How Edges Make a Painting Sing

A Dinner Table at Night OIl John Singer Sargent

One of the most important techniques a painter can learn to recognize and employ is the artistic placement of edges. All great painters past and present, from Leonardo da Vinci on, have employed masterful edges in their paintings and fully understood why and how to use them to focus the viewer where they intended. Knowing how and where to create a certain type of edge in a painting is essential to successful painting. This is so because certain edges can be used to focus attention where we want it. The converse is also true—we can relax or divert attention away from another part of our painting as well.

The three most important types of edges for painters to be proficient in are - Hard, Soft and Lost. Some artists also refer to “Found” edges. Hard and Soft are self-explanatory, but Lost edges can be defined as those edges where a form turns into either deep shadow or bright light and the difference between two tones b…