Boat Value Study
Boat Still Life for Value Study
During my recent Kevin MacPherson workshop, he challenged each student to complete 50 black and white value studies. I’ve started and invite my fellow artists reading this post to join me in this exercise. A few reasons:
- Value (the lightness or darkness of tone or color) is a core concept for a successful composition.
- Become a better artist by monitoring your progress daily and institutionalize the harmony that results from proper light and shadow placement.
- Mastering the concept will help you problem solve when beginning a painting. A quick sketch to determine shapes is the foundation to a successful piece. Using a sketch pad with a black ink marker to draw in shadow shapes while leaving everything light in white is an excellent start. On a canvas, paint shadow a dark grey and sunlight areas a light grey. This exercise allow you to quickly see whether you have the makings for a good painting from a design standpoint.
- This method helps you join your lights and shadows into fewer shapes.
One concept to remember as you begin this 50 value study exercise is that light shapes receive light from one main light source and shadow shapes don’t receive that same light. Another point to remember is that black in sunlight is lighter than white in shadow.
In these photos, you see the technique used to determine the design that features the light and shadow families. Greater concentration and focus is required but I’m confident that it will help both my plein air and studio paintings. Will you join in this challenge?
