All Things Fine Art

I'm glad this works for you Patsy. Posting it in the studio near your easel is a good thing to do. Happy painting. Sharon

Kim: I am delighted to hear from you and to know that my instruction continues to be of help to you. Do keep in touch.

Sharon

I am very excited and pleased about what I just painted using this technique. I forgot Step #6, I will have to complete that step.

Unfortunately, I've not had the opportunity to take a class with you yet, but I certainly hope to in the future. So, not having done so, I'm a bit at a disadvantage here not knowing if you focus on and teach students first about values and also "simplify" the more complex 10-pt. value scale to something much more manageable for beginners and alla prima or plein air work, say, perhaps only a 3-, 4-, or 5-point value scale? Do you teach students to do quick value sketches/studies first, prior to picking up a brush to paint? Again, I'm clueless since I've not had a class with you.

I can't agree with you more about the importance of being able to see, understand, and get the values right (more accurately) in representational painting. A good value structure is the backbone of any painting and a strong composition--not the subject and not the colors. The human eye is actually attracted to and notices value differences first (contrast). Values help us distinguish shapes and planes from each other. A value pattern also helps lead the eye through a painting.

However, I think being able to discern what the value is of any color (out of the tube, or mixture, or that you see "out there"--even relative to other colors and values--is a huge challenge for most of us. That kind of "seeing" or discernment takes a lot of practice. First of all, as artists, we love color and by our nature are automatically attracted to it. But more importantly, many of us come to painting with so many preconceived notions about color, local color, which colors are lighter/darker, warmer/cooler, etc. We're more focused on painting "things" or objects that have names--not shapes, and what we "know" or think we see (preconceptions that we bring with us) versus what we can actually "see"--if we'd just look more closely.

Ironically, this kind of seeing requires a kind of bare-bones simplicity itself that must strip away some of these preconceptions that get in our way and act as blinders. It also requires some sophistication in being able to see abstract shapes (not things), relationships, and their nuances. Something is only lighter/darker, warmer/cooler, brighter/duller in relation to something else. Thus, the artist learns to attend more closely to what s/he in fact can see, and not take for granted what s/he thinks is there based on prior experience.

I think your 6-point steps in simplification would indeed likely help those working in oils, acrylics, and perhaps pastels. But this process would not work in watercolor (different animal, usually painted light to dark), even though getting the values right and having a strong value structure is equally important in that medium, as is varying the colors, color temperature, and other nuances in the light and shadow areas.

I use a similar, basic, block-in process in pastels, except that I first do a few quick value sketches to help me select the best composition for the painting and to record its value structure. I don't usually stick to the general local colors for the first initial "underpainting," but I certainly do the values. I'm already thinking "values" as well as the general color temperature of the largest main shapes and planes, delineating the painting into the largest lightest area (or warmest lit shapes), medium value, and darkest value--simple as that. In pastel, I know I will be gradually laying in strokes and layers of other colors on top of this "values road map" underneath to gradually approximate the local colors or to accentuate them in certain ways. However, I try to force myself to choose subsequent colors for blending and variety that are of the same value in each of the value areas I put them in (light, medium, dark).

Step 2 (laying in all light areas) would be too early in most pastel paintings, I think, and perhaps Step 4 would need to come earlier. The medium you're using tends to dictate when you might be creating soft/hard edges, blending colors and blending between light and shadow shapes, etc.

After laying in that initial 3-4 value underpainting, based on the most obvious differences in value and color temperature in the largest shapes, I then start selecting my pastel sticks for the palette of the particular painting I'm doing (gradually working toward the local color). The first 3-4 colors that I select and attempt to match as accurately as I can to what I see "out there" will be my brightest light (reserved for last), darkest dark, and mid-range lit and shadow areas. These selected colors pulled out then become my values road map or the parameters for selecting any additional colors that must match closely to these in value from that point forward.

So, how do you teach students to discern (read) and match the value of the colors they're using, even in Step 1? And how did those of you who have figured this out learn to do this?

Sharon, thank you so much for the clarification(s)! I apologize for the length of my previous comment as well as this one, but what piqued my interest so much was your discussion of the problem with values, a nemesis for many artists in the earlier stages of their learning.

Since "simplification" seems to be one of your worthwhile goals, I was most interested in if/how you might also try to "simplify" the 10-pt. value scale in helping students better understand values in the first place, and then apply that knowledge as this relates to the value of colors in a painting class.

Of course, the ideal situation is that all students in a painting class have had a previous (and perhaps recent) drawing class with you where: (a) you have attempted to carefully design your classes and scaffold students' learning in some logical order to ensure students will progress and be more successful than not; and therefore (b) they have all learned about values before and how to successfully apply that understanding in their work without the distraction of also having to use color prior to a painting class. However, even with that prior knowledge and experience, I still think it's pretty difficult for most beginners and even intermediate students to be able to see the similarities and differences in value in colors (except the most obvious ones, like yellow and a deep purple-violet). The value of some colors is often over- or under-estimated when one actually compared to a BandW value scale, and the value of a color is often confused by a color's intensity/chroma. So, honestly, my hat's off to you!

Even if students have had a prior class--with you or someone else, as a former educator of adult college students as well as younger students, I know that individuals learn at different rates and some have more difficulty than others understanding some concepts and employing some skills. Sometimes, what you know was taught before and supposedly learned and even successfully done by a student doesn't always "stick" or transfer on a consistent, predictable basis, and I simply find that phenomenon interesting-and always have. So, as you said and apparently practice (thankfully!), a thoughtful teacher must "back up" and teach anew or re-teach whatever gaps in understanding and skills seem to be missing or have been "forgotten" or ignored that are currently presenting an obstacle to a student's growth and progress.

These inherent dilemmas in teaching/learning always present a creative challenge to the teacher, and a thoughtful one (as you obviously are), will critically examine the problem inside-out, particularly a problem that keeps cropping up class after class. You'll attempt to devise or design a better way to help students understand and apply the concepts with more ease, less confusion, and greater success. Your 6-Step Plan in painting is an excellent example of your responsiveness to a persistent problem (in virtually any art class) and helping students to focus on values first vs. immediately diving into color "matching" or mixing.

I also understand how any "written plan" is only that; the value of any plan or proposed procedure is in its actual implementation and success, in the give-and-take context of live instruction in a learning environment where one can actually see and hear what students are thinking and doing, how they're interpreting what you're trying to teach them or they themselves are doing, and responding to the questions that arise. Classrooms are dynamic places.

Even though you say that students who have studied with you before and understand your methods "will benefit from this plan more than those who have not," I suspect that students new to your instruction would also greatly benefit from your approach to focusing on values first in painting and keeping these at the forefront when launching into a new painting. The proof in the pudding for these students will be in the results of their finished paintings, and only then may some truly appreciate the value of focusing on values first (pun intended) and how far that initial focus can get one in the subsequent quality of his/her work.

Your discussion of values in your blog immediately piqued my interest because I have a close friend in another state who has recently taken a series of beginner classes in a cultural arts center (Col's, OH) in a logical succession taught by the same, very knowledgeable, formally-trained artist and art teacher (who also is a faculty member of a local art academy that uses a formal curriculum). By all accounts, he covered all the "right," foundational bases in the class exercises and assignments that he had students do. He demonstrated in every class session, showed examples of work, provided excellent individual and group feedback to students, and provided abbreviated handouts outlining the main concepts in each and every class session.

Despite having had a fairly rigorous drawing class first, then a color theory class with a variety of excellent, challenging exercises and activities relating value (and hue and intensity/chroma) to color, a figure-drawing class, and a watermedia class, it's "values" that continued to haunt my friend. Although she did produce some excellent drawings for a beginner demonstrating strong likenesses and good drawing skills, and a strong value range (with tutoring) in her final pieces, "values" still seem to elude her, particularly as this relates to color. This is despite her being able to recognize her most successful works and being proud of them. She's not able to duplicate those successes very often in her independent work. It's still hit and miss for her. Her struggle in not being able to see and employ value differences on a consistent basis (in BandW or color, but particularly in her watercolor paintings) in order to evaluate or adjust her own work has truly baffled me.

Among all of these courses and prior art classes at a community center, my friend has been asked to paint and use for reference no less than three, 10-step value scales, which she painted successfully. She understands value differences "intellectually," and has been encouraged by every instructor (and me on the sidelines) to squint to see if she needs to pump up her darker values to increase the contrast and 3-dimensionality in her representational work.

Finally, I was surprised when my friend said she had never heard of "color temperature" or warm/cool versions of the primaries in her color theory class, when I know that several exercises she did in that class dealt specifically with this. Okay, my friend is neither inattentive nor stupid, with a Ph.D. and being a former educator herself for years, and eagerly looked forward to each and every class session, and took her learning very seriously.

As my friend shrugged and said in her last class to her instructor, recognizing this is apparently a persistent problem for her, "I just don't see values." Well, I'd like to not believe that and doubt that her instructor did either, but by then I had run out of strategies and all the tricks I know to help her see/discern values better and to use a stronger range of values more effectively and consistently in her watercolor paintings and some of her drawings that she wanted my feedback on. But I tried. . .and will keep trying whenever she solicits my feedback, and I keep pointing her back to her previous successes and what makes them so effective. Hopefully, some day that light bulb will turn on for her, and she'll be able to see and more consciously attend to values from the start, and use stronger contrasts in her work on a more consistent basis without "forgetting" or ignoring them.

So, I applaud you and wish you all the best in helping students understand the importance of values and transferring that understanding to color in a painting class. No easy task, and I'd argue not an easy thing to learn either. Hopefully, your 6-step approach will help students like my friend who has struggled so much with values.

As for working in watercolor, yes, Steps 1 and 2 in your 6-step plan can be modified or reversed to some degree. But, believe it or not, there are a few professional watercolorists out there who prefer working dark to light! This is now possible because of so many new, transparent watercolor pigments manufactured today that are ground more finely with higher pigment loads, which are therefore more staining. So, these colors do not lift or bleed when applying a light thin wash of water over them and subsequent, multiple glazes of medium to light-value color mixtures on top of them. Not my cup of tea in terms of how I personally prefer to paint in watercolor, but working dark-to-light can be done and is interesting to see, particularly when the artist is using a fairly limited palette and also knows how to mix and mingle those colors!

Thank you for responding to my earlier comment, and I do hope to work with you in a class in the near future. It was also nice getting to meet you in person by mere happenstance back in the spring when you were on a plein air, watercolor-sketching outing in downtown Williamston near the river with some of your students.