Creating That Edge
featuring Laura Robb
When we look Laura Robb’s paintings, we can see she uses edges quite often. Laura uses them to emphasize certain areas in her work and de- emphasize others. She uses edges to make a more compelling visual statement. When Laura started out as a painter, she was aware that edges can be used to convey a message, but like most people who are starting to learn to paint, Laura was consumed with learning how to draw and see values. These were the right things to focus on as a beginner. They have to come first before you can really focus on some of the more nuanced aspects of painting. One of Laura’s favorite painters is John Singer Sargent. He is well known for having beautiful edges in his work.
“Having a real intention of creating one message and not having the attention scattered over the entire painting surface is more important than the tool.”
Edges are so involved with values. If somebody is not seeing their values very well yet, then they are not going to be able to do edge work very successfully either. Focusing on edges above values would not be anything a new artist would want to do .
When Laura is creating her edges, she does a lot of work with a palette knife. A lot of her paint application is done with a palette knife. But, it certainly depends on the painting. You can accomplish a lot of the same outcome using a brush on your canvas. Laura goes back and forth between a brush and a palette knife. Edges have a lot more to do with the way you are seeing and what you are trying to accomplish and not so much the tool you are using. Having a real intention of creating one message and not having the attention scattered over the entire painting surface is more important than the tool you are using.
There is no “rule” about what percentage of a painting should have soft or hard edges. It could also depend on the lighting and the setup and how much contrast there is between the objects. The edges vary from painting to painting. There are generally more soft edges than hard edges in the painting world. A hard edge creates more attention and draws the viewers eye to that area. But, if there are hard edges all over, the objects tend to be too isolated from each other. There is not a good communication going on between the objects. Laura prefers more soft edges and more communication between objects rather than less. Hard edges can be used as a more transitional technique from object to object.
It never works very well to soften an edge when there is a really big value contrast. When you take a really light note against a really dark note, it will naturally have a harder edge. So, when you go in and soften that, it does not look plausible. The softer edges are where the values are closer together. Typically, when Laura wants a soften an edge somewhere, she is adjusting the values in that area so that it looks believable that there would be a soft edge there.
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