we experience it. For example, they play their part in eye movements, spatial awareness, affective responses, multimodal processing, whole-field relations and much besides. Images and captions relating to both these routes will be posted later on this website, in a separate entry, entitled, “Visual Regions in the Brain”.

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Images of blood vessels, neurons and and neural processes in the eye.

The human retina contains a very large number of neurons (cells) and a very much lager number of neural of processes providing links between them. It also features a dense network of blood vessels that supply blood to the neural processes. Together these three components make a significant barrier to the passage of any light that strikes the receptors. Until I learnt better, this light-blocking function did not seem to be of much of interest.

What changed my mind was the discovery that the light-sensitive cone and rod receptors that transform light-energy into neural signals, do not face towards the incoming light, but away from it. Consequently, the light coming into the eyes has to penetrate this light-impeding layer of neurons, neural processes and blood vessels, before it reaches the receptors. To add to my surprise, it turned out that the light-receiving end of the receptors is buried in a layer of dark matter. It was some time before I realised how these seemingly bizarre arrangements make possible visual perception as we know it.

The barrier confronting the light that enters the eye

It turns out that the barrier of neurons, neural processes and blood vessels compensates for the fact that the rod receptors are very much more sensitive to light than the cone receptors. The benefit of this state of affairs is that it enables a necessary degree of functional equality between the responses to the incoming light of the two different receptor-types. Needless to say, this equalling up would not take place, if the light striking the less sensitive cone receptors were to be subjected to the same impediments. This explains why the forces of evolution have created a gap in the neuron and blood vessel barrier in front of the region known as the fovea, exactly where the incoming light strikes the cone receptors.

Glare-blindness

If the equalling up process did not take place, the rod receptors would be bleached out whenever the incoming light was strong enough to activate the cone receptors. The result would be a massive degree of glare-blindness in daylight conditions.

Dire consequences

If they were effectively blind, the rod receptors would not be able to participate in daylight visual processing. As a consequence, the neural computations of whole-field relations could take place. One of the many aspects of visual processing that would rendered impossible would be the separation of reflect-light from body-colour. As a result there would be neither colour constancy, nor the use of the information residing in the  reflected-light that has been separated out.

If this were so,  pretty well all that I have written in my book “Painting with Light” would be nonsense.

Burying the receptors in dark matter

The burying of the light-sensitive receptor heads in the dark matter is easier to explain. It prevents the light from scattering from one receptor to the next and, consequently, reduces blurring.

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The eye
Figure 1: Blood vessels blocking light from the ‘rod’  photosensitive  receptors.  The small darker disc is where the light sensitive ‘cone’ receptors are located. Notice that no blood vessels impede the passage of incoming light to these.

 

The eye
Figure 2: This image of a small section of a network of neural processes gives an inkling of an idea of the extent to which these these can block the incoming light.  For reasons explained above, the blockage only applies to ‘rod’  photosensitive receptors. It does not apply to the ‘cone’ photosensitive receptors .

 

The eye
Figure  3: A diagram of cell-types in each of the five layers of the retina. The massive numbers of each of these contribute to the blocking of the light arriving at the ‘rod’  photosensitive receptors.

Some numbers and sizes

One estimate for the number of the light-sensitive receptor cells is in the region of 150 million. Although the precise number of neurons and neural processes in the retina is unknown, it is certainly in the hundreds of millions.  All this packs into an astonishingly thin layer (less than 0.5 mm) whose extent can be compared to that of a 10p piece.

 

A reference

If you want a comprehensive account of the component parts and structure of the retina, you could consult the relevant pages of the website of the The National Library of Medicine.  You will find them dizzyingly more complex than the grossly oversimplified information given either above or in the ‘Glossary‘ extract.

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CHAPTER 15 : CORE IDEAS

Some core ideas demonstrated

The purpose of this “Post” is to provide the link (below) to my introduction to “Chapter 15 : The core ideas“, the third chapter of “Drawing with Knowledge” (the second BOOK in the two book volume).  The main subject dealt with is how to use the core ideas of Linear Perspective as a guides to looking, when drawing from observation. As far as I know, this is the the only place you will find it discussed at length. A preliminary idea of what this means can be found in first paragraph of the “Introductory” to this chapter (you will find a slightly edited version next, under the title of “Some core ideas introduced“). Further below, you will find links both to all published chapters from “Drawing with Feeling” (the first BOOK in the two book volume) and to earlier chapters of  BOOK 2.

CHAPTER 15 – PERSPECTIVE DEMONSTRATION

Some core ideas introduced

As already explained, the rules of linear perspective were developed by Renaissance artists as aids to image-construction. This chapter starts the process of showing ways in which they can be used as a guide to looking. For this purpose a sound understanding of the core ideas that underpin them is necessary. Although many books attempt to provide this by referring to different examples of perspective constructions, using a variety of diagrams, they never really show how these relate (or fail to relate) how we see in the real world. My approach is very different. Eschewing diagrams, it makes use of  participatory demonstrations, using real world props. In addition to revealing the core ideas behind the standard rules, these provide a fascinating introduction to some of the seeming anomalies of visual experience.

Few people would disagree with anyone who tells them that objects appear to get smaller as they recede into the distance. This phenomenon is one of two core ideas behind of the laws of linear perspective, as taught in art schools. The other is the influence of the eye-line. If these were all that mattered, there would be a great deal less to write about in this chapter. However they are far from being so. The reason is not only that the crucial role of the picture plane, as the third variable, is too often neglected, in the interests of simplicity. Even more important, from the point of view of the ideas presented in this chapter, is the fact that appearances can be dramatically influenced by the constancies of size, orientation and shape, as well as by the context in which they occur. This is because the constancy phenomena, which are context dependent, push appearances in different, often opposite directions to those predicted by the laws of linear perspective as conventionally taught. The resulting confusion can cause all sorts of problems for those who seek to use them as an aid when attempting to make accurate drawings from observation. This chapter shows how interactive demonstrations can be used to help people understand the reasons why. Subsequent chapters both continue this process and suggest many practical ways of using the knowledge that will be made available.

 

Two views of the Chateau Corduries, followed by a question,

core ideas
1 :  Château de Corduries seen from the studio window

 

core ideas
2 : The image of the Château de Corduries enlarged

 

A question: How do you change the size of the château as seen from the studio, without leaving the studio or without using a magnifying glass?

 

core ideas
William Stots : Anamorphic portrait of Edward VI  (top as  seen from front and  bottom as seen from side)

 

core ideas
Painting School of Montmiral studio fireplace as seen from side – chalk pastel

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Chapters from BOOK 1 and BOOK 2 of  “Drawing on Both Sides of the Brain” (Volume 1 of the series of four volumes)

BOOK 1 : “DRAWING WITH FEELING”

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BOOK 2 : “DRAWING WITH KNOWLEDGE”

 

 

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Linear Perspective : Chapter 14 :

The mixed history of linear perspective

The purpose of this “Post” is to provide the link (below) to my introduction to “Chapter 14 : Linear Perspective“, the second chapter of “Drawing with Knowledge” (the second BOOK in the two book volume).  The main subject dealt with is uses and abuses of Linear Perspective.  The chapter explains the purpose for which the rules the rule of linear perspective were developed and how over the years  artists and teachers came to use them for other purposes for which they are not suited. It also explains how the rules of linear perspective can be used in new ways. A preliminary idea of what this means can be found in  first paragraph of the “Introductory” to this chapter, which I have included below. Also see below for links to all published chapters from “Drawing with Feeling“, the first BOOK in the two book volume.

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CHAPTER 14 – LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

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“Introductory” – from Chapter 14 : Linear perspective

Academic tradition divides the subject of “perspective” into two aspects, known as “aerial” and “linear”. Aerial perspective concerns colour changes due to the influence on appearances of atmospheric particles situated between the eye and an object being viewed at a distance, and is dealt with in a separate volume. In this book attention will be confined to linear perspective. Moreover, to avoid misunderstandings, it is important to stress that no attempt will be made to compete with the many existing texts on this subject which demonstrate that, when properly applied, the well-known laws can enable the construction of moderately realistic images without the need to actually look at anything. As far as I know there is nothing of interest to add to these, although, a great deal needs modifying in many of the texts on the subject which regrettably give us oversimplified and therefore misleading versions of this complex and elegant subject. Rather, in this volume, the laws of linear perspective are treated in a completely novel way: not as a set of instructions for the placement of lines on but as a tool for guiding looking strategies. This transformation is achieved by placing them in the context of ideas coming both from 19th century research into visual phenomena and from much more recent discoveries relating to the functioning of eyes and brains. In PART 2, the subject of anatomy will be treated in an analogous way for analogous reasons.spacer bar

Some images relating to the theme of linear perspective

Illustrating Brunellesci’s perspective mirror set-up (maItaly : Italian History and Art)

 

Linear perspective
Pietro Perugino, Christ handing the keys to St Peter 1481-1482.

 

Linear perspective
School of Athens by Raphael in the Stanza della Segnatura 1509-1511

 

linear perspective
Albrecht Dürer – perspective device for obtaining accuracy

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A list of  chapters from “Drawing with Feeling“, book 1 of “Drawing on Both Sides of the Brain

Chapters 10 to 13 to be published later

A list of  chapters from book 1 of “Drawing on Both Sides of the Brain

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Perspective and anatomy revisited

New ways of making use of perspective and anatomy

The purpose of this ‘Post’ is to provide the link (see below) to my introduction to “Drawing with Knowledge”, the second BOOK in the two book volume (See below for links with the published chapters of “Drawing with Feeling“, the first BOOK in the two book volume). The two main subjects dealt with are Linear Perspective and Anatomy.

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BOOK TWO,  CHAPTER 13 -DRAWING WITH KNOWLEDGE

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Do the rules of perspective and anatomy help or hinder accuracy?

A key property of the world we live in is that we will never perceive any of its contents as the same on more than one occasion. The list of reasons why includes the influence on appearances of:

  • The almost infinite variety of species and object types
  • The invariable uniqueness of genetic differences between members of the same species
  • Ageing
  • Environmental conditions, including  variations in the direction and strength of primary and secondary light sources, degree of atmospheric filtering, etc.,
  • Occlusions by other objects
  • Viewing angles and viewing distances
  • Visual illusions.

However seeing something (even the same object) as the same on more than one occasion is what we have to do if we are to recognise it.  This means that:

  • Recognition and the content of our long term memories must depend on generalisations
  • There will always be a degree of uniqueness in the appearance of every object we try to draw or paint from observation.

From all this we can conclude that:

  • Achieving accuracy in drawing or painting from observation will always require finding out about aspects of appearance that cannot be stored in our memories.
  • Following the rules of linear perspective or anatomy can never achieve accuracy in drawing or painting from observation.

So what can they help us to do?

  • The rules of linear perspective and of anatomy can help us construct plausible images from the imagination (See examples below)
  • The rules of linear perspective and of anatomy can help us to know what to look for.

The second of these provides the main subject matter of this book.

 

Some studies using linear perspective and anatomy.

  • Linear Perspective

perspective and anatomy
Structural study of complex object
perspective and anatomy
Piero della Francesca : studies of a head
perspective and anatomy
Piero della Francesca : Use of linear perspective in his painting “The flaggelation of Christ”

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  • Anatomy

perspective and anatomy
Visalius : anatomical study from his famous book
perspective and anatomy
Leonardo da Vince : study of arm musculature
perspective and anatomy
Michelangelo : Page of studies

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A list of  chapters from “Drawing with Feeling”, book 1 of “Drawing on Both Sides of the Brain”

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Practical Applications

This post is to provide a link to Chapter 30, “Practical applications”, the penultimate chapter of my book “Painting with Light and Colour”. As explained in its “Introuctory”, This suggests sixteen exercises: The first eight of these are designed to make clear the practical value of ideas presented in the chapters dedicated to “painting with colour”. The second eight bring in ideas found elsewhere, not only  in the part of this volume dedicated to “painting with light”, but also in the separate volumes, “Drawing on Both Sides of the Brain” and “New Perspectives on Creativity”.

Physics books tell us that colour can be defined by the three variable of “hue”, “saturation” and “lightness”. However, as explained earlier, if we are to consider whole field colour relations and their effect tn picture perception, the fourth variable of “texture” must be added. As a result, the definition of “colour” must be stretched to include achromatic elements. The exercises in Chapter 30 keep this fourth variable and its implication for achromatic images in mind.

CHAPTER 30 – PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Some non figurative images for your enjoyment

Although the exercises in this chapter relate to figurative drawings and paintings, the principles apply equally to non figurative work.

All of you who have come to the Painting School of Montmiral over the last 18 years, will know Sarah Elliott and at least some of her wondeful drawings and paintings.

Here are four of the most recent (two with details), exhibited in May 2021, at her MFA final review  show:

Sarah Elliott

Sara Elliott
Detail of “Green Stripes”: oil on canvas

Sarah Elliott

Sarah Elliott
Detail 1 of “No Title”

 

Sarah Elliott
Detail 2 of “No Title”

Sarah Elliott

The titles of these paintings in order are:

  • “White shadow dyptich”, oil on canvas 32 inches X 64 inches
  • “Green Stripes”, oil on canvas and  48 inches X 60 inches.
  • “No title”, oil on canvas and  48 inches X 60 inches
  • Song lines  32 inches X 64 inches

If you want to see more of the art works in Sarah’s show, I imagine that all of them will be appearing shortly on her website.

Other chapters from the two books contained in “Painting with Light and Colour”:

BOOK 1 : “Painting with Light”

BOOK 2: “Painting with Colour”

Other Posts on colour and light in painting:

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More on experienced reality

The purpose of this Post is to provide a link with Chapter 29 of my book “Painting with Light and Colour“. Its focus is on the nature of I have been calling “experienced reality”. Here I will introduce it with a slightly edited extract from the “summing up” at the end of the chapter.

How far does a combination of this chapter and earlier ones help us to pin down the nature of what I have been calling “experienced reality”? I am afraid the answer has to be,“very little”, for what we mean when we use the word “see”, will always remain inherently elusive. There is no escaping the fact that this intimate aspect of our daily lives is in constant flux. First, we are confronted with one of the most fundamental truths of visual processing, namely that, in order to look at anything, we have to take it out of context. Second, we find that, when we do so, the object of our attention is subject to the ‘constancies’, a state of affairs which catastrophically disrupts whole-scene-relations. Third, the only way of approaching the task of finding out what these relativities actually are is by means comparative looking. True, this provides us with a succession of instances of what, in some senses, can be called reliable information about differences. But it only does so at the expense of finding a new starting point for each comparison, and this is a manoeuvre that entails resetting the whole system to what is almost certain to be a different lightness range.

One thing this inherent instability of visual perception means is that, when we try to analyse a scene (including if it is a painting), we will be facing a problem in some ways analogous to representing running water with a still image. No doubt this is what made Cézanne describe painting as “So damned difficult”.

But, perhaps finding a definitive solution is not what we really want. As Robert Browning wrote, “Man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for?” The advantage to artists of the ideas presented in these books is that they can at least help us struggle fruitfully towards this goal. It may be unattainable but, as many of us can testify, groping our way towards it can be a richly rewarding experience. Maybe, this is why Cézanne followed his statement about the difficulty of painting with the heart felt assertion, “I want to die painting.”

 

CHAPTER 29 – MORE ON EXPERIENCED REALITY

Three portraits of a man who wanted to die painting

 

Experienced reality
Cézanne, the wild and passionate artist

 

Experienced reality
Cézanne making an effort to look presentable

 

Experienced reality
Cézanne just being himself in a not very elegant white hat

 

Other chapters from the two books contained in “Painting with Light and Colour”:

BOOK 1 : “Painting with Light”

BOOK 2: “Painting with Colour”

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A synthesis of previous chapters

Introductory

The purpose of this Post is to provide a link to “Synthesis of colour ideas”, Chapter 28 of my book, “Painting with Light and Colour”. In combination with the next chapter, its role is to prepare for the practical applications of the ideas presented in Chapter 30. It brings together a number of the more important proposals found in both this book and the book on drawing, “Drawing on the Both Sides of the Brain”. In particular, ones relating to:

  • The history of artistic thought and practice in Europe, since the Italian Renaissance.
  • The evolution of the science of visual perception, from its origins in the middle of the Eighteenth Century to the present day.

Venetian Colourists not colourists

Before the arrival of this new science, artists, following the lead of the “Venetian Colourists”, had learnt a lot about introducing effects of light into the illusory pictorial space that they sought to create in their paintings. They had arrived at the conclusion that mastery of this ephemeral aspect of depiction depends on control of “lightness  relations”. To do this they adopted the rule that there should be no repetitions of lightnesses across the entire picture surface.  Paradoxically, it follows from this that the innovation which led to their being known as “colourists” had nothing to do with  two of the  three variables that are usually thought to be necessary to define colour, namely “hue” or “saturation”. Perhaps a better name for them would “Venetian lightists”.

CHAPTER 28 – SYNTHESIS OF COLOUR IDEAS

A reminder of “colourists” before and after Seurat

before and after Seurat: a synthesis
Portraits by Titian and Vermeer: No repeated lightneeses

before and after Seurat: a synthesis
Seurat, Van Gogh and Pissarro – The introduction of colour and colour mixtures into the depiction of illusory pictorial space

before and after Seurat: a synthesis
Matisse and Bonnard,  who helped inspire the simple and powerful synthesis of Bohusz-Szyszko

Other chapters from “Painting  with Colour”

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Cast shadows and aerial perspective

The purpose of this POST is both to introduce and provide a link to “Cast Shadows”, Chapter 26 of my book “Painting with Light and Colour”.

A fundamental difference

 The book as a whole is full of what both the Impressionists and their academic predecessors called “rules of nature”. However, though referring to the same body of phenomena, these two schools of painting viewed them differently: Whereas the Academies seem to have wanted artists to follow them slavishly, the Impressionists were apt to question their value. For example, a quotation from Claude Monet makes his position clear : “I only know that my aim is to convey what I experience before nature and that most often, in order to succeed… I have to totally forget the most elementary rules of painting, if they exist that is.” Which of the two was right? My answer is “both of them”.

Aerial perspective

One of the reasons for Monet’s irreverent attitude to the rules was almost certainly a result of  being faced with consequences of the “constancies”, those brain-created distortions that mean rules concerning “measured reality” far from always correspond to actual experience. However, the particular focus in Chapter 26 is on the rules of “aerial perspective”, which  derive from the fact that the depth of atmosphere between the viewer and the object of interest can influence the way we perceive it. More precisely, they state that the deeper the atmospheric screen between the object and our eyes, the more desaturated  the colour of objects seen through it .
cast shadows
Monet : Woman in garden

Oversimplification

However, this rule oversimplifies actual appearances, for in every scene there are a multiplicity of other factors in play, all of which can interfere with it to such an extent that it becomes worse than useless. The only way of finding out the truth in any one situation is to follow Monet’s lead and do your best to find out the actual hue, saturation and lightness relationships in the particular scene you  are in the process depicting.

The focus of this chapter

In Chapter 26, the main focus is on one of the multiplicity of “other factors” and the very different rules that apply to it. It relates to our perception of “cast shadows” . What we find is that they regularly influence appearances in ways that run counter to the rules of aerial perspective. As in the previous chapter, an understanding of Mack Bands can help us to discover how and why.

CHAPTER 26-CAST SHADOWS

cast shadows
Down Rue de la Porte Neuve

 

See also the pastel painting of “The esplanade” in the “Introduction to BOOK 2″

Other Chapters from”Painting  with Light and Colour”

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