Discuss the importance of process and materials in the work of your Essay

Discuss the importance of process and materials in the work of your artist or designer ( Rex Brandt ) - Essay Example Further, as a teacher, he inspired innumerable students to paint skillfully with watercolours. To Brandt (p.9), working with this oldest medium known to man was exciting because the transparent colours glowed like stained glass. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the watercolour artist Rex Brandt’s paintings, and determine the importance of process and materials in his works. The Importance of Process and Materials in the Work of Rex Brandt Brandt (a) (p.119) considered drawing to be the at the heart of watercolour painting. He advocated the importance of sketching as a primary step even in the case of landscapes, and the development of an individual style in executing a painting (Brandt (b) 16). Another requirement was an appropriate choice of materials for achieving best results, and he took into consideration the key role of paper for the medium of transparent pigment or watercolours. The artist appreciated the sparkling white paper adjacent with the transparent, colourful dark hues which forms a unique feature of watercolours. According to Brandt (p.81), â€Å"pure or transparent watercolour is universally appealing† because of its clarity and directness in portraying the image or scene. The artist used three basic watercolour techniques: the wash or control method, wet-into-wet, and dry brush and line. All the three methods may be used in the same painting (Brandt 145). It was considered essential to master the techniques of flat and gradated washes before progressing to the wet-into-wet, drybrush and line methods. Brandt focused equally on controlling the wash, handling colour through the different techniques as given above, correcting mistakes, and on matting and framing the completed art work. Further, the way thin watercolour on white paper reflects light has been compared by Brandt (p.11) to â€Å"the luster of a sea-shell, the translucence of a tide pool, and the luminosity of coloured glass against the sunâ € . After evaporation of the water and the gumbinder taking hold, each small nuance of the painting becomes fixed to the white surface of the paper. However, the main charm of using watercolours is its distinctive potential for gradation which contributes to the visual excitement created by the paintings. This effect is produced by arpeggios or flowing series of gradations in colour and value, as seen in Fig.1. below. Thus, watercolour is a special medium which readily accommodates an interchange of colours as well as gradation, which in turn can modulate its characteristic movement, liquidity and bounce. Fig.1. August at South Beach by Rex Brandt (California Watercolour (1), 2011) In watercolour paintings, accents with with the help of light watercolours are not completed as finishing touches, since light shades cannot cover dark watercolours. Working from light to dark is most effective in such paintings; similarly, it is advisable to work from very broad areas to smaller areas â€Å"since the progressively darker washes will overlay and obscure the lighter ones† (Brandt 98). The artist provided accents using the extremes of light and dark colours; while the grays acted as amalgams thereby giving a sense of unification to the entire picture. A vast number of Brandt’