painting progress

Ambrosia Progress - week one

Oil on canvas

50cm x 50cm

Part of the Halo series.

Values are Important!

This week I started working on the underpainting for a new oil painting.

Having to take my time on this one as I took a tumble on my mountain bike at the weekend (ran out of skill) and am limping around the studio. This change of pace is perhaps a good thing as i’ve taken much longer than normal on the values for this next piece.

Getting values corect is something I initially learnt as a prerequisite to becoming a concept artist. Its one of those lessons which I would call the most important for anyone wanting to depict anything that looks realistic.

If you can get the values (black and white) correct in an image then it won’t matter if you paint the image bright green or neon pink it will still read well to the viewer.

I also really enjoy playing with contrast within a piece, building up and varying areas of dark and light. Placing a pale skin tone next to a dark background to really accentuate a face for example.

The next step will be colour! But I know that now the values are in , most of the hard work is actually done.