Monday, October 19, 2009

I choose this painting to do because I've been complaining about better understanding how to paint values. It's a fine example of using extremely dark colors to provide a contrast to the wonderful tower in the background. I even put just a hint of three people in the alleyway behind.

This is an exercise from a really fun website called Watercolorpainting.com. The 'class' shows how to do this painting step by step and it's fun to utilize other painter's techniques to see if you can indeed do it. I learn something every time I've done an exercise and this one is no different. Actually, it turned out to be a rough copy of the original and for those who've tried to copy someone else's work you know its almost impossible to do. Not even the original painter can make a similar copy twice in a row. So I added my embellishments and changed a few things to make it easier to understand which makes it my own creation.

*For those interested the blue highlighted area is linked to the website.

1 comment:

Tess said...

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "apint values," Andy, but I do find the artistic vision interesting. The picture, the other guy's paining, and yours could all be entirely different scenes--the interpretation is so different. Yours is more pristine and new feeling, full of light and almost ethereal. His is earthy and old feeling, with warm rustic stones and a more squat and grounded feel to it. I don't know if my comments help you at all; I have no idea about painting techniques.