ACRYLIC DEMO – Value Scale
One of the things I have noticed with my students over the years is they are afraid to go too dark when they paint and their paintings suffer for it, so I thought it was time for a lesson in values to get over that fear and learn to put in those dark darks as well as all the values between dark and the lightest light.
First off we painted a value scale. We will be using this throughout our painting. Part of the problem many have is they do not believe that something is as dark as it really is. Our brains lie to us so we need to have something to convince ourselves that it really is that dark and the value scale will do just that.
First, I put out some black gesso (black paint will work as well) on my palette. On the strip of paper I provided I painted a 1 inch section at one end with the straight black. I rinsed my brush and picked up some white gesso (titanium white will work as well) that was about half as much as what was left of the black on my palette and mixed the two well. I added this new color next to the black on the strip about the same width. I repeated this action, each time adding half as much white to the previous color – you may want to just use a small portion of each mix or you end up with a huge pile – until I got down to one unpainted section. You can leave the white of the paper for the white or you can paint it with pure white, just be sure to rinse and clean your brush well so there is no remaining black that will tint the white. When this is dry you can punch holes in the middle of each value, this will help you when you need to evaluate a area.
Next, I had everyone paint their canvas black. No sense being shy about the dark because we will be starting out with our darkest dark. For my new students, when we paint in acrylics we start out usually in a mid level dark color and work our way to the light and final darks. All mediums require that you do several layers to increase values and color, doesn't matter if it is acrylics, oils, pastels, watercolors or whatever, you need to build a foundation for your painting first before you can put on the finishing details. Think of it like building a house from the ground up: You have to have a foundation, framing, wiring, plumbing, a roof, drywall, flooring…you get the picture, all before you can hang the paintings on the wall or move in the furniture, so learn to be patient with yourself and your painting.
When the black was dry, I showed how you can transfer a drawing to the canvas by using chalk on the back of a drawing then using it like poor man's transfer paper. You will need a light chalk because charcoal doesn't work to good on black. You can wait to do this step until after we get the first layer of color on the canvas if you want.
We won't be getting into any color for a couple of weeks and you may not want to put color on it at all when you are done. This is actually how the old masters use to paint because the pigments were so expensive because they were usually gem stones and other expensive materials, they could get white and mix carbon black from their chimneys to make black and grays with their oils then when they were done they could put on glazes of color and not waste the pigments. I will wait until the end to add color IF I want to add color.
The first value I mixed was a dark gray which was about 2 values down from pure black (keep those scales handy). This I used for the area the vase is sitting on. Look at the reference photo – you should always have the reference photo handy when you are painting – and see the light gray area that goes up about ¾ of the vase. In that gray area are shades of light and dark, the dark is what you just mixed and to that you can add some more white when you are in a lighter area, I do want to caution everyone that you are not trying to get the final values at this point, we are just establishing lighter and darker areas.
For the new students I used what is called a dry brush. What this means is there is very little moisture in my brush so each time I rinse it I make sure I have all excess water out of it, it also means that I have little paint in it as well. I load my brush then wipe the excess off before I go to my canvas, then I scrub in all directions, this is called scumbling. I'm not painting a wall, I am painting something that has bumps and high points how ever subtle and remembering that this is just the under painting, I just want to get the canvas covered. Yes, some of the black may show through and that is great! If you look at the photo on the picture page you can see that the black of the canvas shows through on mine, I'm not concerned. I also want you to notice that the area between the gray and the black in the background is very soft. You want to avoid hard lines as much as possible in acrylics because they are hoard to get rid of when you don't want them.
This is where we stopped for the day. Next class we will do more glazes of values, depending on how fast the class works, we may be done the following week, if we use color it will be when we finish the values study.
I would like if students could find their own type of reflection and/or glass to do a painting that they would rather do for the rest of the semester after we are done with this project, that way I can help you when you need it and you can put into practice what you have learned.
See you all in class.
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