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Adventure Series 1

Changing Color - Keep the Value

Congratulations! You've finished the course!

Each color has an inherent value.

Learn how to maintain a value and change the temperature of it.

Learning to change color and maintain the value is a major part of painting and can be a difficult one to learn. Don't be surprised if it takes you many hours of experimentation and study to become proficient.

For a plane to read, it must have value integrity.

Practice thinking of color temperature shifts while maintaining value structure.

Find a flat sky idea or use the provided image.

Using three primaries and white, practice maintaining one value and change the color to paint your own sky scene. 

Mix a color to represent the initial value plane of the sky. When you are satisfied with the read of your value choice, use that mixture and begin to move the color using the three primaries. Try to avoid extravagant / large shifts in color.

Use tools to check your value. Your mobile phone can be used to photograph a passage and you can check the value integrity of color changes by turning the photo to black and white.

Expect to rework passages to achieve color / temperature shifts that preserve value.

Outdoor Practice: 

Now go outside. Find a value outdoors. For instance, find the value of the grass. Now find other similar values in the landscape and color shifts present. Is the sky the same value? What color is it? Is there a shift in temperature?

Mix the colors as you see them and make marks in your painting journal that resemble these color notes. Write to your color marks what it is you mixed; for example: 

  • Dirt
  • Grass
  • Sky
  • Etc.
  • Painting Journal
  • Painting Supplies (Oil or Gouache)
  • Sky Photograph

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Change Color, Keep the Value Sky
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