Material Honesty

​Material Honesty is a term I learned while studying architecture at the University of Washington, Seattle. They were very big on teaching us future architects how to be true to our building materials.

We were shown examples of exposed concrete walls with imprints of wood grain to illustrate the idea of "material honesty".

We learned that during building construction, wooden forms are built solely for the purpose of having something into which wet concrete can be poured. After the concrete has dried, the wooden forms are removed and discarded. One may never know about the type of forms used, but preserving the wood grain imprint on the concrete is a way to give a nod to the construction process. It's a way to be "honest" about your materials.

"Material honesty implies that materials should be used and selected on the bases of their properties, and that the characteristics of a material should influence the form it is used for. Thus, a material must not be used as a substitute for another material as this subverts the material's 'true' properties and it is 'cheating' the spectator."

​from the Wikipedia entry for Architectural Design Values   ​

​Although I'm not designing buildings now, I do think about material honesty quite a bit while I work. I've come to love the idea of hinting at my process and using materials in the way that works best for them. 

Using the idea of Material Honesty in my art

If I'm using pastels atop a colored paper, then when I'm finished I feel that one should be able to determine that I used pastels and a colored paper for the piece.

Here are some ways that I accomplish the idea of material honesty with pastels, illustrated with details from my artwork "I Dare You".

Exposing the paper
Sometimes I choose my paper based on its color. Other times, I randomly pick out a paper color and it becomes an important element in my color scheme as I work. Either way, the paper color is important to my creative process, so I allow parts of it to remain exposed on the finished artwork.

​In this detail, you can see bits of the brown paper through the pastel application. The brown paper very much influenced the colors I chose for this piece.

 Retaining my mark-making
Unlike wet media, like paint, that will show the brush strokes used during application, pastels are a dry media and they leave other types of marks, as shown in this detail. I choose to retain these marks in my finished pieces, both because I like how they look and because they indicate the way the artwork was made.

A bonus for me is that the marks are like a record of who I was and how I was feeling at the moment I made them.

Showing Layers
I've come to really love working with my pastels on a gritty, sanded paper. This unique type of paper allows multiple layers of pastel to be applied. I can achieve an honesty in my material application by exposing the multiple layers of color I use in my work.

Applying layers of color also allows me to give a painting more depth. If you've ever noticed a painting that appears "flat", it may be due to an absence of layers of colors.

Being expressive; not photo-realistic
For me, my art is about expressing a mood and getting at the heart of what inspired me in a subject in the first place. For the painting shown here, I had taken multiple photos of my model. In one of the photos, her eyes really drew me in. They seemed to be almost daring me, the viewer, to take her on. I absolutely love the strong, determined expression on her face. Of course, the gorgeous sunlit hair only added to my desire to paint the image.

I'm not interested in creating a photographic replica with my work. It's much more interesting to me to express myself and the media I'm using. For this piece, ​I used a specific set of colors and very expressive mark-making to get those original inspirations down on the paper. In the end, I do feel that I captured the ideas that prompted me to paint this image in the first place.

"I Dare You" • 12"x 19" • soft pastel on La Carte sanded pastel card • 2019

With each new piece I paint, I'm learning more and more about pastels and their specific abilities. I hope to continue to add to my list of ways to use them honestly.

Of course, the best thing about art is there are so many different ways to approach it! What do you think? Do you think it's important for artists to be "honest" with their materials? When is it fun to fool people by being "dishonest" with materials? 😄