Value to Color Study

Value to Color Study

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

I'm teaching a painting class at River Arts in Damarsicotta, which is really fun. Today was our third class, and we worked on adding color to the value sketches that we'd painted last week. Check out the small spots of color (blue) on the background, and (red) on the top apple. The idea is to first mix what you think is the right value of the color needed for a given part of the painting. Then put a spot of it on the value sketch, squint, and if the value is right, it will disappear. If it's lighter or darker than the value sketch, remix and add another spot. It took mixing three spots of light blue before we all agreed the middle one was right. Once we'd agreed on the two reds, I painted a bit of the still life, and we had some fun with the reflected color on the right-most apple.