The Value painting workshop for August 2020 will be here on:
Wednesday 19th August at 6PM UK time (1PM Eastern, 10AM Pacific)
This month I’m planning a reprise of last month, of sorts. We’ll be painting a largely single value, light value subject again – very possibly garlic again, although possibly something else – in order to practice applying the things we covered last month.
I think that repeating the exercise will allow everyone to think through what they would have like to have done better in the last one, and to apply it in a new study from scratch.
Here is the reference photo, you can either print this off or paint from a screen (I’ll be painting from a screen). It should print out 5 x 7 inches if you print it full size – I’ll be working this size.
Here too is a version with a grid, so you can lay it out quickly if you like.
I’d advise having the drawing out done ahead of time if you’re going to paint along live, I’ll be going poretty much straight in with the values in the workshop.
Here also is a pixelated version – this may make it easier to simplify the values and match them with the swatches in the value scale:
Materials
The materials list is quite simple: a pre-mixed value scale, something to paint on and some brushes.
For the value scale, if you don’t have a Munsell scale don’t worry. Take white as your lightest value and ivory black as your darkest.
Mix a value you think is half way between them (you can use the reference photo as a guide). Then mix two more values, one half way between the white and the middle value, and one half way between the black and the middle value.
Now you have a 5-step value scale. If any of the steps seem uneven to you, adjust them until you’re happy.
The five step scale will probably be fine, but you can also mix a value between each of those, giving you a 9 step scale which will correspond to the one on the reference photo.
If you really want to go for it, mix the same scale, with exact values with titanium white and raw umber, then mix a little of the raw umber mix into the black and white mix – the values will be closer to neutral and not so blue. (This part really doesn’t matter though, it’s purely aesthetic. It is good mixing practice however!)
Brush choice is up to you and not critical. Hog filberts will be fine, or flats, whatever you’re most comfortable with. You’ll want three about 5mm wide ideally, so that you can have one brush for lights, one for darks and one for middle values. Also one or two larger brushes for the background.
As usual, I’ll be painting into a linseed oil couch (a think layer of linseed oil) toned a light value and then mostly wiped off.