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Foiled by Red

Composition #4. I think this one works. 
Yesterday I realized that I had messed up my values after seeing the black & white photo, but it turns out, I was only partly to blame. It was that red filter I used to help me see the values. Turns out that a red filter doesn't see value in red the same way as it sees other colors. Probably something about wavelengths of light, but I don't want to study that right now. For my still life, I had used a red sheet of paper for part of the background, and the filter read that a lot lighter than it actually was.

My quick, small acrylic painting. Finally, I get the
composition/painting duo done in one session.
A quick Google search reveals that a lot of artist use TWO filters, a red and a green. I suppose that makes sense, for instance, in the case of landscapes, where one scene could have a lot of trees and another could have a lot of red land (Sedona!). I might buy a green one to add to my art kit, but then again, maybe after creating a year's worth of compositions, I won't need either. That would be my ideal.

So to make things easier on me, I just changed out the red paper for a purple sheet, and the purple was a tad darker. Then I redid the composition. The result? A better value study and a better drawing. And I did it in 20 minutes! Halved my time by drawing the same thing a second time. I'm starting to see the advantages of daily work, and it's only been four days.

I had 30 minutes until I needed to start dinner (yogurt-and-aleppo-pepper-marinated chicken to grill, served alongside a tabouleh salad), so I decided to do a quick acrylic painting, 5x7", in an easy complementary color scheme. Famous last words. Shadowing yellow objects is HARD. But overall, I'm pleased with what I did (rare words from me), the values work, and the painting—if not an artistic masterpiece—at least reads correctly.

And I'm excited for tomorrow. I plan to test out that adage, color gets all the credit but value does all the work. And since it's going to be 89 degrees F and gorgeous, I'll probably attempt another backyard composition. (And a voice in the back of my head is thinking I should give this a try in watercolor, too. And what the hell, oil and pastel?)

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