Robert McGinnis: The Counterfeit Wife

Robert McGinnis: The Counterfeit Wife

This painting by the legendary Robert McGinnis is one of several images that we recently gave to a group of NCCA computer animation students as part of an essay brief that aimed to help them hone their image analysis skills. The idea is for students to gain confidence in their ability to critically evaluate an image, allowing them to articulate how and why they feel a particular image is successful (or not successful, depending on taste). In the spirit of never expecting students to do something that the tutor wouldn’t be prepared to do themselves, I thought it would be fun to do a quick blog post that covered some of the reasons why I like this image. It’ll be fun to see how much of the following made it into the student’s essays, and what other cool things they noticed that I failed to spot! The Overall Feeling One of the things that I find useful when starting to break down an image is to think about the overall feeling or mood that the image conveys, before starting to dig deeper to try to figure out how this feeling is achieved. Looking at this image, what do we see? Perhaps most obviously, and in common with many images by McGinnis, we see a beautiful woman. But more than that, we see a specific woman, far removed from the simple sexual object that we might at first assume her to be. This woman is strong and powerful, cold and superior- but with perhaps an air of defensiveness about her. In broader terms, the image feels well designed, and balanced. We might not know exactly why to begin with, but we find the image pleasing. It is, at a fundamental level, an image that ‘works’. Let’s have a look at the techniques that McGinnis used to get this result. Verticals, Horizontals and Diagonals McGinnis manages to imbue this character with a certain sense of power, confidence and superiority. In part this is achieved through the strong emphasis on verticals within the composition. Generally speaking, strong horizontals and verticals can help to give a sense of solidity and stability to a composition, whereas diagonals can be useful for generating a sense of danger, excitement, instability, etc. In this particular image, we see very few diagonals, and consequently the image feels more stable and solid that dramatic and intense. There is only really one horizontal (the top of the bar), so we can infer that, whilst the artist is clearly aiming for a sense of stability in the image, he doesn’t want to emphasise width. By far the most dominant are the verticals, which can be seen again and again- the side of the bar, the legs of the chair, the posture of the woman, and the stripe at the centre of the tiger skin. This dominance of the vertical ensures that we emphasise the height, power and grace of the subject. As most students of animation will know, however, if we want appeal in our work- and we always do- then having nothing but straights could be be problematic, and might lead to a design (or pose, or performance) that feels stiff. Ideally we’d be wanting to play straights against curves so that our work has contrast and balance within in. In this particular case we definitely need to have some curves in here- although the dominance and assurance of the subject is clearly something that McGinnis wants to capture, he also wants to emphasise the woman’s beauty and feminine grace- and curves tend to lend an air of soft gracefulness and femininity to an image. As expected, then, McGinnis builds some nice, strong, graphical curves into the composition, providing the necessary balance: False Perspective: This is very subtle, but very clever. We just noted how McGinnis uses a lot of verticals in this image to increase the height and stature of the subject. Notice also how he creates a false perspective to increase the sense that we, as the viewer, are in a subservient position to the woman in the image. Look first at the support that links the legs of the bar stool, and we can clearly see that we are looking downwards Raising our eyes to the level of the seat, we can see that we are more or less on a level with it. Raise our eyes a little further, and we can see that the top of the bar is a little way above us. Raising our eyes now all the way up the image to the woman’s face, tilted dismissively so that she is literally looking down at us, and you can see how skilfully McGinnis is able to manipulate the sense of space. Leading the Eye Strong value contrasts- where areas of dark and areas of light are sat next to each other- will always attract the eye. In this image, the strongest value contrasts are of the lightness of the woman’s flesh against the darkness of the tiger skin, and the darkness of the tiger skin against the lightness of the background (at least, most of the background- more on that shortly). Together, these value contrasts have a number of effects. Firstly, they help to create depth. Even in a simple image such as this, where the artist does not want to over-emphasise depth or deep space, it is nevertheless useful to have three planes- a clear foreground, midground and background. The value changes help to pull these three planes away from each other, giving a sense that the woman is clearly in front of the tiger skin, which is clearly in front of the background. A simple point perhaps, but you’d be amazed how many beginner artists use similar values on different planes, destroying the effect of depth. Secondly, the value changes between the woman, the tiger skin and the background run in discreet lines that work together to focus interest into a triangular area in the middle of the composition. To begin with, an implied line links the lightness of the woman’s face, her shoulder, and the lightness of her elbow. Another directional line is formed by lightness of her forearm against the tigerskin, and the darkness of the bottom of the tiger skin against the lightness of the background. A third line is created by the relative darkness of the tigerskin, the woman’s legs, the underside of her shoes, and the back of the chair against the lightness of the background. This line leads back up to the head where we began our journey, finishing the boundary within which McGinnis want to focus attention. Within this area, of course, McGinnis want to further guide the eye, focussing attention on the woman’s face, whilst also allowing there to be a clear path that the eye can follow to take in the rest of the figure. The lightest skin value, therefore, is on the face. Generally speaking, you can use gradual shifts in value range from dark to light to guide attention towards the light area, as we can see in the images below: note that in the first example, attention is led upwards, and in the second attention is led downwards: In the McGinnis image, the darkest skin values are way down at her feet, and the lightest at her face, so the value shifts cue us to look up towards the woman’s face. The curve on the left of the image, and the implied line from her elbow to her head further push attention towards her face. Notice in particular how the curve of the tiger skin on the left is used to guide us into the face, but the same is not true on the right. Over on the right, McGinnis deliberately ensures that the value difference between the tigerskin and the background is slight, so we don’t have our attention drawn all the way over there. If that happened, our attention would be being drawn to the wrong part of the image, and the curve would lead the eye in the completely wrong direction! Then, clear compositional lines allow the eye to flow around the rest of the figure as needed: Areas of Calm versus Areas of Detail As I’ve discussed in previous blog posts, it’s really important to balance an image in such a way that some areas have lots of detail, and others don’t- the idea being that the eye needs some areas to rest as it travels around the image, and that we can use areas of detail to direct attention to specific parts of the image. In this case we have a great balance- the background has become almost entirely detail-free, forming an almost solid, graphical shape. (although notice how McGinnis adds some flicks of paint in the upper areas to break the monotony and help lead the eye towards the face once again). In contrast to this stark background is the busy, highly decorative tiger skin that surrounds the woman (as we shall see shortly, the tiger skin is an important storytelling component of this image as well). Somewhere in between the two, in terms of detail, is the woman’s skin. This is detailed, but only lightly so, with the most careful and detailed rendering once again being at the face. Repeating Elements As I’ve also discussed in previous posts, it can be very useful to balance an image by having repeating forms throughout the design that help to unify the top and the bottom, the left and the right. As we discussed earlier, in this image McGinnis is emphasising the verticals much more than the horizontals, so it would make sense for there to be unifying shapes, colours or motifs running from top to bottom. Sure enough, the gold of the woman’s earrings, the champagne in the glass, the bottle top, the bracelet and the shoes created a recurring colour motif from top to bottom. Notice also the placement of this gold motif, which runs in a zig-zag fashion that starts at the face, moves down and to the right, and then down and to the left. This again serves to reinforce the ‘eye path’ that McGinnis offers the viewer and which we identified earlier. In a similar vein, we have some quite clear reds towards the top of the image at the woman’s hair and her lips. Note how McGinnis balances these by repeating the red on the bottle, and down at the feet in very small, subtle dabs of colour. Again we see the same zig-zag path being reinforced: Colour Scheme and Saturation. The basic colour scheme for this piece works well- the dominant colours are the complementary blues (used for the bar stool, the bar, part of the background and the skin) and yellows (used for the tiger skin, the jewellery, the champagne and the shoes). The other two colours are the green (used for the bottle) and the reds of the hair, lips, bottle detail and feet. Green and red, of course, are complementary, and along with the blue and yellow give us a ‘square’ colour scheme of blue, yellow, red and green, with the blues and yellows dominant, and the red and green used as detailing. Importantly, all of the colours are quite desaturated, and the skin- which could have been rendered in warm flesh tones- is made up of cool, low saturation blues. These choices of colour and saturation give the image as a whole, and the woman in particular, a certain coolness and detachment that psychologically reinforce the impression that the viewer’s gaze may not be entirely welcome. Visual Signifiers McGinnis is careful to accessorize his model with visual signifiers which reinforce her status, presumed wealth and dominance over the viewer. Her jewellery is of gold, and her drink champagne- both iconic signifiers of wealth and luxury. The tiger skin which hangs behind her is also replete with meaning, being not only a luxury item, but one which psychologically positions her as dominant over even the most fearsome of nature’s predators. Note how this tigerskin envelops her almost completely in graphical terms- the tigerskin and the woman are pictorially linked to each other in a way that the bar and the background are not. Storytelling I just love the subtlety with which McGinnis has posed this woman, and the contradictions of her character. She is clearly a woman of natural beauty, who has further enhanced her attractiveness with elegant clothing, jewellery and makeup, seeming to suggest someone confident in the power of their own sexuality. Yet far from being welcoming, her pose is contained and defensive. Her legs are crossed, her right foot raised against the viewer, as if ready to push out at anyone who gets too close. Her right arm, holding aloft a glass of champagne, crosses her chest, creating a physical barrier between the viewer and her body. Her other arm likewise half-conceals the bottle of champagne. A double-barrier is therefore created, with the woman’s pose effectively distancing the viewer from the two clear sources of potential pleasure- the bottle of champagne and her body. Contrast this with the image below, also by McGinnis. Note here how alcohol is again part of story being told by the image, but the woman’s companion has been allowed to indulge himself. The woman in this case half-reclines on the bed, her shades removed to reveal her face, her coat apparently ready to slip from her shoulders. It seems likely that the second source of pleasure will shortly be made as available as the first. So, that’s it for me, I think. No doubt I’ve missed lots of other cool things about this image, so I can’t wait to see what else my students pick up on!

Roger Wilkerson, The Suburban Legend!

Robert McGinnis – 1959

This painting by the legendary Robert McGinnis is one of several images that we recently gave to a group of NCCA computer animation students as part of an essay brief that aimed to help them hone their image analysis skills. The idea is for students to gain confidence in their ability to critically evaluate an image, allowing them to articulate how and why they feel a particular image is successful (or not successful, depending on taste).In the spirit of never expecting students to do something that the tutor wouldn’t be prepared to do themselves, I thought it would be fun to do a quick blog post that covered some of the reasons why I like this image. It’ll be fun to see how much of the following made it into the student’s essays, and what other cool things they noticed that I failed to spot! The Overall FeelingOne of the things that I find useful when starting to break down an image is to think about the overall feeling or mood that the image conveys, before starting to dig deeper to try to figure out how this feeling is achieved. Looking at this image, what do we see? Perhaps most obviously, and in common with many images by McGinnis, we see a beautiful woman. But more than that, we see a specific woman, far removed from the simple sexual object that we might at first assume her to be. This woman is strong and powerful, cold and superior- but with perhaps an air of defensiveness about her. In broader terms, the image feels well designed, and balanced. We might not know exactly why to begin with, but we find the image pleasing. It is, at a fundamental level, an image that ‘works’.Let’s have a look at the techniques that McGinnis used to get this result.Verticals, Horizontals and DiagonalsMcGinnis manages to imbue this character with a certain sense of power, confidence and superiority. In part this is achieved through the strong emphasis on verticals within the composition. Generally speaking, strong horizontals and verticals can help to give a sense of solidity and stability to a composition, whereas diagonals can be useful for generating a sense of danger, excitement, instability, etc.In this particular image, we see very few diagonals, and consequently the image feels more stable and solid that dramatic and intense. There is only really one horizontal (the top of the bar), so we can infer that, whilst the artist is clearly aiming for a sense of stability in the image, he doesn’t want to emphasise width. By far the most dominant are the verticals, which can be seen again and again- the side of the bar, the legs of the chair, the posture of the woman, and the stripe at the centre of the tiger skin. This dominance of the vertical ensures that we emphasise the height, power and grace of the subject.As most students of animation will know, however, if we want appeal in our work- and we always do- then having nothing but straights could be be problematic, and might lead to a design (or pose, or performance) that feels stiff. Ideally we’d be wanting to play straights against curves so that our work has contrast and balance within in. In this particular case we definitely need to have some curves in here- although the dominance and assurance of the subject is clearly something that McGinnis wants to capture, he also wants to emphasise the woman’s beauty and feminine grace- and curves tend to lend an air of soft gracefulness and femininity to an image. As expected, then, McGinnis builds some nice, strong, graphical curves into the composition, providing the necessary balance:False Perspective:This is very subtle, but very clever. We just noted how McGinnis uses a lot of verticals in this image to increase the height and stature of the subject. Notice also how he creates a false perspective to increase the sense that we, as the viewer, are in a subservient position to the woman in the image. Look first at the support that links the legs of the bar stool, and we can clearly see that we are looking downwards Raising our eyes to the level of the seat, we can see that we are more or less on a level with it. Raise our eyes a little further, and we can see that the top of the bar is a little way above us. Raising our eyes now all the way up the image to the woman’s face, tilted dismissively so that she is literally looking down at us, and you can see how skilfully McGinnis is able to manipulate the sense of space.Leading the EyeStrong value contrasts- where areas of dark and areas of light are sat next to each other- will always attract the eye. In this image, the strongest value contrasts are of the lightness of the woman’s flesh against the darkness of the tiger skin, and the darkness of the tiger skin against the lightness of the background (at least, most of the background- more on that shortly). Together, these value contrasts have a number of effects. Firstly, they help to create depth. Even in a simple image such as this, where the artist does not want to over-emphasise depth or deep space, it is nevertheless useful to have three planes- a clear foreground, midground and background. The value changes help to pull these three planes away from each other, giving a sense that the woman is clearly in front of the tiger skin, which is clearly in front of the background. A simple point perhaps, but you’d be amazed how many beginner artists use similar values on different planes, destroying the effect of depth.
Secondly, the value changes between the woman, the tiger skin and the background run in discreet lines that work together to focus interest into a triangular area in the middle of the composition. To begin with, an implied line links the lightness of the woman’s face, her shoulder, and the lightness of her elbow. Another directional line is formed by lightness of her forearm against the tigerskin, and the darkness of the bottom of the  tiger skin against the lightness of the background. A third line is created by the relative darkness of the tigerskin, the woman’s legs, the underside of her shoes, and the back of the chair against the lightness of the background. This line leads back up to the head where we began our journey, finishing the boundary within which McGinnis want to focus attention.Within this area, of course, McGinnis want to further guide the eye, focussing attention on the woman’s face, whilst also allowing there to be a clear path that the eye can follow to take in the rest of the figure.The lightest skin value, therefore, is on the face. Generally speaking, you can use gradual shifts in value range from dark to light to guide attention towards the light area, as we can see in the images below: note that in the first example, attention is led upwards, and in the second attention is led downwards:In the McGinnis image, the darkest skin values are way down at her feet, and the lightest at her face, so the value shifts cue us to look up towards the woman’s face.The curve on the left of the image, and the implied line from her elbow to her head further push attention towards her face. Notice in particular how the curve of the tiger skin on the left is used to guide us into the face, but the same is not true on the right. Over on the right, McGinnis deliberately ensures that the value difference between the tigerskin and the background is slight, so we don’t have our attention drawn all the way over there. If that happened, our attention would be being drawn to the wrong part of the image, and the curve would lead the eye in the completely wrong direction!Then, clear compositional lines allow the eye to flow around the rest of the figure as needed:Areas of Calm versus Areas of DetailAs I’ve discussed in previous blog posts, it’s really important to balance an image in such a way that some areas have lots of detail, and others don’t- the idea being that the eye needs some areas to rest as it travels around the image, and that we can use areas of detail to direct attention to specific parts of the image. In this case we have a great balance- the background has become almost entirely detail-free, forming an almost solid, graphical shape. (although notice how McGinnis adds some flicks of paint in the upper areas to break the monotony and help lead the eye towards the face once again). In contrast to this stark background  is the busy, highly decorative tiger skin that surrounds the woman (as we shall see shortly, the tiger skin is an important storytelling component of this image as well). Somewhere in between the two, in terms of detail, is the woman’s skin. This is detailed, but only lightly so, with the most careful and detailed rendering once again being at the face. Repeating ElementsAs I’ve also discussed in previous posts, it can be very useful to balance an image by having repeating forms throughout the design that help to unify the top and the bottom, the left and the right. As we discussed earlier, in this image McGinnis is emphasising the verticals much more than the horizontals, so it would make sense for there to be unifying shapes, colours or motifs running from top to bottom. Sure enough, the gold of the woman’s earrings, the champagne in the glass, the bottle top, the bracelet and the shoes created a recurring colour motif from top to bottom. Notice also the placement of this gold motif, which runs in a zig-zag fashion that starts at the face, moves down and to the right, and then down and to the left. This again serves to reinforce the ‘eye path’ that McGinnis offers the viewer and which we identified earlier.In a similar vein, we have some quite clear reds towards the top of the image at the woman’s hair and her lips. Note how McGinnis balances these by repeating the red on the bottle, and down at the feet in very small, subtle dabs of colour. Again we see the same zig-zag path being reinforced:Colour Scheme and Saturation.The basic colour scheme for this piece works well- the dominant colours are the complementary blues (used for the bar stool, the bar, part of the background and the skin) and yellows (used for the tiger skin, the jewellery, the champagne and the shoes). The other two colours are the green (used for the bottle) and the reds of the hair, lips, bottle detail and feet. Green and red, of course, are complementary, and along with the blue and yellow give us a ‘square’ colour scheme of blue, yellow, red and green, with the blues and yellows dominant, and the red and green used as detailing.Importantly, all of the colours are quite desaturated, and the skin- which could have been rendered in warm flesh tones- is made up of cool, low saturation blues. These choices of colour and saturation give the image as a whole, and the woman in particular, a certain coolness and detachment that psychologically reinforce the impression that the viewer’s gaze may not be entirely welcome. Visual SignifiersMcGinnis is careful to accessorize his model with visual signifiers which reinforce her status, presumed wealth and dominance over the viewer. Her jewellery is of gold, and her drink champagne- both iconic signifiers of wealth and luxury. The tiger skin which hangs behind her is also replete with meaning, being not only a luxury item, but one which psychologically positions her as dominant over even the most fearsome of nature’s predators. Note how this tigerskin envelops her almost completely in graphical terms- the tigerskin and the woman are pictorially linked to each other in a way that the bar and the background are not.StorytellingI just love the subtlety with which McGinnis has posed this woman, and the contradictions of her character.  She is clearly a woman of natural beauty, who has further enhanced her attractiveness with elegant clothing, jewellery and makeup, seeming to suggest someone confident in the power of their own sexuality. Yet far from being welcoming, her pose is contained and defensive. Her legs are crossed, her right foot raised against the viewer, as if ready to push out at anyone who gets too close. Her right arm, holding aloft a glass of champagne, crosses her chest, creating a physical barrier between the viewer and her body. Her other arm likewise half-conceals the bottle of champagne. A double-barrier is therefore created, with the woman’s pose effectively distancing the viewer from the two clear sources of potential pleasure- the bottle of champagne and her body.Contrast this with the image below, also by McGinnis. Note here how alcohol is again part of story being told by the image, but the woman’s companion has been allowed to indulge himself. The woman in this case half-reclines on the bed, her shades removed to reveal her face, her coat apparently ready to slip from her shoulders. It seems likely that the second source of pleasure will shortly be made as available as the first.So, that’s it for me, I think. No doubt I’ve missed lots of other cool things about this image, so I can’t wait to see what else my students pick up on!