Yesterday was the second painting class. Everyone selected an object or objects to do a value sketch and subsequently paint those items or different items. Rather than doing fruit, I picked two small powder-sugar donuts. As frequently happens when I try a new object, I really don't "get it", especially at first.
The picture above is from home, so the sugar has redistributed itself. When I was trying to do a value drawing, the main donut had a big brown area on the top that drifted down the side and a lot of white on the lower half of the front. It was frustrating. I got caught up in the colors and was not seeing the values. I shaded the brown part darker, because it's brown, and the white part lighter, because it's white. As a result, the donuts was flat and had no shape. Also, the composition left a bit to be desired! Kat stopped by and nicely pointed out that I should look more closely at the values. The brown was not as dark as I had shaded and so on. After reworking the drawing, it's better.
I've been working at seeing values and it was a bit frustrating to so thoroughly not see them! At the same time, it was a very good lesson. In most cases when I paint something from life (not a picture), the object is mostly one color, so this hasn't come up. In Kat's demo painting, she showed us how she marks the transition spots where there are major changes in values. It's all about the values!
For the painting, I changed where the donuts were positioned, slightly.
The smaller donut does not work. The larger one has a better shape than the drawing. Staying with all muddy colors is so not me. I like bright saturated colors, so this was a fun experiment. However, I had trouble with my values, again. When we looked at our paintings from far away, the different colors that I used just got lost.
I brought home my two frenemies and also brought home one of their buddies, as well. I want to try and paint donuts at least one more time this week.
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