Impressionism and Post Impressionism. Portrait in Cold and Warm Colours (Week 18) (Contextual task)

For this contextual task, I wanted to focus on Pierre-Auguste Renoir self portrait.

The way the colour has been used to emphasise material and identify what shade and tone it actually is can be seen well on this piece.

A very dark blue has been used for the main body of the clothes, as you can use blue to get the darkest tones without using black.

Another key observation is bounce light - on his jacket collar and hat, you can clearly see defined lighting of the background, represented by the cream-brown colour, additionally to accent certain features, some properties like subsurface can be seen in combination with the lighting scenario.

The beard on his top lip shows this, where the yellow can be seen in replacement to the white which would otherwise be there under other lighting conditions.

I really like the atmosphere that the piece creates. The way the lighting is set up helps the artist identify the underlying structure of the scull, where the eyes sink in, the jaw bone protrudes, etc. Furthermore giving accents to certain features in order to enhance them, for example the white collar or tie, short mark making has emphasised a thin material and highlight which defines the shape.