40 Watercolor artist | OCTOBER 2019
- LIMIT VALUE CHANGES
Minimize the number of times you change values in a
painting. If you see four or more values, squint to see if
you can combine some of them so that your composition
will be more unifi ed.Value Is Critical
Color isn’t as important as value
in Log—Greens Farms. This is one
of my early paintings in which
I concentrated on values, and on
losing and fi nding edges. There’s
almost no color variation, but it’s
a striking painting.
The white paper gives such
a wonderful contrast to the mid-
darks in the log, the trees and the
house in the background, as well as
the dark value of the patch of grass
revealed by the melted snow.Values Support the Story
I used simple values to support
the “story” of Missouri River Boat.
I wanted the riverboat, the cow,
the rough men manning the boat
and the elderly lady in the cabin to
contrast with the young woman
gazing toward the future and her
new life in Oregon. The young
woman is a large shape, and the
only fi gure with a light value. She
becomes the center of interest
because she’s unique.
Wyeth’s wonderful com-
positions offer so much inspiration.
He divided them in half, making
the bottom part dark and the
upper part light. I followed this rule
here, but concentrated mainly on
the relative sizes of the two shapes
of light and dark in relation to the
entire picture space.
Establish the big, simple shapes
fi rst; they’ll grab the eye. Then add
the interesting smaller happenings
within the big shapes to tell your
painting story.COURTESY OF AMERICAN HERITAGE