This video was incredibly helpful! I painted the loveliest little landscape full of shadow and light after trying out your color palette and techniques, thank you so much!
Yes! Moreover, it explains why my colors get muddy. Dark/cool and light/warm is really a lightbulb for me. I paint with acrylic but the concept should be the same. Thank you! I love your videos.
Clear, straightforward, and to the point. Thanks, Ian. A thought on simplifying. My biggest difficulty is breaking away from the subconscious tendency to be a copyist of a scene instead of an interpreter. I try to keep in mind that my goal is not to document, it's to create from the raw materials I see.
That is a huge piece, and a huge shift mentally. It is a right brain shift I think to thinking in terms of design and not subject. When you look through the lens of design then everything is there to support that rather than supporting all the details.
I come from a photography and graphic design background and I really struggle to be spontaneous and simplify when painting. It’s such a difficult mental shift; my wife keeps telling me to stop when I’ve “roughed” in a painting but I usually don’t and then overwork. It’s a constant battle between mass and detail. Your tutorials are helping me a lot in my struggle. 👍
Love the video. Yes, it does help, and thank you for doing this. I just finished reading your book "Creative Authenticity". The most inspiring book I have read on my journey to creativity.
Ian, thank you so much! Your videos are so helpful. I binge-watch them! Although I have an artist block, watching the process of painting inspires me to continue my own journey. Art is one of the few things that make my eyes sparkle
Hi Ian, I found your by accident and I love the way you explain temperature. You make it seem so easy. I’ve been working getting the values right. Seeing shapes first instead of details and the mixing of colors is an ongoing challenge for me. But with a lot of practice I am able to loosen up and let my right brain do the talking. Thank you so much for these wonderful tutorials.
You're not only the best but also the most generous Art teacher on RU-vid. Your Art keeps a lot from the 19th and early 20th centuries's spirit... and skills. You changed a life, litterally. Thank you so much !
Ian, I so appreciate these demos...you are very generous with your time and expertise. Thank you for showing how you mix colors because it is incredibly informative and helpful.
For me, watching your deft mixing of colours on the glass palette was helpful and fascinating. The knowledgeable mixing demonstrated your lifelong experience with colour, a treat to watch.
Hi Lyn, I suppose it's a bit like watching a guitar player finger picking. On the one hand it looks so easy and effortless, on the other, you realize maybe it's not (at least my hours of practice have led me to think that). Best wishes to you and Chip, ian
I liked how you mixed the two cool Colors/darker values side by side on your palette. Then the same for the lighter value/warm colors. So it helped to keep them respectively close in value. Now to translate to watercolors for myself. I have so much to learn!! Thank you .
Its so inspirational to see how different the colours you use are from your reference image and yet your paintings are still realistic and stunning! I find myself worrying too much about matching hues exactly that I lose the "feeling" of the subject
I love the effect of warm next to cool! Thank you for showing how. Love how you simplify and your explanation is so clear. always looking forward to your next tutorial. Most appreciated 🙂
Your skill is superb but what stikes me above all is how you take an unremarkable photo and make a great image! I need to revisit my many blah travel photos to see if they have potential using your instruction. Thank you.
Great demo Ian. It was an aha moment when you talked about how the number of value level changes should be consistent between the two areas. I sometimes struggle with whether shadows should be cool or warm. I usually want to make them cool but then think about the cool light (daytime)/warm shadows and warm light (cloudy or dawn/dusk)/cool shadows theory. Do you subscribe to that?
Hi Julie, I think if you are talking sunlight whether it is cloudless or overcast it is warm. Since the sun is warm. So for me there would be a range of warm to cool as I describe in the video. You get warm shadows indoors when the light is coming from a north window, so the light is cool (blue sky without the sunlight) and then you get the opposite in the shadow, so the shadow is warm. Does that make sense?
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Interesting. Sunlight being warm and therefore cool shadows was my intuition then I read that a clear, bright day was actually cool (eg like cool white), while sunset/dawn/cloudy are warm. So confusing!
Nope! Not 'useful and engaging'! Looks like 3rd grade finger-painting! If we want to see a perfect style of oil landscape painting we go to 'Michael James Smith'!
This was a great video, Ian, but I have a question not about value or temperament, but about your brush! In all of your videos you make such wonderful marks with your brush, but it looks (to me) like a scruffy old brush that I would probably throw out! 😬 Is it a filbert? Bristle, I presume. But is it old and worn? And what size? Hope,this isn’t too much off topic!
Dear Ian, I’m on your drawing course now, but on the same time it is so useful to review all your Tuesday videos! Makes a good repetition- “the mother of skill” (Swedish expression) 😉/ Such good education! /Thank you/🎨🖼
Thank you! All the positive things that have been said are true. I spend a lot of time on your videos because they teach so much! What programme do you use to put the grid on to your reference pictures?
I discovered that color can show depth if you are trying to show a distance between front and background. Lighter greens and darker greens and shadows.
Yes it really did. I always have had such a chaotic experience with planning because I didn't know about keeping contrast constant. This is the missing key for me.
Why don’t you paint your base color over every thing except the sky and then add your lighter values over the top? I am trying to relearn painting… I used to be able to paint and was ok for a beginner until I had surgery. I think the anesthesia changed my way of seeing.
I do not have option to look at the picture like a deer or bear I do from memory. I may look a while at a picture but it not in front of me as I do the art.I must try think of it looks. But I rather would look at same time a picture. someone thinks that copying. a horse is same as fraud . It is not a bear a bear and a horse is a horse. I do animals so not be accused as a copier as I am not doing that I am learning the animal and just like to show for fun.
shades of a same color can show hill inclines or round like a ball or rocks or a horse's chest. I on paper draw only ink so if I make a mistake I learn to fix or hide it. you can not erase it. Only art persons see the mistakes anyways.
Great video and painting! Again Ian thank you, thank you , thank you. the teaching on value shift between shadow and lit areas of the same object was great , but the game changer is the fact that the shift should stay the same throughout the whole picture plane , thanks again Craig
I don't know where he finds shards of light. Becomes obvious when he paints rays of sunlight. I am becoming more focused when doing my own photos for painting. Thank you Ian
Nice. Just wish you didnt jump ahead and skip explaining how exactly you got there. When you jumped ahead you made more modfications to the painting which you did not acknowledge to us
Great video. Thank you Ian for giving us the keys to enter the world of values and color temperature. I learned so much this time and I am going to translate to watercolor. Be well.
Hi Ian, From one person who speaks with hands to another: please don’t worry about “claw” hands. You do you! Complainers need to pay more attention to the material. But, can you do something about your nose? (Totally kidding). Thanks for all you do.
Really informative! I am really surprised that the value shift is consistent between the light and shadows, is this always the case regardless of materials? Like would there still be the same value shift with metal, rocks or water as there is with the beach and the forest in this scene? Great videos, I just subscribed
Jimmy, I think I say in there "give or take" meaning it is not hard and fast. But no it won't always be the same. That beach would be more reflective say than the trees so it would be somewhat lighter relative to the shift in the trees. But in principle it is the same, so with that in mind you notice variations on that. Rather than approaching each one as a mystery shift.
@@IanRobertsMasteringComposition Ahh that makes sense. Use the rule as a rough guide, but there will be things that can vary the relative value shift such as reflectivity or atmosphere. I've always found picking believable shadow/light colours difficult ( a mystery shift describes it well), but I think this rule will help a lot, thanks!
It is a great help. But I have to do a dull grey day with rain. A purple anorak. Hood up. A sandy coloured dog and a cerulean blue back door. Two hopeful little figures- the dog and the owner, looking up at the back door waiting for it to open. Backs to the viewer. Not only am I having trouble getting value masses but also temperature changes. Nightmare.
Hello, I am a new subscriber, though I don’t paint i do find your videos “engaging”, instructive and encouraging. I am mostly interested in drawing with pencils. I am starting from zero but having fun in the process. Your videos help a ton. Thank you!
Generally, do we want both cool and warm colours in one picture? Could you talk about how to paint a ‘cool’ as well as a ‘warm’ picture if hat might be what we want? I will meanwhile look around at pictures to see if I can tell. Thanks for your brilliant videos. Kate
Hi Ian, Hope you are fine? Thanks so much for sharing these videos they are super helpful and brings back so much of what you taught during the great workshops I attended with you in Provence! This is great for practising and seeing …….mixing greens really helped me ! Many thanks , Mira
Thank you Ian! I especially love your approach to using warm and cool colors and where to put them. Do these principles apply when painting a still life?
Hi, i love you vidéo and I have been watching almost all of them since I discovered your wonderful work., 5 days ago. I would like to ask you what type of support do you use for your paintings. Is it a special paper or another material? Thanks
Thanks for showing us your colour palette which really helps me learn more about colours. Hopefully you can make more videos on mixing colours etc…. Thanks!
So grateful for your teachings and thrilled at your talent and skill. I wonder if it's "ok" sometimes to allow the unpainted canvas to be an area of strong light? I was trying painting something the other night and liked what in my mind's eye looked like a wonderful bolt of light on the subject, without painting the area.
Hi Ian, Thank you for the wonderful video. To clarify, do you mean that there will be a consistent value interval from light to dark in a scene in different areas? In the video you stated that there was 3 degree of change from shadow to light in both the trees and beach areas. That is the first I have heard this. Does it apply to only plein air? Thank you
This really helps me. I still have a lot to learn and i almost always get bad results, but yours way is so simple and motivating because even without too much skill i can make a painting look like something. Thanks!
I don't use mediums. If it is a large painting I often put in a block-in layer and will use some mineral spirits. But once I am painting (smaller panels or the second coat,) I just use the paint. I use Gamblin paint. But most are about the same texture. I also mix it up a lot, maybe that softens it and I use quite a bit of paint on my brush.
I am just revisiting this video...Still trying to understand what exact colors you chose. I get the three values shift, but do those areas shift 3 increments in the intensity scale also? One artist said on youtube: " I never use complements.. I am a temperature guy." Can you explain this? Does that mean he uses black or grey instead of compliments?
Hi Lisa, so I'll see if I can answer this in a few words. You get the 3 (and this varies from situation to situaiton - over cast day obviously has less of a value shift than a clear bright day ) value shift between sunlit and shadow. At the same time there is a shift ( and again I am saying 3 just conceptually for explanation between the lit and shadow colors you are mixing) in color temperature. This is not a shift in intensity. That is a different issue (sorry but color is multi-dimensional). Color temperature is a move around the color wheel, say from yellow-green to blue-green, but at basically the same intensity. Color intensity is a move out to the edge (high intensity) or into the middle (lower intensity until it reaches mid grey). I honestly have no idea of what that artist means (at least in the brief context we have here). The quickest way to mute a color because obviously you can't just slap color straight from the tube onto your canvas, at least not very often, is to mix the color with its complement. So temperature is working one direction of the color wheel, and intensity on another. So I don't know how he is using one instead of another because they do different things. He could be using black but that tends to make all the colors dull and uniform so I doubt he's doing that either. I'd need more context probably to properly understand what he means.
And by the way can you possibly critique any of my work? I’ve been painting for a couple months now and I would just like to know what my strengths and weaknesses are . Please and thank you !
Hi Allen, I am not doing any teaching right now. Just these weekly videos which I hope will help you see the fundamentals and apply them. If I start doing critiques again sometime down the line I'll announce it on one of the videos so you'll know. Good luck and best wishes.
Do you need 3 degrees of temperature change only apply to shadows and light in their extremes? So would you do a 3 degree temp change in water as well? This doesn't apply to sky ... just light and shade?
I was using the 3 as 3 steps of value. Of light to dark, like on a grey scale.And it applies say on a sunny day wherever there is light and shadow. On an overcast day it might only be 1 step of value. But you are right. You won't see that shift in the sky. The clouds themselves have light and dark sides. Because it is an object being hit by the sun. But that would depend on the type of clouds. You might not get 3 steps of value shift there. Nor would you generally get a three step value shift on the water, as you say, because the water will reflect what is behind it and that might be dark or the sky. Sometimes in the right situations you can see a line of shadow across a pond. But often it gets broken up and is not so visible. So I hope that answers your question. All the best.
