Could go on adding detail forever & making changes; decided it was time to call it a day! This was a challenge....cars aren't so easy! Based on a photo I took on a visit to San Francisco some years ago.
12" x 12"
water soluble oil on canvas

Views: 211

Albums: Workshop23

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Comment by Ningning Li on July 24, 2013 at 1:48

Michael, thank you for trying to save me. But your idea is deep. I failed to catch it. Would you please paraphrase it so that I can understand it? 

Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 24, 2013 at 0:07

Ningning, the shadow of your cable car IS NOT IN THE LIGHT ..so don't lighten it!!

Comment by Ningning Li on July 23, 2013 at 17:24

Jessica, this is an advanced  level of discussion for me. I am not handle those values in the shadow and light very well.   I will lighten the shadow of my cable car which is in the light. The reason that I want to lighten it is not I know the rule you mentioned. It is because the cable car is in the distance.Very interesting. I will try to practise this rule to see what will happen.  If I am confused I would follow what I see in the real life. Tomorrow,if there is a sun, I will go  to observe whether the lightest thing in the shadow is darker than the darkest thing in the light. I have not see the light and shadow for several days.

Comment by Jessica Futerman on July 23, 2013 at 5:18

Thanks a lot for the ideas & information, Stu.  I think I joined this group after Workshop 9, but I remember seeing lots of those paintings of the Grand Canyon - sounds like a good idea to try it.  I did do some of the homework from the colour course & built & painted the cubes, but like you, I must admit I didn't do all the complicated shapes!  I did a little still life work in black & white some years back in a class setting but haven't done much since.  It'd be great if all the things we read & studied did just apply themselves effortlessly to our paintings!  This forum is so useful because other people can point out where we can improve & we all learn. 

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 23, 2013 at 2:41

Jessica, I am not sure if you were on this site yet or doing the workshops about a year ago when one of Richard's monthly challenges was to separate our work into darks and lights and first paint in all the darks and then all the lights.   It was the Grand Canyon workshop, Workshop 9, I think.  I suspect you might have done as I did and skipped all the homework in Richard's color course, because just putting those colored blocks under any light source will show you some amazing results.   I actually made a bunch of wood blocks and painted them with acrylic paints and used them to teach my granddaughters about this (of course I still didn't do the homework, because making art is more fun).   I do highly recommend James Gurney's book; I bought it about a year and a half ago, and it is by far the best book on color that I have seen.  You have plenty of sunlight year around where you live, but it is useful to make a light box and to work with objects in still life set ups with a single light source to verify this and to get this stuff embeded in your mind.   Larry Seiler has a nice plan for a light box on his blog; I made mine out of 1/4" plywood, but it could just as easily be made out of black 1/4" foam core.  Here is the reference for this on his blog: http://larryseiler.blogspot.com/2008/12/creating-from-life-stilllif...    Also, Richard did a whole still life series in this workshop, lessons 5 through 8, and shows you in it how to set up just a light source without making a box.  You can buy his video series as well for the still lifes and for the SouthWest US series (lessons 9-12).  I hope this is all helpful to you.  I always try and verify this myself as well and forget about 2/3 of what I learn.  The really hard part is taking all this knowledge and making it flow through your brush onto the canvas!   Keep up your hard work.   Stu

Comment by Jessica Futerman on July 23, 2013 at 2:36

Stu - just took a look at the book you mentioned; it looks excellent - will put it on my list!  Thanks.  

Comment by Jessica Futerman on July 23, 2013 at 2:19

Phew!  Ok, that's really well explained, Michael.  Thanks - it's extremely helpful!  I will definitely try the experiment outside & see what I can see!  I guess you can only apply so much at a time & as you go, you learn to apply more & more of what you've only heard or "known" in theory!  Because, Stuart, I have done Richard's course & obviously haven't taken it all in!!  Thanks for your generosity, Michael & Stuart,& taking the time to share your greater knowledge!   That atmospheric perspective monkey wrench certainly adds to the challenge!  We sure need a BIG tool box in this line of work!!  And I agree, Manneherrin - the little I saw now of Joaquin Sorolla's work is amazing; it is full of beautiful light & really gorgeous!   

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 23, 2013 at 1:30
Jessica, you might take a look at Richard's DVD course, "Mastering Color"; he goes into a lot of this color in light and shadow. If you prefer printed text, look at James Gurney's 2010 book, "Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter". These are rules of painting that are based on the behavior of light and color in the real world, and are fundamental to the creation of representational paintings. Stu
Comment by Silvana M Albano on July 23, 2013 at 1:27

GREAT INFORMATION!!!! Thanks!!!!!

Comment by Michael J. Severin on July 23, 2013 at 1:20

Jessica and Manneherrin:  per our discussion, I forgot to mention that Atmospheric perspective throws a monkey wrench into all this!!! ..just what everyone needed to hear ..right?

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