Tuesday, August 13, 2013

How simple can you get?

Though these are relatively small paintings in size I like to see how much I can leave out and still have a story.  I have tried translating these to large sizes and I think it works.  So onward.  

This little figure painting I tried to keep to just two values and let color do the rest of the work.



This is a "High Value Key" painting.  Also reduced to basically two values but I brought up the shadow values to a "4" which moved all the information in the sunlight up to the ranges of "1 and 2".



Just trying to establish the shadow and light pattern then add some ambient light color along with some reflected light color and I don't thing I need "eyelashes."




Experimented with this one.  You know that guideline: "the lightest area in my shadow is still darker than the darkest area in my light." Well I follow that religiously when painting objects illuminated with a strong light source.  I had a highly respected instructor say that "even if a reflected light seems lighter than something in light, I paint it the same value or a bit darker."  So here I tried to keep the pink dress and hat in the shadow the same value or no lighter than the green grass in light.  I think it worked. 

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