Learn to draw by Tissa Hewavitarane

Counterchange

Counterchange is the placing of dark shapes against light ones and light shapes against dark. Basically, this is contrasting areas of dark and light as on a chess board. The principle should be locked in your mind all the time when you are painting, almost like a fighter waiting for the opportunity to use his favourite punch. All the great masters used this principle when they composed their work, but unless you are aware of what is going on you probably accept it without approaching it.

You only realise how important it is when you see a painting done by someone who has not yet learnt about counterchange. A house may be put next to a tree, both with the same tone, even though they may be a different colour and the only way they can be separated is by having to draw a line on top to show up the edges - it is an admission of defeat. What they should be doing, instinctively, is to darken the tree to show up the edge of the house or darken that bit of the house where it comes in front of the tree.

The most obvious way of stressing the main centre of interest can be achieved very dramatically by putting the darkest dark in the picture against the lightest light, such as the pure white sail of yacht that just happens to be passing in front of a very dark tree, or a bullock cart coming over a hill being silhouetted against the lightest part of the sky.

The same principle should be at work in a less obvious way all over the picture, but those things do not happen by accident when painting, they have to be thought beforehand.

Let me emphasise this again, put the idea of counterchange into your brain permanently and use it at all times as part of your armoury. With this in mind you can even begin to see new patterns in nature itself, where so often in a landscape objects seem to be set one against the other in sharp tonal contrast.

If nature does not always do it for you, rearrange the adjacent tones yourself. It is up to you, after all, you are in charge. Notice the silhouetted figures against the light in the arch and the light figure placed against the dark part painted by me.

The drawing paper to be used is Kent or Whatman 180 gsm and brushes sable hair No. 2, 5 and 6. No. 6 brush is used to colour the dark part. I have used only two colours a light wash of yellow orchore and a thick layer of burnt sienna applied for dark shading.