Sadness eclipses life in shades, from pale, disheartening
clouds to storms of grief and anger. To reflect the
intensity associated with darker sentiments, immerse
your palette in blues, with a touch of lightning.
No stranger to stirring imagery, Richard
Tuschman approaches his illustrations “as visual
poems evoking moods, rather than narrative pieces
telling a story.” Tuschman says because he gravitates
to subdued, muted and darker palettes, his corporate
clients are always pushing him to “make it brighter.”
“Even though I like a subdued palette, I want
the colors to feel rich,” says Tuschman. “Most of my
pieces have one or two dominant colors—which I
choose intuitively—then I try to complement them
with different accents throughout the rest of the
piece.” Also, he prefers to use color “more in a supporting
role to enhance and enrich the values and
textures, rather than in a structural way.”
For Tuschman’s montages, he digitally layers
painting, assemblage, photography and found
objects. He’s drawn to tactile, organic materials such
as wood and oil paint “for their simple beauty and
primal physical presence.” He says, “These materials
seem consistent with the intimacy I hope to imbue
in my work. … When I am compositing images on
the computer, the process is analogous. Instead of
applying layer upon layer of paint, I am constantly
reworking layers of images and textures, applying different
filters, opacities, blending strategies, dodging
and burning.”
“I see each new layer or texture as analagous
to an event in the life of a piece, one leading to the
next. In this way—just as in a person’s life—even
those layers that seem to be forgotten or invisible in
the finished piece have somehow contributed to the
whole,” Tuschman says.
Downtrodden type
Insight
Longing
