MARY BLAIR SECRETS

 It's always fun to run familiar pictures through Photoshop filters to see what happens. Sometimes the simplified color and shapes make it easier to see how the artist organized his ideas. I'll try that here with a couple of pictures, starting with a Mary Blair concept sketch for the nursery in Disney's "Peter Pan."

BTW: I like the granular light coming from the green lamp.

Wow! The filter shows a monochrome brown picture with color accents...no surprise there...but the shapes are revealed to be dominated by linear horizontals punctuated by spaces, like some kind of I Ching diagram. The red and white shapes are more organic and attention-getting.

As I said, most of the picture is brown but what colors there are seem to be double complementaries, like the kind in the diagram above. Some artists avoid this color strategy because it's unappealing when a picture has only those kind of colors. That all improves when the colors are used as accents within an otherwise monochrome scheme.

Here's (above) a terrific Boucher. Maybe it's a detail from one of his allegory paintings, I'm not sure. 

Put a filter on it and the structure is revealed.  The two cupids and the bust form an obvious triangle, but...Yikes!...there's a strong, dark horizontal about 2/3 of the way down from the top, and a blue/black focal point under the cupid's art paper.

The colors appear to be basic red, yellow and blue primaries modified by tints and shades and co-habiting with neutrals.

Last but not least...here's (above) the George Herriman caricature I put up recently. Let's take one more look at it, this time filtered.

Holy Cow!!!!! Boy, am I glad I did that! The blacks form spots all over his shape. That means the points of black were an important design unifier, and not just borders around the colors.

Interesting, eh?

HOME ART STUDIO IDEAS

Art workplace designs are on my mind these days. I'm not hard to please. Mary Blair (above) has the essentials in this photo: adequate light and a big table to spread out on. I do wonder though, if there's some scheme that would work even better. Doing the blog about kids classrooms as adult work spaces made me wonder if there are other templates out there that might be worth trying. 

Like a kitchen for example. When you think about it, an average kitchen already resembles an art workspace. It's got a table, cabinets and drawers. Replace the stove and refrigerator with file containers and you're in business!

Of course, if you convert your kitchen to a studio where are you going to cook?  Hmmmm.

Well, how about drugstore counters? Make your basement look like a drugstore. An artist with lots of books could could work at a drugstore-type counter/desk with his books and supplies on shelves behind him.

Or diners...the ones made from old railroad cars. Each booth could be a separate desk containing a separate project. When you get tired of working on one thing you sit down at another desk and pick up what you were working on there. 

Or what about those big circular cash and wrap desks (above) that you see in stores like The Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel. Geez, they take up a lot of space, though. They're probably pricey, too.

I like the shelves you see in some stores. These shelves have concealed spotlights underneath, which use Hollywood-type lighting to show off what the store's selling. If I had a shelf like that at home I'd stack it with art supplies and works in progress.  The idea would be to sell myself on my own artwork by displaying it to myself with maximum advantage. An artist needs to have confidence that what he's done will appeal to people. Maybe you have to sell what you do to yourself before you can confidently sell it to others. 

HOMEMADE MOBILES

I love modern art mobiles but you don't see many for sale these days. It looks like if you want that sort of thing you're stuck with making it yourself. My kid's birthday is coming up soon and I think and I'll take a stab at it. I'll come up with something original but I'll start by seeing what ideas are already out there.

The obvious first place to start is Calder but his ideas have been stolen so many times that the whole world has memorized them.

Then there's Miro (above). He had tons of useful ideas. Half his paintings seem like they were made with mobiles in mind. What appears above as lines in a 2D painting could be made of thin black wire in 3D.

What a guy!

Tim Biskup (above) should try his hand at mobiles. His style is perfect for them.

Ready-made ones are available for babies (above). I don't know...maybe they could be altered.

Mary Blair's shapes (above) and colors seem like a useful resource.

It's not too hard to imagine what a character-based Blair mobile (above) might look like. My kid would probably prefer something more manly, of course.

I'll try to resist giving my kid the standard dorm room beer molecule (above) .