Tahoe's Elephant

Summary

Among the foundations of visual design are two essential insights, into understanding human vision, and the experience gained from our long history of visual communication. Common to both is the importance of tone (brightness, lightness, etc.) and its contrasts. Not only do around one in twenty males struggle to distinguish some or most colours, but all of us rely on tone to interpret what we see in the absence of information from colours. This has been illustrated throughout the history of visual art, where those who have excelled in visual communication have placed particular emphasis on tone. Consider Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) as an example of proven classical methods. Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine (1504-5), oil on wood, 112 x 95 cm, Dunamelléki Református Egyházkerület Budapest, Kecskemét, Budapest, Hungary. Wikimedia Commons. We know a lot about the tonal modelling that Cranach used in his Martyrdom of Saint Catherine painted in 1504-5, through the infra-red reflectogram below, which effectively looks through the paint layer at the underdrawing beneath. Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine (infra-red reflectogram, 900-1700 nm) (1504-5), oil on wood, 112 x 95 cm, Dunamelléki Református Egyházkerület Budapest, Kecskemét, Budapest, Hungary. Wikimedia Commons. Cranach’s assistants first laid a thin layer of light reddish imprimatura on the white ground of this panel. Once that had dried thoroughly, Cranach himself would have laid down the underdrawing using a pointed brush with carbon black ink. This extended to the tonal modelling shown clearly in the reflectogram. Following that came undermodelling using grey tones of carbon black and lead white. Some of the darker garments were preceded by a local underpainting of black, a technique popular at the time for dark red fabrics in particular. Much of this seems to have been completed quickly, probably within a single day. A common prac...