The Backyard is My Grayscale Oyster

Oh, values. The bane of my art existence. Why can't I get this? We're talking basics here, but I just can't seem to translate what I see/want to paint into something that is effective from a value point of view. So for composition #2, I dug into my plein air bag (dusty from long storage), and pulled out some tools I bought years ago and never really used: the EASyL Viewfinder and ValueComp from Artwork Essentials.

Composition #2. Started as a rectangle but the
value masses looked better in a square format.

Since it was a beautiful spring day and we're still under shelter-in-place rules, I walked around the backyard with the red film to my face until something came into view where I could see three distinct values (light, medium, dark). It actually wasn't easy to find. Most everything was mid-tone. Anything I would have considered painting in the past was mid-tone. Even light shading an object was not enough to create a "value mass," as Ian Roberts says is necessary for a compelling composition.

I finally found some late afternoon light creating some hard shadows across the herb garden and onto the back wall of the house. Not the best scene, but it would do. I positioned my chair to divide up the space and started to draw. This little drawing, approximately 4" square, took me 45 minutes! I hope to improve that timing. If I were outdoors to paint, the sun would already be in a different position from what initially attracted me. And a lot of the time, I'm squeezing an hour of art time into my life, so that only leaves 15 minutes to paint. Definitely need to get quicker at these compositions.

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Back on Track with My Value Studies

Value studies #14, #15, #16. I thought I was getting better, but then I realized they really don't look like anything. Oh no. Took a little break there. Not a good one. Prescription drug-related side effects. But I've got the issues worked out (I hope) and I'm back to work on my year of value studies. (I'm also rereading " Coaching the Artist Within ," by Eric Maisel, which is a GREAT book to use to tame the inner critic so that you/I can get back to making art.) A few days ago I watched a great promo teaching video from the Tucson Art Academy Online on value. Afterwards, I created three value studies from vacation photos. Studies #14 and #15 are from the same photo, but they don't read as masses that make up an interesting scene. Study #16 reads as three distinct value masses, but you really don't know what it is (a canyon in Zion). I'll need to think about these some more. Barn near Holdener Park, Livermore, CA Meanwhile, I reread ...

Value Epiphany!

For the new year, I've decided that before I start a painting, I'll note the goals for that painting session and/or the finished product if I'm not painting alla prima (in one session). I've sort of informally been doing this for the last couple of months, but now I want to consciously follow these steps: 1) write down my goals, 2) paint, 3) acknowledge that the painting is crap ( see previous post ), 4) note how I did or did not meet my goals, and finally, 5) create a next steps list. Of course, these steps won't be executed until I've done the all-important value studies! Last October I painted a lesson from Dreama Tolle Perry's Flow class , a cute carafe of cream with a white ceramic basket of strawberries. The basket didn't read "white" in my painting, which I didn't like, and I wanted to figure out why...but I wanted to use my own still life to do it. So I set up a scene informed by Dreama but all my own. My scene used my own props to...

Down the Value Study Rabbit Hole

What's the best way to create a value study for me? I'm trying to figure that out. And how to paint from it once I've done it? I'm trying to figure that out, too. Been re-reading Ian Roberts' Mastering Composition . Have re-dedicated myself to working on a value composition a day (my original goal). He promises that a year of these daily compositions will make a HUGE difference in my art. Even with the few I've done, I'm seeing improvement and I'm asking a lot more questions, which I think means I'm on the right track for me right now. Overall, I've done five value studies of the rose, and it's getting tedious. But each one had me asking another question, so I continued on. It was a great exercise, trying different methods. I should have done one last one, a pencil sketch, but I've run out of steam. What's interesting, though, is that they all look similar yet different. Referring to the quad image at right, the simplest studies (3 ...

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