When you surrender to an instructor and paint exactly as directed with all of your heart the painting created is a complete stranger to you. I had the pleasure of working with C.W. Mundy recently at the Scottsdale Artists' School, thanks to the generosity of P. Riggs. C.W. freely passed out nuggets of painting truths for us to chew on all week. Here are a few: The difference between a “scene painting” and a powerful painting is the resolve of the piece – darkest dark and lightest light in the centrality of focus. A quality artist is an excellent director. A series of mediocre decisions creates a mediocre painting. If there is a problem in a painting, it's usually with the values. The two most important things I learned is to keep my values closer together, say 3 -7, rather then 1 - 10 and that "I" am the director and can paint in what ever way my passion leads me.
Oil on Panel, 16" X 20"
4 comments:
That is VERY different ... yet still lovely, Laura!!! I like it!
Your piece is lovely. I had never heard anyone say anything about keeping the values closer together. I'd love to know more. What does this close value range give a painting and how does the chiaroscuro painters stack up to this advice? Just wondering.
Thank you Marian and Deborah, you asked about keeping the values closer. Here some of what C.W. said about Values: Values are right behind design in importance. Keep your values close, too many darks or lights are like finger nails on the chalkboard. Your painting should have 3 zones of value to be traditional and easy on the collectors eye. 0 – 3.5% of the painting should be high key, 3.5 – 7.5% should be mid key, 7.5 – 10% low key. Train your eyes and don’t make up values, it’s serious. You cannot substitute color for value. For the most elegant painting keep the values between 3 - 7, using the outside values as highlight "notes" and your darkest dark. Even his darkest dark was 7.5, not black. If you punch in that dark before any other paint on the canvas, you are sure to keep your values close.
I hope that helps answer the question on value. As to Chiaroscuro, he said there are many types, value, color or paint quality.
Beautiful painting and great information. I have a dvd by C.W. Mundy and have watched it twice and picked up new information each time.
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