Light and Shadow and No Color

I did my first real painting exercise last week. I've been reading the painting books that I got, and they have been talking alot about the tone or value of different colors, and how the tones of different objects in a painting are the same, even though they may be different colors.

I was totally confused, but basically I figured out the lightness or darkness of a color is it's tone or value.
I was also getting really intimidated by the whole light and shadow thing - but that's pretty important i you're going to do good paintings. The light and shadow is what makes an object appear three dimensional on a flat canvas.

I was starting to wonder if I would ever be able to understand the light and shadow thing, but I figured the only way to figure it out was to do it. So I did one of the painting exercises in "First Steps Series: Painting Oils" by Louise DeMore, which is one of the books from the library that I'm currently reading. Here is what I came up with.





The exercise suggested I paint different objects in black and white to help me figure out tone and value. I think it did help - certain parts of objects had similar shades of grey, so if this painting was in color, the tone of the different colors would be the same in those areas. Now we'll just have to see if I can transfer that concept into a color painting! Stay tuned - I think I'm going to try a simple subject, like a flower or something, in color next.

Playing With My Paint

So as many of you know, I've rented a few library books on oil painting to help me get started. A couple of the books I have (Books 1 and 3 - see Books page) recommended just fiddling around with the paint for a while - trying different strokes, mixing colors, and just playing with it. So that's what I did. I thought you might find my fiddling painting amusing:



I know, I know, it looks like a first grader did it! Feel free to chuckle if you want to, but I had alot of fun playing with my paints, and when I was holding my palette it made me feel like a real artist! That's the way the book wanted me to feel before I attempted a real painting, so I guess it was a successful experiment.

Getting Started, Thanks To My Wonderful Husband!

I'm pretty sure I have the sweetest husband in the world. When I told him I decided I wanted to try painting again he took me to town and we bought some paints, a palette, canvas paper, and turpentine for me! It's so exciting to have all my new equipment! Plus I have some old paints from when I used to paint in elementary school that are still good. So that's Reason Number One why he's so great. Reason Number Two: the next night he did this for me:



He painted this corner of our basement and set up all my painting stuff, and put up that shelf with my stuffed animals on it (yes, I still have stuffed animals - and what's wrong with that, I ask you?). He also got our stereo system all set up so I can listen to music or talk radio when I work (I'm a big talk radio fan). He wanted me to have a nice place to paint - he thought if I had to go down there with everything a mess I wouldn't paint as much, so he set this up so that I would want to paint down there! He's so great - I'm so blessed to have such a supportive husband! Just thought I'd brag on him a bit . . . and those are only two of the many things he does for me! Thanks Babe, you're the best! And I'm looking forward to doing many paintings in my wonderful corner of the basement!