Light & Shadow course feedback

Lobalyss

Hello,
I’m doing the last Lvl 1 course of the curriculum, Light and Shadow. But I’m not sure if I truly understood the basics of what is a local tone. So I tried by doing the assignement 1 (part 1 and 2) and there is the 2. Local tone is it only about value ? Or there is colour into this concept ?

I continued by trying with photos but I feel quite lost.. For the horse, I didn’t know how to kinda find / choose (?) a local tone because of mountains are far and whiter + the grass is yellowish grass is fully under light..
Any help to see what's local tone is ? I know that I could use a white and black filter to see the exact value, but that would not be the local tone if it's already under light or shadow .. no? Local tone don't include light and shadows if I understood.. :face_with_open_mouth_cold_sweat:
I understood that local tone is « the colour something have, without light and shadows, so it’s the basic colour of the object ». Am I right ?

I hope that I’m quite clear in my lost. :face_with_cold_sweat: I really want to improve.

Lee White

So far it looks like you are understanding it correctly. Local tone is the basic value of an object before highlights and shadow gets applied to it. When an image in color, it's called local color and the same concept applies. It's the color and value of an object before lighting and shadows have been applied.

Can you post the work you did from the class? I don't recognize these images, but I will say that the source material already has lighting applied to it. So if you wanted to use the same steps from the class, you would just start with the basic local tones and local colors, then add the shading on top, following by any specific highlights or extra details you need in there. Your paints here have basically done that 1st step correctly. Now you can add the additional elements just like I did in the video.

Local tone/local color
shadows
highlights
extras/details.

Keep it simple and go in that order. This process is supposed to make it easier to build your own images. When copying photos, you can do any number of techniques because all the lighting and local color/tone has already been figured out.

Here's a 2 minute shadow paint over your local color on a layer set to multiply and using a 25-30% grey. Easy! Note: (When copying photos, you will normally want to lower the contrast some. Cameras expose for the light areas and often leave the shadows too dark.) 1581379720712-forsvs_localtone_assignement1exo_photo.jpg

Lobalyss

Thanks a lot for your answer @Lee-White !

When I did this, I was at the end of the first part « local tone » and thought that if I don’t understand this basic I should not understand the following. So I did the assignement 1, and illustrations are from part 2 assignement 1. I did notes too that I didn’t share. To help me, I thought that I should try with photo to understand.

I was loosing myself between local tone and local colour, it’s clearer now !

Today I continued with assignement 2, local tone cont.

Lee White

@Lobalyss sounds great! I would recommend going through all the steps in the video first before moving on to your own photos and reference. I recommend that because as you go through the steps you will start to understand when each thing is added and how it affects the overall look. If try your own before you really understand how each step works with another step, it could get confusing pretty quick. : )

Lobalyss

@Lee-White Thank you for your advices ! I'll use them right now