Designs Within the Design

Back in January we made twi video titled "Designs Within Design" and "Designs Within Design Cont." illustrated with a small landscape and a three figure painting Dick was working on at the time and is still working on. Today Dick returns to the subject of designs within design, taking as an example a nude he did in the 1990s, "Peter--Reaching" (1994-96) oil on linen 72'' x 48''.

Design Within Design Cont.

About a week ago, we posted on Designs within Design and we heard from many of you. Dick realized that there is more to say on the subject of designs within the design as well as framing and composition and we made this follow up video.

Designs within Design

Yesterday was supposed be our video editing day- finish another portrait- but we started late and decided to make a short pretty unedited video about the concept of "designs within the design."  The idea of the designs with design define quite well, although not completely, Dick's painting process.
So, for the video, using one of his older, small, premiere coup landscapes, which he had used to create a background for a large nude of Tom Johnson- whose video portrait is coming soon- Dick illustrates how a viewer's eyes enter the painting through the edges of the painting. He flips the painting to its sides and upside down to analyze the framing, a great, simple tool in painting, photography and critical tradition, to get a better sense of space and the painting's compositional organization.
He then moves to another painting, the work in progress, the three figure piece, and reveals a stages in his color-spot process and the way he arrives at designs within the design of the picture as a whole.