When I worked exclusively in pencil, a drawing had to have contrast. My friend Debbie used to say, “Remember, black is your friend.” She was right.
Without contrast, a drawing is flat, plain gray and boring.
Paintings can sometimes get away with not very much contrast. They don’t look great, but the color distracts from the lack of value range. (Values are the darks and lights – “value” is a good Artspeak word to know.)
But, I am very aware of contrast and value because of my pencil days.
I painted this little canvas of Timber Gap in Mineral King. It didn’t look very good to me.
I converted the photo to black and white which confirmed my suspicions of not enough contrast.
There really weren’t enough lupine either, but that’s not the main problem.
Have a look at the redone painting in black and white.
Neat trick, eh?
Here is the finished piece in color.
Timber Gap, oil on wrapped canvas, 6×6″, $50
4 Comments
Hi Jana…
Such a delight to meet you at the Mineral King Post-Annual Meeting Pot Luck. I love to dabble in watercolor, but know in my heart of hearts that taking a beginners drawing class would really increase my enjoyment with watercolor. Your posts about values has inspired me to get on with it!! Hope all is well with you and yours!! I now have you blog bookmarked and will stay tuned..
randy
Randy, it was great to meet you and see your lovely bride again! You are exactly right – learning to draw is the basis of all realistic painting. Don’t quit – anything worth doing takes a ton of practice. Thank you for your comment and bookmarking my blog!
Wow, what a difference, especially the redone black and white. Beautiful!
Isn’t that interesting, Cheryl? I think if you converted some of your photos to B&W, you’d see which are the strongest ones. I hadn’t thought of applying the process to photos until you commented – thanks for helping me think!
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