Monday, February 18, 2008

What can we learn form gray-scale?


I know that I have a few students who read my blog and for those people I want to point out that when you convert your painting to gray scale it should still "make sense." The shadows should all be the same VALUE and there should be a clear center of interest. Here it is her face- of course- it is a portrait-- and the face is lighter than everything else (by design- maybe not in actuality). But this idea holds true whether we are painting dogs, or buildings, fruit or rivers.
So as you build your paintings keep in mind where you want the spotlight to be and focus the viewer's attention on this place. Here I have places a light area in the midst of dark and medium values.

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