Artists & Illustrators - UK (2019-10)

PRACTISEMAKESPERFECT

Howdoesoneunderstandandlearn

thevaluesofcolours?Thereare

severalusefulexercisesyoucouldtry.

First,usea 10-pointgreyscaleas

thestartingpointandpracticerelating

thecoloursonyourpalettetothe

greyscale.Youwillfindthatmanytube

coloursarerelativelydarkandlower

downonthevaluescalethanyou

mightexpect.Youmightalsochoosea

masterpaintingyoulikeandcompare

itsvaluestothat10-pointgreyscale.

Fora secondexercise,use

Munsell’srecommendationsand

practicemixinggradationsofyour

palettecoloursfromlightestto

darkest,brightenstogreyest,

ineachhueorcolourfamily.

Then,asyoumakenewtintsand

mixturesofcoloursonthepalette

goingforward,trytovisuallyrelate

thembacktothisvaluescale.Very

quicklyyouwillstarttogaina good

senseoftherelativevalues

ofeachcolourmixture.

Finally,whenpaintingand

attemptingtomatchthecolourvalues

ina landscape,portrait,stilllife,or

othersubject,bemindfulofmatching

eachmixturetothevalueofthe

coloursinthesubject.

Slowdowna bitandthinkthrough

thevaluearrangementofyour

compositionandmixsamplesofthat

rangeonyourpalettesoastosee

it asa valueandcolourplan.

Youmaywanttoholdyourpaint-

loadedbrushuptothesceneor

subjecttogaugetheaccuracyofthe

colourmixtureandvalue.Withtime,

yoursensitivitytothecorrectvalues

shouldbecomeverysensitive

andinstinctive.

Nextmonth:thebeautyandfunction

ofearthcolours.Al’sbook,Colorfor

Painters, is publishedbyWatson-Guptill.

http://www.algury.com

LEFT Al Gury, Study after George

Inness (Copy of 1865’s Peace

and Plenty), oil on canvas,

22x30cm

“Inness is the master of tonal

painting. His values were often

dramatised to emphasise

pictorial strength. Large

masses of dark values are

played off against luminous

touches of light to create

strong silhouettes. Soft edges

throughout create a sense of

aerial perspective.”

Value practice
Explore a number of colours and their light-to-dark
gradations by creating a test sheet of practise mixtures