Quistions you should ask Before you start Painting
Good artists ask questions of themselves and their art - all the time! To paint is not just a question of putting down the medium. It is a fully analytical though process.
Is it dark or light? (Chiaroscuro)
What is the value?
What is Ciaroscuro
The word Chiaroscuro itself is Italian, and roughly means, “light and dark.” Bold contrasts affect the whole composition. Contrasts of dark and light give a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures
The master of Chiaroscuro was Caravaggio, a painter living and painting during the 16th century.
In “The Inspiration of St. Matthew” by Caravaggio
Caravaggio began to use deep, dark backgrounds for many of his paintings and seemed to almost turn a spotlight on his figures. The high contrast in those paintings made for intensely powerful and dramatic works of art.
Because of Caravaggio, Chiaroscuro became very popular, and today the word is most often used to mean “high contrast” between dark and light, more than anything else.
Why Value
Each color has a dark or light value. The more we add white, the lighter the value. The more we add dark, the darker the value. These variations of color is called a value scale.
Values (variations of dark and light) describe the scene in ways that colours cannot. Value plays the role of describing the characteristics of the subject.
Value Scale in art is referring to the “range” of darkness to lightness within your painting. The more range the more realistic things will appear.
Value in art is essentially how light or dark something is on a scale of white to black (with white being the highest value and black being the lowest value).
Value gives volume.
What kind of texture the surface of the subject has.
Where the light source is located, and how bright it is.
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