|tutorial
Tutorial - Painting by : Nik Rafin
Hi guys..thank you very much for your patience. I hope we can get the momentum going!
In this post, I will be elaborating on the THIRD 'INGREDIENT' of COMPOSITION-TONAL VALUES
A Tonal Value is simply the range of tones that help define shapes and passages of your painting
without using a single line. It is a very..very important element of COMPOSITION as it unifies the
painting as a whole.
In the real world, if you see around you..there are a lot of shapes in different colors.
In painting particularly in watercolor, you don't want to include everything in. You want to unify
your painting as a whole, thus figuring out the TONAL VALUES would do the trick.
A very simple way of looking at TONAL VALUES is to change your subject to 3 main tones-The
DARKEST DARK, the LIGHTEST LIGHT/WHITE and the HALF GRAY tones.
..But How to find HALF GRAY TONES when the scene is very colorful and has no gray colors?
The easy way to figure it out is by SQUINTING your eyes. Squinting helps you see simple shapes.
From these simple shapes we are able to figure out the tonal values easily.
There are 2 types of squinting involved..the First Squint (Eyes narrowed down) and the Second
Squint (Eyes almost shut).
The FIRST SQUINT will help you to eliminate much of the detail and isolate the passage of the light
shapes. Big shapes become obvious and tonal values are clearly visible at this point. It is very easy
to separate the lights and dark this way.
The SECOND SQUINT will help you filter the tones even more. At this very point the shapes of light
and dark become even more apparent. All detail gone and the scene is reduced to monotone
shapes. Allocating shapes into their various values becomes possible.
NOTE: A very useful exercise to tackle the tonal ranges and mixing various colors is to paint in
monochrome watercolors. This way you get to only focus on getting the tones right without any
interference from different colors. Choose a dark color such as the BURNT UMBER and start
painting beginning with the lightest to the darkest.
(Burnt Umber has wider range of tonal possibilities compared to the lighter colors). This exercise
also helps you to master the power of UNITY in a painting.
NOTE 2: PERFECT FOR PLEIN AIR ARTISTS (Outdoor Artists)
Till we meet again..Thanks.
from : NIK RAFIN
https://www.facebook.com/nik.rafin
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