Jane and Iona

[Renee Price]

This is a fantastic painting and I second every other adjective used here! And if your painting was not impressive enough.... Wow! I've tubed a paltry 9 values for 4 colors so I know how time consuming tubing is, so I can't imagine the amount of time and work you have put into your palette. I am impressed--not only by the quality and sensitivity of the painting, but also by the work ethic behind it. Magnificent!

Renee Price

[Garth Herrick]

Dear Renee,

Thanks! I think it is fantastic that you have tubed 9 values for four colors! I never did that; I merely created a referencing system to tell me where to mix and place my values. By the way, which four colors did you process into 9 values?

Garth

[Renee Price]

Dear Garth,

I mixed 9 values of neutral (ivory black, raw umber, & flake white), 9 values of yellow ochre (adding raw umber to darken values), 9 values of red ochre & 9 values of Indian Red (adding ivory black to darken and flake white to lighten). It took several days to tube them all, but it's so much easier to squeeze out only what I need. Later I added ultramarine in values 5, 6, & 7, and asphaltum in values 1, 2, & 3.

I would love to know more about the referencing system you developed. All those values! Wow! What colors did you use?

Again, your painting is excellent!

Renee

[Ngaire Winwood]

And Garth gets the Gold Medal in my opinion.

As a student I don't understand the tubing and 52 gray scale bit explanation, but hopefully this will be explained in more detail soon so students like myself can appreciate soulful paintings like this even more than WOW!. To me the composition and, and, and, ..................WOW! Thanks for logging on Garth.

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Ngaire Winwood

And Garth gets the Gold Medal in my opinion.

As a student I don't understand the tubing and 52 gray scale bit explanation, but hopefully this will be explained in more detail soon so students like myself can appreciate soulful paintings like this even more than WOW!. To me the composition and, and, and, ..................WOW! Thanks for logging on Garth.

Hi Ngaire,

Thanks! Your compliment is way too much, I think; but I had a good chuckle.

I work quite a lot from digital images in my computer as painting references. However, I find it difficult and tricky to paint directly from my computer monitor, as a reference next to my easel. It is hard to judge values from an image composed of light, and translate this into an image composed of pigments. I am trying to bridge this gap with my numerical value index referencing system as a guide.

I use Photoshop which has some great tools. In Photoshop there is an Info Box that will tell you a numerical formula for the precise color the cursor is positioned upon. As the cursor is moved to a new spot, new numbers will be presented. Instead of the commonplace RGB mode, I use Lab as the image mode, because Lab has a number representing the value of the color in the formula. The value scale in Lab runs from 100 representing pure white, to 0, representing pure black. Essentially this is an 101 level gray scale built into Photoshop.

I mixed 50 mostly evenly dispersed gray values in paint, which have been assigned numerical values to relate to the Lab scale in Photoshop. From this I have painted handy reference charts to translate and compare values as I paint. If the cursor points to a shadow in the digital reference, and the info box indicates a Lab value of 37, I can rotate my handy value index to the paint chip closest to value 37, and compare that to the color I have applied or am about to apply to the corresponding shadow in the painting. This way I can quickly see if it needs to be darker or lighter, or if I happened to get it right on the first try, with simple observation.

In a nutshell, this is what my 52 tubes (including black and white) of gray are all about. I hope this helps to answer your question.

Regards,

Garth

[Renee Price]

Garth,

Thank you for explaining your value method--it was a great 'light bulb' moment. You've done all that work and you want to catch up to me?? Haha! I'm playing catch up!

Renee

[Elizabeth Schott]

Wow Garth, talk about the color composition.

I didn't take time to read everyones accolades, but I am assuming you helped her with the wardrobe.

I put this one right up there with my other favorite, of the little guy at the swimming pool.

Just wonderful!

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Renee Price

Dear Garth,

I mixed 9 values of neutral (ivory black, raw umber, & flake white), 9 values of yellow ochre (adding raw umber to darken values), 9 values of red ochre & 9 values of Indian Red (adding ivory black to darken and flake white to lighten). It took several days to tube them all, but it's so much easier to squeeze out only what I need. Later I added ultramarine in values 5, 6, & 7, and asphaltum in values 1, 2, & 3.

I would love to know more about the referencing system you developed. All those values! Wow! What colors did you use?

Again, your painting is excellent!

Renee

Renee,

You are amazing to have mixed and tubed so many colors you can really use in a portrait! What I simply did was mix proportions of Ivory Black and Titanium White (both Old Holland, the Titanium white is pure titanium, no zinc) merely for the purpose of value comparison. I am not painting with these grays, well not much. They are rather cold grays. I found that the particular black and white I used had about as close to equal tinting strength relative to each other as it probably gets, which was great for keeping track of proportions. For this equality it was important that there was no zinc presence in the white. Some day it would be nice to catch up to you and have some colors ready-tubed in nine values, or so.

Garth