Activity #10 – Mediums and Techniques

Jacob Lawrence created “Daybreak- A Time to Rest” in 1967. The medium for this painting is tempera on hardboard. Tempera is paint in which the vehicle is an emulsion, which is a stable an aqueous liquid containing an oil, wax or resin (171). Tempera is an aqueous medium, one where the paint is diluted with water (168). While tempera is similar to oil paint, in that it dries to a tough, insoluble film, it differs because tempera colors retain their brilliance and clarity much longer than oil paint (171). The brilliance of these colors still remains after almost 40 years of being painted, not fading or becoming darker over time like oil paint. Because the paint dries so quickly, its colors cannot be blended easily once they are set down. You can clearly see that the colors used in this painting are clearly defined and do not blend with one another. It looks as if Lawrence used crayons instead of paints because of how closely the colors touch yet they do not blend together. Knowing that this painting is tempera, I find that it is much brighter and more clearly defined than how I first saw it. It’s caused me to notice the clear definition of all the colors used and their outlines.

“Untitled” is a gelatin silver print created by David Smith between 1932 and 1935. After studying and observing this photograph for a period of time, I came to the conclusion of what his method of putting this photograph together could be. It seems that he used a number of photographs and/or negatives of photos and merged them together in order to make one complete photograph. In doing this, Smith gives this photo three – dimensional depth. This layering method that he has used makes the photo much more life – like and attainable than any normal photograph. The images almost jump off the paper, giving them much depth as well as texture. Knowing that this was Smith’s method helps me to understand the complexity of the photograph, seeing the multiple images layered one on top of the other.