Thursday, March 16, 2017

Using Just Three Values

This painting was created by limiting myself to just three values. I mixed three large puddles of gray, a 30%, a 50% and a 70% gray tinted slightly towards olive green. 

With that done, I set out my color choices for the rest of my palette, raw umber, cad red, cad yellow, permanent green light, sap green, cobalt blue and titanium white. Before I applied a color to the canvas I first mixed it with one of the three values.

What this achieved, I think, is a totally united result where each element share a common integration with one another and all together give a sense of being firmly planted in the ground.

The grays could have been neutral or shifted slightly towards any color on the color wheel. That choice is a matter of your temperament and the subject matter before you.