Friday, August 31, 2007

Lemons Redone!

This is what greeted me this morning in my inbox:



It's a black and white values version of the lemons. Well, you say, it all looks gray. Well, yes, yes it does - and that is why it stinks! Thankfully, Belinda Lindhardt is friend enough to email me this and let me know (in a very kind and gracious way.) I might have started with values, in my graphite version, but when I translated to color I got so caught up in the colors that I forgot values. Truly embarrassing, but hopefully embarrassing enough to prevent me from doing it again.

So, here are the lemons redone, in black and white and color.




So, thank you Belinda! I might be able to line up pencils according to value, but I can still leave my brain in the pencil box!

This demonstrates two of the points Katherine made the other day in her post on evaluation, having people who will point out your mistakes and looking at the values. (She talks about values, not necessarily the "make it black and white" trick, but that is a well-known way to check the values.)

Perhaps I need a checklist when I start a new piece....hmm, that's another post. Have a good weekend.

5 comments:

victoria said...

Looks great!

Belinda Lindhardt said...

Looking good Rose. I will push you even further tho!! :) (Arlene did the same to me) you should be have something from both ends of the value spectrum ... atm i am not seeing a bright white and a black! i think you are at 70-80% grey.. you need push it further in the darkest of darks and whitest of whites i think ...

then again i suppose it does depend on your reference have a look and see :)

Great work though!! well done :)

Rose Welty said...

Thanks Belinda and Victoria!

Belinda, you are right. The darks in the back of the bowl should be darker and the highlights in the lemons ought to be whiter. I was having trouble getting more CP on the film I used, so I switched to some Polycolors(oil-based) that I have, the darks I have aren't really dark enough and I had trouble removing the yellow, so the white I put in, didn't really show. So, I think I have to call it quits on this piece, but I definitely see what you are saying and am planning on it for the next piece. I really liked the oil-based on the film, I am very tempted to purchase a bigger range. And thanks again.

Jo Castillo said...

Rose, I agree with Belinda, but I do think you are really making progress. Values have been the hardest thing for me. I love color and forget value.

Don't know how you do all that you do. I enjoy the cleaning/organizing tips, too.

Sorry I haven't kept up on your posts. I was in my tourist mode. :)

Later,
Jo

Rose Welty said...

Jo, thanks. I agree, Belinda and you are right. I may try the piece again, or more likely, try something else with those thoughts in mind. Don't knock being a tourist Jo...too much work is well, too much work! Glad you like the "playbook".