2 compositional elements to consider when creating your next painting

Values: 
Dominant
Non-Dominant
Accent

and then converted to colour concept
Colour:
Dominant
Non-Dominant
Accent



PLEASE NOTE:

Values are your priority.

Colour is less important

the % points I have placed for each value is just a figure out of my head to reduce the chance of an even split eg a painting that is 50/50 dark/light will probably be dull and visually lacking. As you can see in some of my notan sketches


Why do we need a dominance in our painting?
The principle of dominance plays a major role in where emphasis occurs in a design.
use dominance to tell the viewer what is important, what to look at.
​it adds character, visual dynamism
Dominance gives a painting interest, counteracts confusion and monotony. Dominance can be applied to one or more of the elements of design to give emphasis and should always be considered. Be aware that it is often the subordinate element that demands most attention.
Repeated elements without some form of dominance can create monotony and confusion.​
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HOMEWORK, for your next painting design:

1. create x3 different designs incorporating value dominance concepts. no details just blocks of value
2. paint a small value sketch
3. select a palette to reflect your value concept
4. paint a small colour sketch based on your value concept
5. paint your painting!

What did you learn? 
what were your happy with?
what didn't work, what could work better for you?
write it down, comment below

​See you next week!!

A wee discussion about my demo painting from last lesson.

Some critical thoughts:

• underpainting with lots of water, not much colour. this foundational underpainting is important because it provides the highlights, low lights and values. Key because if you paint too dark too soon, you'll end up with nowhere to go. Mostly, it is not possible to paint light value colours over dark colours = transparent medium!
  
  
• an important process is to paint around whites, then another value in some areas - each consecutive value should allow some of previous values to show. you could say that the shape of each successive value is smaller and smaller (not necessarily the case but that's for later).
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• there are some issues to solve - excellent, I'll be able to show you more of my critical thinking process, next class.


• this is not the only way to paint watercolour but it is important to learn and understand and use as a springboard in developing your style. It's my goal to teach you how to use water so that your paintings look like watercolour paintings.

Value Scales

A key learning for visual artists in all painting mediums is to understand values. Without a good value structure paintings may look unfinished or worse, wishy-washy and dull.
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in watercolour, a typical process would be to paint lightest (2) and mid light values (3) around whites (1, white paper) and get progressively darker and use less water. This may seem slap dash and messy - and it is, but it's important to get background colours blending and light values working.

Several values can be laid down quite quickly in just 2 or three washes (layers), the key is to know where you're going and do it quickly - a plan is essential and may include any or all of these design tools: composition thumbnail, value thumbnail, detail sketch, colour sketch, monochrome sketch etc.

HOMEWORK:

1. Use a soft pencil to make your own value scale.
2. Compare these values to your previous sketches, drawings and paintings.
3. Write down your observations.
4. Photograph your paintings and sketches.
5. To one or two sketches, add the necessary lights or darks and do another critique. What are your discoveries?