Jimmy Longacre_subjective realist landscape paintings_ VALUES AND COLOR SELECTION

One of a series using simple compositions to practice value separation of shapes, and color to indicate depth.  Learning to arrange the various shapes in a painting so as to make a clear value interpretation of a scene is the biggest help in choosing "right color".  

Value must come before color, because above everything else it makes order out of the scene we want to represent.  I work with a range of nine values, #1 is the lightest possible light, #9 is the darkest possible dark. The painting is blocked in using only values #2 through #8.  This way I can reserve the high-lights and darkest darks to place the accents as I'm finishing the painting.  With the values worked out, first, I can then select hues with confidence.  Almost any color will work if it's value is correct.  In this painting I have intentionally selected the warmest, most high chroma colors for the foreground, and the color becomes cooler and grayer as it moves into the distance. 

EARLY SUMMER
©Jimmy Longacre 2017
12x16 oil on canvas panel

Jimmy Longacre
subjective realist landscape paintings


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