Jacob Lawrence was a 20th century African American painter who considered his work to be “dynamic cubism.” He designed this Gouache on paper not so much for his love of French art but rather because of his love for bold colors seen in Harlem. He painted You can bootleg whiskey for twenty-five cents a quart using a wet media called Gouache. Gouache is an opaque paint made of Chinese chalk and water colors. This type of paint has no transparency. Gouache isn’t a paint where the brushstrokes can be blended together. This wasn’t a problem for Lawrence because he liked the look of the flattened large color patterns. It gave him the Abstract look he was after. It’s actually what attracted him to the work. The large distorted shapes of colors really …show more content…
Pastels are a dry media that can be chalk or colored pigment that utilizes no greasy binder. They come in sticks that range from hard, medium, and soft. This is determined by how much binder is used. The less binder used, the harder the stick. This also gives more intense color. A special type of paper has to be used so the chalk doesn’t fall off the paper. During the time Degas completed this piece, artist fancied doing pieces of bathers and dancers. Degas used this form of dry media because he felt it was much better than painting, when it came to designing more realistic effects. Degas used sketch like strokes throughout the piece, which gave it an unfinished look. In spite of this, the detail is still quite impressive. The chalk tends to be very fragile and as stated before, it will fall right off the paper. Degas did this piece in layers and found a creative way to keep it in tact. He was using a fixative that allowed him to create many layers of pastels on top of each other without disturbing the intensity of each color. It has been said that the formula for his fixative was lost. He used hatching, which is the use of closely placed parallel lines. It gives the piece shading and tone. It has a nice abstract feel to