My Color Notebook and More Tips... (Oh! No! Not more on Value!)

The past several days have been especially difficult as we had to put my Mom in the hospital on Saturday.  She apparently has cancer that has spread to several places in her body.  We will know more on Wednesday but until then I am struggling to maintain some control... Mom has lived with us for the past 16 years so it will be especially difficult to let her go.  I sit at the hospital desperate to separate myself from the situation so I work on art related things that can be done on the "fly" with few supplies.  Today I penciled in some quick exercises in one of my sketchbooks so that when I had a minute I could just add the color to them and my samples would be nice and tidy in an actual book instead of "floaties" that tend to disappear.  When I got home tonight I just had to hold a paint brush in my hand for a while (at least I can control that, right?) so I painted a few of the samples.

I can also round up all the "floaties" and put them in the book and everything on color will be in one place.... well, almost everything on color.  What about you?  Do you keep notes on mixing colors and samples of different formulas?  What do you keep yours in?

I hope you are starting a notebook on value... if so, here are even more tips that I found on a handout that I have.

• Place a middle value first for a better grasp of the whole range of value and to reveal light areas.  Add darks last.
• Full value range paintings lack a dominance... omit unnecessary values.
• Take a black and white picture of your painting.
• A small halo of light accents an edge where it meets a dark.  Conversely, a small gradation of darker value will relax the same edge.
• Keep middle value paintings in the #4 to #7 range... middle values hold a painting together.  We need middle values in large areas or shapes for cementing.  They are the walls that support your windows of light or upon which darks can be patterned.
• Dark value paintings should be kept in the #5 to #10 range.  They give punch, drama and like light values can be used for structural unity. 
• Light value paintings should be kept in the #1 to #5 range.  Light values give life, breath and sparkle to a composition and can be used for structural unity.
• A photo of a sunlit subject usually blackens cast shadows.  Lighten these and put more color into them.
• Alternate value contrasts along extended edges.
• It takes a value change to separate a tree from the sky.  Don't rely on a color change to separate it.  Even worse, don't rely on texture.
• Most brighter colors come to full intensity in mid-value
• Give most of your attention to the four to seven largest pieces of value in your painting.  If these few large hunks are not the most distinguished shapes you can make, your painting will fail.

Haven't had a chance to work on "Daydreaming" but maybe soon I will have an update on it.

Be Still My Art,

Kay

More on Value and a WIP

My Mom (who is 90 years old) had some medical tests run last week and sitting in the lobby waiting brought back memories of when she had a stroke several years ago.  At that time I was in a critique class led by Polly Hammett.  Polly is a master at design and composition and really emphasized underlying abstract value designs.  She suggested that we take old art show catalogues and look at the value patterns of the winning entries and/or paintings that we liked.  By putting a piece of tracing paper over the photo one could see the larger value shapes in each painting.  I happened to have a sketch book that I had made by putting a sheet of drawing paper and then a sheet of tracing paper, until I had enough pages for the book.  To pass the time while at the hospital I started my Value Patterns Book...

Award winning paintings

Value Patterns of the paintings

Award winning paintings

Value Patterns of the paintings

Stephen Quiller

 I filled an entire sketchbook with the underlying abstract value patterns of winning watercolor paintings and also with the paintings of artist whose work I admire.  It was a very soothing exercise and I think I really learned a lot from doing it.  One thing I began to notice in all the value patterns was the use of large value shapes.

Value Patterns

Arne Westerman

Today I finished the drawing on my next painting and got the first glaze put on!!  Yea me!  Persistence and perseverance... one little step at a time.  Any progress is good progress... as long as it is progress in the right direction!

Work in Progress

Be Still My Art,


Kay

Contour Line Drawings

One of the best ways I know to improve your drawing skills is to do blind, semi-blind and regular contour line drawings.  I haven't always felt that way because I remember back (W-A-Y...back) when I was in college I thought it was stupid that we had to do them... but then I thought everything was stupid.  I didn't really learn to appreciate contour line drawing exercises until I taught them to my students at school.  After standing and demonstrating how to do a blind contour line drawing 7 times a day several days a week I began to notice my own drawing skills were improving.  It didn't take long to convince me of the value of doing contour line drawings.

Blind contour line drawing

A blind contour line drawing is done by looking only at what you are drawing and not the drawing itself.  It is supposed to be done using one continuous line and not ever picking up your pencil.  Obviously the objective is not to produce a great drawing but rather to learn to really look at and thus really see what you are drawing.  It stands to reason then that since drawing is seeing, one's drawing skills would improve proportionately to one's ability to really see objects.  A semi-blind contour line drawing is when you look at the drawing only once in a while to adjust your pencil (without picking it up... just move the line to where you should be).  In doing a true contour line drawing, one is constantly looking back and forth from the object being drawn to the drawing itself.  It is still done in one continuous line without picking up the pencil.

As is the case with many artists, I take my sketchbook with me wherever I go... even to church.  As I listen to the sermons I draw... usually a modified contour line drawing (which means I do it however I want to do it :0}  ).

Yesterday I had a heart fluttering moment as I looked at the light hitting the beautiful cannas blooming outside our backdoor.  I cut them and brought them in to my studio where I took the time to study them just a little.

 I can feel another watercolor painting about to bloom.  (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Be Still My Art,
Kay


P.S. To see some really good contour line drawings turned into paintings see Nancy Fleagle .