Step 3 = Shadow shapes.
Each stage of this process is presented in simple logical steps, so your not concentrating on to many things at once,
Remember its all just guess work and with each guess you become more accurate. (very important)
In this stage we aim to judge the accuracy a little more by looking at the general masses of shade and light.
When working on the line drawing there is a tendency to make dark areas look smaller and light areas look bigger.
Why?
Because the dark areas appear smaller and light areas appear larger, so we compensate by the dark areas look smaller and the light areas look bigger for the line drawing to look right.
The Answer
By filling in the shadow shapes we can now evaluate more accurately the proportions of shadow and light.
Fill in the shadow area with a number flat 7 value. That's one overall tone, we are not looking at articulating the darks yet, only the proportions of shadow and light.
Once the shadows are filled in we can check our measurements to see if we are still on track, check your plumb line, third proportions, units of measurement, width to the height of head, alignments, angles and reference points.
Remember oil paints are like clouds that drift across the canvas so we need to keep on top them.
Once we are happy with this we can look at the positive and negative shapes of the head
Positive = shadow shapes.
Negative = untouched canvas.
Start by looking at the shapes of light between the eye and the nose, chin to under lip, top of lip to under nose, eyebrow to forehead. Then look at the positive, shadow shapes to see they interlock. This is a great way to start looking at the abstract shapes within the face, once you stop thinking in terms of painting an eye and just look at the surrounding shapes and you will have something much more convincing than an L shaped nose or an ellipse with a ball in the middle for an eye.
Tips on looking at shapes,
Isolator,
Cut 2 X 8cm squares with a 2cm square hole in each. Look through one over an abstract area of your model and look through the other at your painting and then compare the two.
Now your only focused on the shapes in the isolated area and not distracted by the rest of the painting. You will be able to see the positive and negative relationships a lot clearer.
Note, if you have ever copied a photo using a square grid then you will see how similar this is.
Fresh Eyes,
Ever noticed that other peoples mistakes jump of the canvas, that's because you have fresh eyes. The longer we look at our paintings the less we see mistakes, the brain tends to compensate and make mistakes look right.
A fresh perspective of your work is needed, looking at your work through a mirror or even taking a photo and looking at through the digital play back will show up how crap things really look. You will be surprised, but be warned you only have a limited time with these aids before your brain starts to gloss over again. So don't use them too much.
Remember simplicity is the root of all genius. When you over complicate things you end up with a mess.
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4= Grouping of the Darksby paintaportrait3,381 views
looks just like him.
bulwine 2 months ago
Amazing
miztrance108 3 months ago
Another excellent vid, thanks for the write-up as well.
What surface are you using? Canvas or Board.. ?
tatuco8 1 year ago