Sunday, June 15, 2008

daily painting - value study


I'm reading a great watercolor technique book at the moment. I got it out of my local library, but this is one book I may buy- it's that good. It's called Putting people in your paintings, by Laurel Hart. She stresses the importance of VALUE in painting. If the values are correct, it really doesn't matter what colors are used...so I decided to put it to the test. This is from a photo of a local track team. I used unrealistic colors and focused in on the value instead. Using the 'wrong' colors forces me to focus on the value. It's a great exercise!
I painted this on Bristol vellum, for a change. I wanted to see how the paint and gum Arabic handled on the Bristol vellum and how well (or not) I could lift out white areas.


The human form is very intimidating to me. I am slowly learning...it's a life time of learning!
In order to become a great artist,
I need to be willing to be a bad artist...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice work. I'm sure you'll continue to improve. Keep pursuing your passion

NANCY LEFKO said...

fascinating study....

and I love your rusty photos...

and of course the quote from the skin horse :)

Judy H said...

I can't believe you think you have problems with the human form....these are great.