Thank you Dianne! I was thinking about to re-create the Mona Lisa, you made the underpainting and lights and darks easier for me, and explained me how to do this for other things. Thank you again!
Always good to learn new techniques, we never know what might be a handy tool in the given circumstances and the final result would come out awesome! Thanks.
This is interesting. I understand *what* you are doing as you explain it very clearly; I am a little confused about why it matters, though. Why should light areas be connected? What does that do in a painting exactly? Is it just something to notice in a painting (kind of for fun or out of curiosity) or does it tell me something about how I should design a painting? Does one want the light areas to be connected in a particular way? Or just connected? I always just thought that light and dark areas defined dimensionality but never really thought that they should lie within the space in a particular pattern or form particular shapes or paths. This is a new concept for me that is still a bit fuzzy! :-)
Perhaps I can help!! There are a few different reasons to link lights and darks-one relates to composition and the other to facilitate the process of making a painting. First let’s discuss how it can make the process of making a painting easier. When starting a painting it’s helpful to simplify shapes and values as much as possible. To simplify values, it helps to link light and dark values to help simplify the composition. This help make it easier to get proportions correct. Then, after the major values are established, you can break them down into more and more values. Now when it comes to composition, linking values can help make a stronger composition, which can hold the attention of the viewer longer. Let’s look at two extreme examples to illustrate this concept. Imagine one image with lights and darks scattered in small bits randomly across the picture plane, much like a pixelated tv screen with no signal. Now imagine a white circle on a black background. The circle on the black background appears to be a much cleaner composition to many people and our brains can make better sense of it than random pixels of black and white. Our brains often like order and simplicity and this is often more visually pleasing. Try this exercise with some old master paintings. Complete NOTAN studies (only black and white) and you will find that many have compositions with large chunks of light and dark grouped together. Was this helpful at all? Happy to discuss it more. :)
Not really, Annmarie. Color and value have different roles in painting. Value is the structure of every painting. Any good work can be thrown into black/white and still hold.
Thank you for answering my question, but I am still perplexed. I would have connected some of those mountain ranges at her neck level to the dark side. What am I getting wrong? The background is light compared to her dark hair, but is dark in isolation on the value finder. Also on my value finder, the highlights on the front of her dress and top part of sleeve fall into categories of value 4-5 on the dark side. I see where you are going with this... I guess I have to just forget the value finder and see where the lights lead. Why did you ignore the big highlight on the R side sleeve... because it is not connected? That part is even lighter than the front of her dress but it is considered a dark? If it is not included in the original notan then why does it work in the final painting? This was really really useful. Could you do another one sometime with a painting that is even trickier to separate lights and darks? Also in this painting is the top L the source of light for the whole painting?
Perhaps I can help, Lisa! Value finders are helpful for getting values accurate when completing a painting. When completing NOTAN studies and other simplified compositions, I often tell my students that value relation is most important, rather than the absolute value, at least just to start. As you progress with the painting you can refine values as much or as little as you desire to get them closer to an absolute value. Let’s look at an example to illustrate this. In a high key painting (all light values) if you wanted to make a NOTAN to map the composition, you would have to make some of the areas black, even though they may be considered light on the value scale. Even though the values are not precise, it’s a helpful exercise to simplify the composition. The best way to see how values relate is to squint at your reference and painting. This will help you simplify them in to groups, which you can refine later. Was that helpful at all?
Lisa, Gallery Bry has an excellent reply. Let me add to that one thing that gets ignored in discussions about value: VALUES are created by HOW THE LIGHT is hitting the image. When studying values in paintings of master painters, we look at what that painter is telling us about the light. In the Mona Lisa, the distant mountains are suggesting distance and a thick atmosphere, therefore making them much lighter in value than Mona herself who is very close to the observer. Squinting, you can see them in a middle value range.
@@GalleryBry Thank you thank you Gallery Bry and Diane for explaining this. My teacher, such a good artist, was not the best at explaining. This has been driving me crazy for two years and no article on the internet to help.
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Thank you Dianne! I was thinking about to re-create the Mona Lisa, you made the underpainting and lights and darks easier for me, and explained me how to do this for other things. Thank you again!
Have fun with your study.
This is ENLIGHTENING. Looking at the pure shapes of the light helps to explain why the composition is so good.
Leonardo knew his stuff. Thanks for watching.
I learn so much every week from you, Dianne. Thank you!
I am delighted.
This lesson is amazing! I think this will help me a lot with the value studies!
Bet it will. Give it a try.
Always good to learn new techniques, we never know what might be a handy tool in the given circumstances and the final result would come out awesome! Thanks.
You bet!
Thank you Dianne, so helpful as always.
Always a pleasure.
Thank you so much! You are helping me to sharpen my observation skills
.
Great! THAT is where all good painting starts.
What a wonderful way to understand the subject - thank you as always for explaining things so clearly
You're very welcome!
Excellent class! Thank you, Diane.
You bet!
Great lesson. Thank you.
My pleasure.
I wish I could give this video 2 thumbs up rather than just 1!
Thanks.
Your note is good enough. Thanks.
By ur teaching method only wecan see the ur experience 🙏, hat's off
Thanks!
Thank you so much Dianne.
My pleasure, as always.
So well explained....thanks Dianne
Thanks, Alka! A pleasure as always.
This is interesting. I understand *what* you are doing as you explain it very clearly; I am a little confused about why it matters, though. Why should light areas be connected? What does that do in a painting exactly? Is it just something to notice in a painting (kind of for fun or out of curiosity) or does it tell me something about how I should design a painting? Does one want the light areas to be connected in a particular way? Or just connected? I always just thought that light and dark areas defined dimensionality but never really thought that they should lie within the space in a particular pattern or form particular shapes or paths. This is a new concept for me that is still a bit fuzzy! :-)
Good questions! I hope to hear an answer!
Perhaps I can help!! There are a few different reasons to link lights and darks-one relates to composition and the other to facilitate the process of making a painting. First let’s discuss how it can make the process of making a painting easier. When starting a painting it’s helpful to simplify shapes and values as much as possible. To simplify values, it helps to link light and dark values to help simplify the composition. This help make it easier to get proportions correct. Then, after the major values are established, you can break them down into more and more values. Now when it comes to composition, linking values can help make a stronger composition, which can hold the attention of the viewer longer. Let’s look at two extreme examples to illustrate this concept. Imagine one image with lights and darks scattered in small bits randomly across the picture plane, much like a pixelated tv screen with no signal. Now imagine a white circle on a black background. The circle on the black background appears to be a much cleaner composition to many people and our brains can make better sense of it than random pixels of black and white. Our brains often like order and simplicity and this is often more visually pleasing. Try this exercise with some old master paintings. Complete NOTAN studies (only black and white) and you will find that many have compositions with large chunks of light and dark grouped together. Was this helpful at all? Happy to discuss it more. :)
@@annmariethomas9968 See my answer for insight on linking lights and darks. Let me know if it helps.
@@GalleryBry your both explanations were a great help for me. Thank you !
@heeler just heeler, Gallery Bry has answered this very well.
Valuable lesson. Thank you!
My pleasure.
Interesting. I was taught to “bridge” certain areas. This seems to be similar. Thank you
Same thing.
Thank you very much. This was very helpful.
You bet.
This is a point I had to work more, thank you🤗
My pleasure.
This was wonderful. Does the same idea work with color instead of value? Thanks!
Not really, Annmarie. Color and value have different roles in painting. Value is the structure of every painting. Any good work can be thrown into black/white and still hold.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction Thank you, Dianne!
Thanks dear you are amazing 🤩
Please, I would like to learn drawing and painting but I’m 60 years old, do you think I can do it?
Oh yes! One of my best students was 80 years old when she started painting.
Another great video thanks..!
You bet
Great way to do it!
Thanks.
Thank you!
You bet!
Please give more videos on landscape painting in acrilic medium
Sorry, Bharati - I don't work with acrylics, so doing Quick Tips about them would be pretentious.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction thanks a lot, other wise in oil medium 🙏
Thank you for answering my question, but I am still perplexed. I would have connected some of those mountain ranges at her neck level to the dark side. What am I getting wrong? The background is light compared to her dark hair, but is dark in isolation on the value finder. Also on my value finder, the highlights on the front of her dress and top part of sleeve fall into categories of value 4-5 on the dark side. I see where you are going with this... I guess I have to just forget the value finder and see where the lights lead. Why did you ignore the big highlight on the R side sleeve... because it is not connected? That part is even lighter than the front of her dress but it is considered a dark? If it is not included in the original notan then why does it work in the final painting?
This was really really useful. Could you do another one sometime with a painting that is even trickier to separate lights and darks? Also in this painting is the top L the source of light for the whole painting?
Perhaps I can help, Lisa! Value finders are helpful for getting values accurate when completing a painting. When completing NOTAN studies and other simplified compositions, I often tell my students that value relation is most important, rather than the absolute value, at least just to start. As you progress with the painting you can refine values as much or as little as you desire to get them closer to an absolute value. Let’s look at an example to illustrate this. In a high key painting (all light values) if you wanted to make a NOTAN to map the composition, you would have to make some of the areas black, even though they may be considered light on the value scale. Even though the values are not precise, it’s a helpful exercise to simplify the composition. The best way to see how values relate is to squint at your reference and painting. This will help you simplify them in to groups, which you can refine later. Was that helpful at all?
Lisa, Gallery Bry has an excellent reply. Let me add to that one thing that gets ignored in discussions about value: VALUES are created by HOW THE LIGHT is hitting the image. When studying values in paintings of master painters, we look at what that painter is telling us about the light. In the Mona Lisa, the distant mountains are suggesting distance and a thick atmosphere, therefore making them much lighter in value than Mona herself who is very close to the observer. Squinting, you can see them in a middle value range.
@@GalleryBry Thank you thank you Gallery Bry and Diane for explaining this. My teacher, such a good artist, was not the best at explaining. This has been driving me crazy for two years and no article on the internet to help.
@@lisafred1362 happy to help!!