A cautionary tale, this little one. THEY say, you should have a ratio of 1/3 : 2/3, light to dark or however you want to divide it, but not equal parts of everything, and why is this? because for one thing, it is much easier to read, or to quickly grasp the forms and their relationships to each other. In this, I have 1/3 black, 1/3 dark, 1/3 light and a few highlights (white). When you look at it, you have to stick with it for a white to figure out what is happening. I am usually one for chafing under the rules, but in this case it is easy to see why the light to dark ratio is useful. Also, it is another element that needs thinking about before you start painting, even before you set up the still life.
Love, love, love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lesson on values, Jean. I never knew the ratio, I just muddle around and sometimes it works. It's great to learn this, even though it's still hard to figure the proper placement of values in a setup. Whew ! who knew this could be so complicated ?
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