EDGES – Part of the Story

I recently ran a workshop covering the basics of painting which of course included the importance of edges and the part they play in telling the story of a painting.

When I say ‘edges’ I am talking about the place at which paint meets paint – where one colour transitions to the next. Is it a hard transition or soft? What change in tonal value is there? Is the edge blended with the colour next to it? Are the colours warm against warm, cool against cool or warm against cool?

More importantly, what does all this tell us?

One piece of advice I give to all those who attend my workshops is not to paint in sections but to work across the whole of the painting. This is because as soon as a colour is put down it affects the one next to it and, in turn, itself. This relationship reliance with regard to edges is important because it has the ability to inform us, the viewer, about so many things, for example perspective, depth, focal point, movement and contrast.

So what do edges do for us as painters? We can use hard edges, for example, to draw the viewers eye to important passages that we want to draw attention to but, overused, that effect may risk being obscured rather than emphasised. Soft edges on the other hand allow the eye to pause but not linger, thus they can create movement and lost edges can be used to create a seamless blending of colour, shapes or contours – think lost horizons for example. Then there are broken edges and lost and found edges!

With such a power tool available to us why is it that I meet so many painters who have yet to discover and understand their effectiveness? Which is why is always suggest simply looking at paintings to see how many types of edges have been used, which ones were used in certain areas and why and what would the painting be without them?

Why not give it a go if you haven’t already.