Painting colour and light 2.0 Group run through week Two!

jdubz

I'm really curious to what processes you all use when you build a piece. That's something I've struggled with to get right.

For example, are you building the mid-tones and setting the base color of all the objects flat, and then applying shadow, then coming back and adding light?

Let's say you have a darker scene - how dark do you start? Or do you not worry about it and just build the local hue/value, like green couch, red bedspread, blue dress, skintone, etc and then apply a global dark layer to make it fit the darker color tone (like a night scene)?

Heather Boyd

@Braden-Hallett start it in 2020 one by one good review but I don’t have the time now.

burvantill

@Braden-Hallett the ball at the top. From where the light is coming from vs where the viewer is makes the light hitting to ball tough to capture. I looked for reference but all I could find were images where the light source and viewpoint are on the same side. I think I got it right but I’m not sure.
I started with a shape like A but then went with B.

Sorry for the cruddy sample.

burvantill

@jdubz for me it depends on what media I’m using. If I’m doing digital I would normally fill in a local value as if there’s no light source or ambiant light and then put in the lights and shadows. When I’m working in watercolor you have to do it all at the same time it’s a lot to juggle.
I learned a tip from an episode on Chiustream (either the Core or Plein and Simple) that the real world lives in the mid key values area. There is rarely any pure blacks or pure whites. Unless you are looking at a photo. I try to keep that in my head when I am pushing my darks.

braden H

@jdubz said in Painting colour and light 2.0 Group run through week Two!:

For example, are you building the mid-tones and setting the base color of all the objects flat, and then applying shadow, then coming back and adding light?

Pretty much, yup

As for the darker scene, For the most part even if I'm doing a scene that's 'dark', it's really not dark at all. It's just predominately cool. It's dimmer, yeah, but not DARK dark.

Overall the big things that have helped me have been doing a really REALLY simple value study using 5 values only, and doing a colour study (which I'm starting to refer to as a minipainting). My problem was always though I had to figure it out as I went with the full size piece instead of working small and playing until I got something that looked 'right' if you get what I mean.

braden H

@burvantill said in Painting colour and light 2.0 Group run through week Two!:

he ball at the top. From where the light is coming from vs where the viewer is makes the light hitting to ball tough to capture. I looked for reference but all I could find were images where the light source and viewpoint are on the same side. I think I got it right but I’m not sure.

I always think of phases of the moon. Crescent and gibbous show the moon (a sphere) lit from different angles. In other words, yes you did it right

NicolaSchofield

@jdubz said in Painting colour and light 2.0 Group run through week Two!:

I'm really curious to what processes you all use when you build a piece. That's something I've struggled with to get right.

For digital I'm stumbling my way around a bit trying to find something that feels right and works for me. For watercolour things are generally a little more structured just because you have to work with the nature of the paint. Usually highlights are reserved then you work from light to dark and wet to dry. I generally follow something like this tea-milk-honey method:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/citizensketcher.com/2014/08/19/printable-cheat-sheet-for-tea-milk-and-honey-workshop/amp/

You wash in local colour and general form very loosely then add cast shadows then the darkest darks - doorways, contact shadows (I guess that's occlusion shadows) so kinda the opposite order from the three steps in the painting colour & light instructions. I find the tea-milk-honey way more intuitive but it might just be because I learnt that first.

Coley

my exercise 03. I didn't look at anyone else's stuff before I did mine as I wanted to just use my own brain to think ha ha.
I did a similar angle of light as @Braden-Hallett as it turns out and I also didn't work on any local value or highlights etc, just the shadows only. i noticed Braden had a shadow for the taller cylinder which makes a lot of sense as it is taller than the sphere so it definitely could show up!
i used a really soft brush, next attempt I;m going to try a different brush and different angle.
This is not as easy as it looks! (Just like everything in art ) So grateful I have a like minded group to follow along with and get some learnin done so excited for all the learning and progress to come in 2020!

burvantill

@neschof Thanx for sharing the link

demotlj

After I said I’d join you doing this class, things got really busy. I got as far as collecting some reference for week 1 but never had time to post it so I’ve decided I’m just going to lurk for the rest of the time. I love looking at everyone’s homework though; I’ll learn from your work!

Coley

shadow coming from upper right. All caught up now

burvantill

@Coley I’m loving that reflected light on the ball

Heather Boyd

I will be unable to continue as much as I would like. Time crunch with two works I have planned to finish this month.

All the best!

NicolaSchofield

I’m finding this one much harder! I think I only added colour to feel like I was making progress

burvantill

@neschof I think you had the same trouble I did with the large ball and the light hitting it side on. Braden gave me a tip and I took this image from the web to help in these difficult situations. LOL
Phases of the moon.jpg
I think your ball would look like "young" moon or "old" moon flipped.

Coley

@burvantill reflected light is so purty

braden H

No worries to those of you who can't continue the course. The threads will be here once you return

braden H

Week three thread is up!

https://forum.svslearn.com/topic/8532/painting-colour-and-light-2-0-group-run-through-week-three

NicolaSchofield

@burvantill thanks, yeah, for the lollypop ball, right? For the ball on the ground, it's supposed to be mostly in the shadow of the staircase.

I think I need to actually add the light direction arrow to keep me on track better. It's supposed to be coming from top right but also slightly towards the viewer.

Emily Engh

This is one assignment I think I’m going to keep coming back too. I’m open to any constructive critiquing.