Take it black

Color expert Katrin Trautwin has written an intriguing book (actually two sections in a slipcase) about black and color, it's primarily aimed at architects and interior designers. She writes about the different blacks and in particular Ivory Black made from charred animal bones. Because this is expensive the commercial mixing industry uses carbon black for paints, printing inks, plastics et cetera but this can't offer a really solid velvety black.

The nine essays and lists in the book analyze color used by architects, especially Le Corbusier who, with Amedee Ozenfant in the 1920s, used their theories for colors inside Modernist houses. They thought specific pigment mixtures, always natural ones, could influence how space is perceived. Color could help in four functional ways: Atmospheric; Constructive; Dynamic; Decorative. The book quotes the Decorative function using glazes, patterned wallpapers, murals and tapestries as helping to modify the appearances of surfaces within three-dimensional structures.

I mentioned that the book is in two parts. One has the essays (in English and German) and the other has twenty-four color samples that fit inside the second book's pocket. These samples, roughly 10.75 by 9 inches, are very impressive to look at and feel. To get a really solid, deep color they have been screen printed on white card. There are sixteen shades of black only using Ivory Black for printing. Sheet eight is just called Black, a lovely solid, velvety color, the other fifteen are equally strong and powerful but have tinges of red, blue, purple, green and brown yet compared to the other color sample sheets anyone would say they are all black. Ultramarine blue, Champagne white, Deep red and Gold bronze plus four greys make up the eight other sheets in the set. Incidentally, because these sample sheets are screened with rich, solid colors they need to be handled carefully because they will show up any marks made on the surface.

The first book has some interesting color theories and their practical uses but it was the richness of the screen-printed samples in the second book that made it all come alive for me. 

US Amazon

Schwarz Black (German and English Edition): Trautwein, Katrin: 9783037783825: Amazon.com: Books

 

Real-life Steranko (5/5)

The complete Shield series in this paperback. ISBN 9780785185369.

The folks at IDW Publishing certainly came up with a bright idea: to publish comic artwork life-size (which means the books in the series are huge). This Artist's Edition, just over twenty-two inches deep, originally came out in 2014 and now copies are hard to come by.

I always thought that Steranko took comics to another level. His layouts and the use of graphics not normally seen in comics is tremendous. With this book, his drawing style can really be appreciated. I don't suppose many comic readers have seen the artwork of their heroes' life-size, the book reveals what it really looks like, the margins of the boards have bits of color, register marks, and scribbles by the artist and production staff. To achieve this the book is actually printed in four-color black.

There are twelve complete Nick Fury stories and seven covers in the back pages plus three pages about Steranko, he designed the book as well. Worth saying that IDW have re-issued this huge book in 2021 as a paperback but plenty of reviewers have commented on the very poor binding. ISBN  978-1684058631.

 

He did other paintings besides Santa (5/5)

Sunblom fans are in luck, The Illustrated Press has done a reprint of his work. The first seventeen pages have an illustrated essay about his professional life. The following chapters look at adverting, pin-ups and editorial. Coke-Cola takes up fifty-two of the adverting pages but I was pleased to that the long-running ad campaign, from the mid-forties, for the US Brewers Foundation shows eleven of Sundblom's paintings. Four of them are quite detailed color studies to show the ad agency and client before he did the final art.

The Coke pages, as expected, are full of the fat man that summed up Father Christmas for millions, he painted them for three decades. (The 1997 'Dream of Santa' book has most of his festive season paintings: ISBN 978-0517186558.)

The book follows the usual Illustrated Press style. All in color, a simple elegant layout and well printed on a good matt art paper.