Hi Laurel - I have watching your videos off and on. Recently I started to go back and watch each episode one at a time and taking notes along the way then go out painting and practicing what I have learned from you. Your triads method have finally started to make sense to me and my PleinAir watercolor sketches now I see color harmonies without even trying. I like one of your episodes on different part of our journey at our art pursuit. It is just so true and often I tend to forget. During this Covid-19 period, I went back look at my first painting from three years ago vs today, I can visually see the huge difference. Just want to thank you for your generosity, especially during this difficult times connecting with the viewers and pushing out such a high quality instructions is just priceless. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and I just purchased your book and plan to study every page :-) Stay safe, be healthy and happy painting!
Thank you for this video. I’ve been painting for about a year now. My paintings tend to be rather light or quite dark or saturated. I do have a Gray scaler finder and this video has helped me see the purpose of it. So thanks again for sharing how to get the correct values.
I love this, Mom! Amber says "she's famous" for being on your video. This is the exact tutorial I needed to paint that picture of Craig but I'm glad I got my own private lesson from you for that one. This formula really helps and I love how you make your shadows colorful!
Ha ha! Hi Britt! Thanks for watching! We should post your painting so all the viewers can see how well following this rule worked on your painting! And yes Amber is famous!😂
Good to know about shadow strength. No one ever mentioned this before in any workshop I ever had. That is why I love your videos. I LEARN so much! Thank you.
That was a terrific demonstration. I learned a lot about value when I painted in oil, but have been struggling a bit more with it in watercolor, where you add water instead of white and it seems you can't represent them as minutely changed.
Thank you for sharing some art tools that I had no idea existed. You are an excellent teacher with easy to follow suggestions. This was my introduction to you and you now have another follower!
Excellent! Thank you! I just did two with shadows, one in sunlight and one of two figures sitting at a computer in a dark room. This totally explained what I think I did but with some exact science added. I will def use this concept. You are great Laura!!
Thanks for another great lesson on light and shadows. Too often our tendency might be to make our shadows purple or blue, not considering the underlying local color. Thanks for this valuable reminder and a logical way to determine the degree of darkening to make the shadows convincing!
Thank you so much, Laurel! Very helpful. I thought this was very concise and it's helpful to have a shorter video every once in awhile to zero in on specifics like value! And I love the 40% rule and using the value scale. It's hard for me to see value in "color". I'm fine with black and white. So I'll start using my value scale that I rarely pick up, so I can train myself more with value in color. I'm one that is so interested in shadow shapes and light (thank you!) and sometimes I notice how my backgrounds are more "muddy", trying to charge in specific colors. So staying with a triad and keeping colors clean is helpful as well as mixing on the paper. I know that's not what this tutorial was about, but your style of triads has kept me trying it more. Thank you again for a lovely and informative and caring tutorial. And I bought your book, even though the library had it on e-book!
Thank you JD! Yes the value scale is often overlooked, but after using it carefully for awhile you’ll get pretty good at identifying values in color. Thanks so much for watching and leaving feedback!
Hi Laurel You are so hard to find on the web! I never remember your name(I’m 76 yrs young 😃). Also, Could you use larger inspiration figures ? Your granddaughter in her soccer uniform is precious but so tiny when you break it into various color parts! I have to watch on iphone and am just mentioning these personal challenges of mine. 💃 You are my favorite artist by far and I so admire your subject matter, vivid colors and completely daring shifts of color! Blue horses are right at home on your easel!!! Loraine Thompson 💕🕊💃🌈
Недавно открыла Ваш канал. Ничего не понимаю по-английски! Но Вы такая красивая женщина и так приятно слушать Ваш голос, что смотрю всё видео подряд, не пролистывая на нужный мне кадр. Чудесные солнечные акварели! Учусь у Вас акварельной живописи, но и английскому- может будет с меня толк)))))! Спасибо большое за вдохновение!
Great demo! I will use this starting immediately. Actually, I bought your book and read about this last weekend. It is good to see it in action though. In the book, you do a technique in which you paint figures "from the top down" letting the colors mingle together. I think it would be very interesting if you would do a demo utilizing that method of adding people to a painting.
Thank you for a clear video on shadows outdoors. I have seen videos where make this a certain value and so on. I don’t remember the 40% guideline from light to dark. I will get my grey scale out and use it. Up to this point, I really didn’t understand it and used it hap hazardly (thats not really a word but you know what I mean) but this will really help. Happy and safe July 4th to you and your family.
Thanks Essie! Yes, grays ales really are valuable tools. And the cool thing about the one I have is that those little holes on the sides of each value are for you to hold it up and compare the value to each value on your subject. It’s so helpful!
Wonderful! Thank you so much for explaining this. Now I know why my shadows are too dark! I generally paint from photos and the shadows are always very dark. Could you possibly explain in more detail how you transfer your sketches to your watercolor paper. I often dirty my paper with extra lines and a lot of erasing. Thanks
I am mesmerized by your videos. You have helped me "see" better, if you know what I mean. Can you please tell me what brush you used for this demo? Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us!
It’s a #8 Loewe Cornell round, but it seems as though as soon as I recommend a product, they quit making it! I understand they will start producing them again next year. Apparently they said something was wrong with the bristles or something. A good sub would be Winsor Newton 8 round sable. Excellent brush but more expensive. Thanks for watching!
Really enjoying this lesson. I’m so convinced of the importance of value from watching various classes and I’m trying to learn how to implement values in my work. I didn’t know that the colour scale was of increments of 10 degrees so that’s so helpful. What I dont understand is how when you darken/shadow the figures skin colour, by adding violet, how you know that is 4 times the value of the light side of her face. I didn’t see you comparing it, so is it just from experience?
Yes, it is just from experience, so when beginning to work on this concept I would suggest you try your values on another paper. Even letting the color dry on the swatches before you apply them to the painting is good practice, because they will dry a little lighter.
Hi Laurel, I appreciate your wealth of knowledge and experience and you are an excellent teacher. I wonder how this 40% percent rule applies to overcast days in the northwest ?
Kathy Evans ha ha! Hi Kathy! Yes, I’m Doing fine! I have my next lesson formulated and ready to get filmed. It should be coming soon. You are so sweet to check up on me! Thank you!
I enjoy watching your videos and find them very instructive and useful, as was this one. However I suggest a small correction for the sake of accuracy. I think you should say that the shadow should be 4 values darker than the lighter side, in a scale of 1 to 10, rather than 40% darker. Thank you for putting together such lovely instruction videos.
Where were you when I was writing the script for this video? That is a much better way to explain this concept! Thank you for offering a great correction!
Hi Chris! Good question! I think it might vary in different pigments, but I’ve heard it usually dries one value lighter. So that has to be taken into account too!
For a travel palette I have a whole bunch of different ones that I own. I really like my Winsor Newton travel palette. It’s so tiny and easy to take anywhere. It is so cleverly designed-the lid becomes the water container and the brush and sponge are all contained inside. The student version is the Cotman kit, but I bought the one with the professional pan paints. It’s just so fun to paint with!
@@laurelhart2183 So I look for Cotman Kit ? I also asked about your studio pallette in another post. I can't seem to find one that works well for the studio. Are you teaching any virtual classes? I've exhausted all your online videos more than once. And I have your book on figures. Let's just say I love your work.....
Yes, I saw the comment where you asked about my studio palette but couldn’t find it again, so I’m glad you asked again. The studio palette I use I have had for years and it has no name on it, but Cheap Joes Online sells one almost identical. I think it’s just called the Cheap Joe’s watercolor palette and it’s often on sale for $10.00. You might also look at the Robert Wood palette but it is bigger and has more wells that are not as deep. But I used that one for many years too. Thanks for you kind compliments-I’m not doing any other virtual classes online right now, but I will be posting more on RUclips. I’ve had some other commissions and things I’ve been concentrating on.
P.S. The Cotman kit is fine but if you can afford it I’d get the kit that has the professional grade pans-the Cotman paints are student grade and in my opinion there’s a big difference in quality between the two levels.
@@laurelhart2183 You're welcome, my dear and talented friend! You can find my music only on my RUclips channel! I'd be so honored to collaborate, if you like my music for your awesome videos! Let me know it! I subscribed to your channel! Blessings of Love!
I like how you kept the warmth in the shadow too. It's very helpful. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Hi Laurel - I have watching your videos off and on. Recently I started to go back and watch each episode one at a time and taking notes along the way then go out painting and practicing what I have learned from you. Your triads method have finally started to make sense to me and my PleinAir watercolor sketches now I see color harmonies without even trying. I like one of your episodes on different part of our journey at our art pursuit. It is just so true and often I tend to forget. During this Covid-19 period, I went back look at my first painting from three years ago vs today, I can visually see the huge difference. Just want to thank you for your generosity, especially during this difficult times connecting with the viewers and pushing out such a high quality instructions is just priceless. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and I just purchased your book and plan to study every page :-) Stay safe, be healthy and happy painting!
Thank you so very much Emily! I love your comment!
I realize it's kinda randomly asking but does anyone know of a good website to stream newly released tv shows online?
Wow. This is the first I hear about the 40% darker formula for outdoor shadows. So useful.
I’m glad it’s helpful!
Thank you for this video. I’ve been painting for about a year now. My paintings tend to be rather light or quite dark or saturated. I do have a Gray scaler finder and this video has helped me see the purpose of it. So thanks again for sharing how to get the correct values.
Thanks for watching! Getting values correct is one of the most important skills to master in watercolor!
I love this, Mom! Amber says "she's famous" for being on your video. This is the exact tutorial I needed to paint that picture of Craig but I'm glad I got my own private lesson from you for that one. This formula really helps and I love how you make your shadows colorful!
Learn as much as you can from that mom of yours!
Ha ha! Hi Britt! Thanks for watching! We should post your painting so all the viewers can see how well following this rule worked on your painting! And yes Amber is famous!😂
Exactly what I was searching for. 40% darker in sunlight. Thanks Laurel.
Good to know about shadow strength. No one ever mentioned this before in any workshop I ever had. That is why I love your videos. I LEARN so much! Thank you.
I’m glad it was helpful!
This was so helpful. Watching you pull it all together was very encouraging to watch and is something I will try. Thank you
Hi Mary. Thanks for watching. I’m glad you found it helpful!
I did not know that! How very helpful; thank you, Laurel!
Thanks for watching!
That was a terrific demonstration. I learned a lot about value when I painted in oil, but have been struggling a bit more with it in watercolor, where you add water instead of white and it seems you can't represent them as minutely changed.
Thanks for watching. I’m glad this was helpful.
Lovely teaching style and work. So unassuming with a rich level of skill and experience. So thankful you are sharing your expertise !!!
Thanks Daniel!
You are always so awesome. Thanks so for this helpful video.
Thanks Sarah!
Thank you for sharing some art tools that I had no idea existed. You are an excellent teacher with easy to follow suggestions. This was my introduction to you and you now have another follower!
Thanks so much Patsy! Welcome!
thank you so much... laurel.. your inside light go through your works.. keep warmly shining.. please..
Oh, Margaret, this is the sweetest comment I could ever receive! Thank you for sharing this with me!
Thank you so much! This lesson was so helpful to me! Hope you had a restful holiday! Stay well! Bless you!
I did have a very restful holiday! Thank you, and you stay well too!
Thanks, Laurel. Good lesson on shadows! Keep 'em coming, please.
You know I will! Thanks for your support!
This is such a logical and great way to see this principle. Thanks you for sharing!
I’m glad it was helpful!
An excellent video Laurel! Instructive, clearly presented, beautifully demonstrated. I learned a lot. Thank you!!
Thank you for watching!
Thank you Laurel. I’ve learnt so much from this tutorial.
Always good to see comment from you Maggie!
As always, Laurel, your explanations are so clear and helpful. You really bring life to the shadows.💓
Thanks Judy!
Enjoyed your video. I’ve been taught to add the complementary color or gray to make shadows. You seem to do it differently which I’ll have to try!
Either way works, but I just prefer more colorful shadows.
Excellent! Thank you! I just did two with shadows, one in sunlight and one of two figures sitting at a computer in a dark room. This totally explained what I think I did but with some exact science added. I will def use this concept. You are great Laura!!
Thanks Kathy! It’s a pretty accurate formula for sunlit figures!
Thanks for another great lesson on light and shadows. Too often our tendency might be to make our shadows purple or blue, not considering the underlying local color. Thanks for this valuable reminder and a logical way to determine the degree of darkening to make the shadows convincing!
Thanks Linda! Always good to receive your comments!
Great lesson! I learn so much from you! I didn't know about the value difference for shadowed areas.
That can work too, but it usually grays the shadow more. I’ve read before that if the light course is cool, the shadows should be warm and vice versa.
Excellent Tutorial Laurel. Thank you.
Thanks for watching!
Valuable information and lovely demo as always very informative and enjoyable! Thank you!
Thanks for your viewership. I always appreciate your comments.
Thank you so much, Laurel! Very helpful. I thought this was very concise and it's helpful to have a shorter video every once in awhile to zero in on specifics like value! And I love the 40% rule and using the value scale. It's hard for me to see value in "color". I'm fine with black and white. So I'll start using my value scale that I rarely pick up, so I can train myself more with value in color. I'm one that is so interested in shadow shapes and light (thank you!) and sometimes I notice how my backgrounds are more "muddy", trying to charge in specific colors. So staying with a triad and keeping colors clean is helpful as well as mixing on the paper. I know that's not what this tutorial was about, but your style of triads has kept me trying it more. Thank you again for a lovely and informative and caring tutorial. And I bought your book, even though the library had it on e-book!
Thank you JD! Yes the value scale is often overlooked, but after using it carefully for awhile you’ll get pretty good at identifying values in color. Thanks so much for watching and leaving feedback!
Thank you so much for this Laurel - very helpful! Thank you for sharing.....
Thanks Marilyn!
Thank you - this demo was most helpful
I’m so glad!
Hi Laurel
You are so hard to find on the web! I never remember your name(I’m 76 yrs young 😃).
Also, Could you use larger inspiration figures ? Your granddaughter in her soccer uniform is precious but so tiny when you break it into various color parts! I have to watch on iphone and am just mentioning these personal challenges of mine. 💃
You are my favorite artist by far and I so admire your subject matter, vivid colors and completely daring shifts of color! Blue horses are right at home on your easel!!!
Loraine Thompson 💕🕊💃🌈
Недавно открыла Ваш канал. Ничего не понимаю по-английски! Но Вы такая красивая женщина и так приятно слушать Ваш голос, что смотрю всё видео подряд, не пролистывая на нужный мне кадр. Чудесные солнечные акварели! Учусь у Вас акварельной живописи, но и английскому- может будет с меня толк)))))! Спасибо большое за вдохновение!
Thank you so much for watching and for your nice comment. My son in law speaks Russian so he translated for me.
That's a great way to judge your shadow values. Thanks for sharing this wonderful tip and painting of your granddaughter! :)
Yoo Hoo Margaret!
Great demo! I will use this starting immediately. Actually, I bought your book and read about this last weekend. It is good to see it in action though. In the book, you do a technique in which you paint figures "from the top down" letting the colors mingle together. I think it would be very interesting if you would do a demo utilizing that method of adding people to a painting.
Great suggestion! I think I’ll do that in a future video! Thanks for watching!
Great as usual. Thanks !
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for a clear video on shadows outdoors. I have seen videos where make this a certain value and so on. I don’t remember the 40% guideline from light to dark. I will get my grey scale out and use it. Up to this point, I really didn’t understand it and used it hap hazardly (thats not really a word but you know what I mean) but this will really help. Happy and safe July 4th to you and your family.
Thanks Essie! Yes, grays ales really are valuable tools. And the cool thing about the one I have is that those little holes on the sides of each value are for you to hold it up and compare the value to each value on your subject. It’s so helpful!
Love it and learned a lot, thanks!!
Thanks for watching!
Thank you! Very helpful
Thanks Kathy!
Thank you...great lesson!
Thanks for watching!
Wonderful! Thank you so much for explaining this. Now I know why my shadows are too dark! I generally paint from photos and the shadows are always very dark. Could you possibly explain in more detail how you transfer your sketches to your watercolor paper. I often dirty my paper with extra lines and a lot of erasing. Thanks
Hi John. I don’t always transfer my sketches, but if I need to I will use my light box and trace it to another sheet of paper.
Laurel Hart Thank you for the quick reply!
Very interesting lesson, thank you. However i think that could be easier for me using a black and white photo to know the values
I am mesmerized by your videos. You have helped me "see" better, if you know what I mean. Can you please tell me what brush you used for this demo? Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us!
It’s a #8 Loewe Cornell round, but it seems as though as soon as I recommend a product, they quit making it! I understand they will start producing them again next year. Apparently they said something was wrong with the bristles or something. A good sub would be Winsor Newton 8 round sable. Excellent brush but more expensive. Thanks for watching!
Really enjoying this lesson. I’m so convinced of the importance of value from watching various classes and I’m trying to learn how to implement values in my work. I didn’t know that the colour scale was of increments of 10 degrees so that’s so helpful. What I dont understand is how when you darken/shadow the figures skin colour, by adding violet, how you know that is 4 times the value of the light side of her face. I didn’t see you comparing it, so is it just from experience?
Yes, it is just from experience, so when beginning to work on this concept I would suggest you try your values on another paper. Even letting the color dry on the swatches before you apply them to the painting is good practice, because they will dry a little lighter.
Great information. One question I have is how you soften your edges? Is your brush dry?
I soften edges with a damp brush, but with the water wiped off on a sponge or paper towel, or sometimes by blotting with paper towel.
@@laurelhart2183 Thanks Laurel.
Hi Laurel, I appreciate your wealth of knowledge and experience and you are an excellent teacher. I wonder how this 40% percent rule applies to overcast days in the northwest ?
I’m going to say it won’t really apply to cloudy lighting.
Laurel! Where are you? Are you okay? Time for another lesson?🤩 I'm not over my binge-watching withdrawls yet! 💜
Kathy Evans ha ha! Hi Kathy! Yes, I’m Doing fine! I have my next lesson formulated and ready to get filmed. It should be coming soon. You are so sweet to check up on me! Thank you!
I enjoy watching your videos and find them very instructive and useful, as was this one. However I suggest a small correction for the sake of accuracy. I think you should say that the shadow should be 4 values darker than the lighter side, in a scale of 1 to 10, rather than 40% darker. Thank you for putting together such lovely instruction videos.
Where were you when I was writing the script for this video? That is a much better way to explain this concept! Thank you for offering a great correction!
What is the name of the pallette you use? Would you recommend it for a studio palette?
It’s just the cheap Joe’s watercolor palette. Yes, I use it as a studio palette as well. They are inexpensive, so I have several of them.
Laurel is there a ratio for how much value you drop when your painting dries? The way watercolour dries lighter often trips me up.
Hi Chris! Good question! I think it might vary in different pigments, but I’ve heard it usually dries one value lighter. So that has to be taken into account too!
And do you have a preference for a travel palette?
For a travel palette I have a whole bunch of different ones that I own. I really like my Winsor Newton travel palette. It’s so tiny and easy to take anywhere. It is so cleverly designed-the lid becomes the water container and the brush and sponge are all contained inside. The student version is the Cotman kit, but I bought the one with the professional pan paints. It’s just so fun to paint with!
@@laurelhart2183 So I look for Cotman Kit ? I also asked about your studio pallette in another post. I can't seem to find one that works well for the studio.
Are you teaching any virtual classes? I've exhausted all your online videos more than once. And I have your book on figures. Let's just say I love your work.....
Yes, I saw the comment where you asked about my studio palette but couldn’t find it again, so I’m glad you asked again. The studio palette I use I have had for years and it has no name on it, but Cheap Joes Online sells one almost identical. I think it’s just called the Cheap Joe’s watercolor palette and it’s often on sale for $10.00. You might also look at the Robert Wood palette but it is bigger and has more wells that are not as deep. But I used that one for many years too. Thanks for you kind compliments-I’m not doing any other virtual classes online right now, but I will be posting more on RUclips. I’ve had some other commissions and things I’ve been concentrating on.
P.S. The Cotman kit is fine but if you can afford it I’d get the kit that has the professional grade pans-the Cotman paints are student grade and in my opinion there’s a big difference in quality between the two levels.
Absolutely Wonderful! Super Like! Congratulations! You are so much talented and I hope my music could inspire your art! God bless you!
Thank you for watching! Where do I find your music?
@@laurelhart2183
You're welcome, my dear and talented friend! You can find my music only on my RUclips channel! I'd be so honored to collaborate, if you like my music for your awesome videos! Let me know it! I subscribed to your channel! Blessings of Love!
How do you go about choosing the colors for shadows
A good rule of thumb to follow is if the subject is in warm light, the shadow colors should be cool, and vice versa.
40% Who knew?!!!
I know, right?