I just finished reading two books on Norman Rockwell, Readers Digest Norman Rockwell’s America and Norman Rockwell artist and illustrator by Thomas S. Buechner. Both books have a lot to offer on Americas most beloved illustrator. His Subject was always average America and he painted with benevolent affection for so many years, moving millions of people with his picture stories about awkwardness of youth and the comforts of age, about pride in country, history and heritage, about reverence, loyalty and compassion. He truly painted a century of America life. His work has always amazed me and while reading these two books I took some notes on the way he worked with the hope that some of his talent would rub off on me.
1- be technically competent
2- like what you paint
3- if you love what you are painting, people will be bound to feel the same way
4- dramatize themes with universal appeal
5- portray emotion making the viewer an eye witness
6- you can't paint a house until it’s built
7- the design must have strong graphic qualities
8- serious subjects demand a large canvas, light and humorous a small size
9- he traced his charcoal drawings onto the canvas or used carbon paper he also projected it using a baloptican.
10- he did monochromatic under paintings usually with mars black or he put a thin wash over the drawing.
11- He painted whites and extreme lights very thickly and almost every tone from there down so thinly that the canvas provides the dominant texture.
12- he used a variety of whites as local color and capacity to make things sparkle, this was achieved by a fascinating treatment of contours and edges as well as building layers of varying thicknesses.
13- he treated most flesh tones as values of roughly the same hue, that is the flesh is one color that gets lighter or darker depending on how the light falls.
14- his other approach to flesh is to vary the color itself between reddish and greenish tones
15- in some cases particularly where the flesh area is light surrounded by dark, it looks tinted rather then painted.
16- in 1937 he started working from photographs
17- he likes his edges well defined
18- he likes back rounds close in and parallel to the picture plane.
19- horizontals and verticals make him happier then diagonals
20- he uses the object in the foreground to invite the viewer into the picture.
2- like what you paint
3- if you love what you are painting, people will be bound to feel the same way
4- dramatize themes with universal appeal
5- portray emotion making the viewer an eye witness
6- you can't paint a house until it’s built
7- the design must have strong graphic qualities
8- serious subjects demand a large canvas, light and humorous a small size
9- he traced his charcoal drawings onto the canvas or used carbon paper he also projected it using a baloptican.
10- he did monochromatic under paintings usually with mars black or he put a thin wash over the drawing.
11- He painted whites and extreme lights very thickly and almost every tone from there down so thinly that the canvas provides the dominant texture.
12- he used a variety of whites as local color and capacity to make things sparkle, this was achieved by a fascinating treatment of contours and edges as well as building layers of varying thicknesses.
13- he treated most flesh tones as values of roughly the same hue, that is the flesh is one color that gets lighter or darker depending on how the light falls.
14- his other approach to flesh is to vary the color itself between reddish and greenish tones
15- in some cases particularly where the flesh area is light surrounded by dark, it looks tinted rather then painted.
16- in 1937 he started working from photographs
17- he likes his edges well defined
18- he likes back rounds close in and parallel to the picture plane.
19- horizontals and verticals make him happier then diagonals
20- he uses the object in the foreground to invite the viewer into the picture.
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