I often talk about the four variables of painting; Value, Edge Quality, Composition and Color. I think of them as the dials on the watercolor console. We can turn them up or turn them down, modulating the mood or style of a given painting. Color, for example, may manifest as understated or raucous, depending on the number of colors in the palette.These two paintings by Pail Klee have some qualities in common, but the overall feeling is very different, due to the limited palette in one and the extended palette in the other.
There is another factor at work, Complexity,
which definitely involves adjusting the dials. Complexity reveals its presence by influencing value, color, composition and wetness.How simple or complicated a painting will be is revealed in the way those traditional variables are made to behave.
The mood that is projected from Klee's paintings is evident because of what the artist decided to do with color and company.
For homework, find a photo and make two different versions of it, one very simple and the other very complex. This one would work, or use one of your own, but when you're done, please send the photo you used along with the paintings.
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