Class Thirteen

19th Century Poster Design- Artist Innovators and their Techniques

Printmaking and early Poster design of the 19th century sought to reach a wide audience of the emerging new middle class through advertising theater performances, cafes, new books and avant-garde art and dance. Artists explored new iconography in order to capture the attention of this audience. At this time, posters were printed on large stones. This method was called lithography. It came with inherent limitations and these limitations of the medium, set the tone for the type of designs that would become popular in mainstream culture. The limitation of materials produced innovative design efforts. Artists such as Toulouse Lautrec, Theophile Alexandre Steinlen and Jules Cheret captured this moment. Even today, we recognize their designs and you may even see cheap posters at Walmart or Michael’s with their images.

This is the final color version. Yellow, orange and green are the 3 colors in the composition.
This is the “KEY” stone that gives the drawing and the black, grey values. This is the monochrome base in which Lautrec adds his color accents. This is printed last on top of the 3 colors and is a lithographic technique.
19th Century Poster Images: Module 2

Lithography had its limitations- the stones were limited in size- the larger the stone the heavier it was and harder to transport from the artist’s studio to the print shop. Secondly, each color that you added to the design need to be applied to a different stone with the “Key” stone presenting the black drawing. All these stones needed to be registered to align image, color, drawing and text. But limitation has its power- the limited range of color allowed these artists to use color to focus the eye and concentrate on the intent of the message. These colors, usually 3 or less, created the environment in which a simple bold statement of 1-3 colors created a base upon which a monochrome or muted tone upper drawing created contrast and visual excitement. Such brevity of technique allowed these posters to stand out and form an iconography of image, creating a new graphic vocabulary that influenced graphic design into the 20th and 21st century. 

In the background is a black and white lithograph by myself titled, “Undertow”, that was recently displayed at the DVAA Art Gallery.

Learning to Use Watercolors

In this assignment, I would like you to create a color sheet demonstrating the types of mixes you can achieve with the watercolors that are in the kit. Please follow my schematic chart. This chart will present you with some choices to make. This chart will present you with some choices that you will need to mix. I will list the combinations I would like you to try. We will place our top line of colors in order- this will coincide with the light spectrum. Think of a rainbow.  Even though every color has its inherent value, this will be something we can manipulate through the use of more or less water. We will never use the white unless I indicate to do so.

Materials
  • 12 x 14 Multi-Media Pad
  • Set of Watercolors
  • #8 Watercolor Brush
  • Container for water
  • Paper towels
  • Pencil to label colors and color mixes
Directions:

Follow along with the video to create your color chart. The top line is the order of color along the light spectrum. The order follows like this, 12 colors in order:

Step 1:

Red, Red orange, Orange, Orange-yellow, Yellow, Yellow-green, Green, Green-blue, Blue, Blue-purple, Purple, Purple-red.

Underlined colors are step 2. Below are the tubes of colors that you will use for the color indicated.

  • Red orange: scarlet
  • Orange yellow: yellow ochre
  • Yellow: yellow
  • Yellow green: yellow green
  • Green: dark green
  • Green blue: cerulean blue
  • Blue: cobalt blue
  • Purple red: alizarin crimson
STEP 1: Top line is an abbreviation for the colors along the spectrum beginning with Red to the left and ending with Purple Red to the right. Lay these colors out first. I have indicated which colors to use from your kit above the paint swatches.
Step 2:

These colors you need to mix and place them in the above row: Red, Orange, Blue-purple, Purple.

  • Red: scarlet + alizarin crimson
  • Orange: scarlet + yellow
  • Blue purple: cobalt + alizarin
  • Purple: cobalt + alizarin
Here, I have added Red, Orange, Blue-purple, Purple between the other colors from Step 1.
Step 3:

Complements [These are colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel] Place each pure color under its name and then mix between them to see which colors you can make. Include the neutral, which is the brown or grey mix.

Red and Green                Blue and Orange                   Yellow and Purple

Below my 12 colors of the spectrum, I have indicated the complements beginning with R+G, B+O, Y+P. I mixed the two complements together below the pairs. This will give me a neutral which will tend toward the grey or brown.
Step 4:

Triad Combinations which includes a complementary pair (these are underlined) and one other color. Try these Triads:

  • Red, Green, Yellow
  • Red, Green, Blue
  • Orange, Blue, Red
  • Orange, Blue, Yellow
  • Purple, Yellow, Blue
  • Purple, Yellow, Red
  • There may be other triads that you may want to try
Here are Triads made from red/green complements and Blue/Orange complements with a single added color.
Here are Triads created from the Purple/Yellow complements plus one other color.
Neutrals:
  • Burnt sienna
  • Burnt umber
  • Payne’s grey
To the left are the series of neutrals that came in the kit. These can be added to your triad to decrease the intensity of a color. But I would recommend that you use the neutral that can be made between the complements first. This will create an innate harmony that you cannot get from adding these colors above.
Completed Chart. If yours is not exactly like this arrangement, that is fine. But make sure you have tried all of these combinations so you can make a choice of which Triad you would like to use for your colored object for Project 3.