adding elements to your paintings

adding elements is really most important because they help to tell your story, eg this guy's engrossed reading the newspaper while he waits for his partner to come back from the shop, he doesn't notice a little dog starting up at him. 

the secret to telling this and any other story in visual language (ie painting) is how to do this without OVER doing it or UNDER doing it, whichever is your mission al momento!!

With anything in your painting, it is key to get the shapes right and this is achieved by studying and sketching from life and continuing that course of study at home with photos etc.

You can't draw too much!!

learn to love it, appreciate it and use it as a "downtime" activity.

When painting elements, as with everything in your painting, it is best to start with light/mid values and paint around the whites/highlights.

then paint another value (on top of, beside, around but do not cover previous values completely) to start to describe shape/form shadow, then perhaps another darker cooler value to further describe form. we use pictorial language to describe shapes and forms eg values and colour temperature.

remember to keep it simple (KISS).

ciao i miei amici
​Amanda

---