What is the story you want your painting to tell? by Re' St. Peter

                                                                                                                   Light Study Deception Pass

Light, color and composition all combine to create the mood and convey the “why” of our painting. In fact, the area where the lightest light is next to the darkest dark becomes your focal point. When we begin to paint without a plan, our intended focal point can take a backseat to an unimportant element that we elevated with strong value contrasts.

One of the exercises we do in my “Finding an Approach” class is to experiment with the path of light. This isn’t about changing the existing shadows in our photo. The goal is to create a map with our lightest values and colors that will lead the viewer’s eye to the most important part of our painting.

Here, my reference photo has pretty flat lighting. By darkening areas of the photo, I emphasize different elements and shapes. I won’t paint these areas black; these will be darker values and more muted colors.

Re' St. Peter

Don't miss out on Ré St. Peter’s workshop WATERCOLOR SKIES
Saturday August 18
10:00am - 2:00pm
$85

Skies can be a soft wash of color that supports a landscape or be the bold, colorful star of the show. As we explore techniques for painting skies, we'll also create a swatch journal of color blends and mixes that we can refer to for future paintings.

To register, please email renees@paintedhillstudio.com or visit http://www.paintedhillstudio.com/classes/

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