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Direct link to newsletter at Caroline Jasper's website:
http://www.carolinejasper.com/index.htm

Excerpt:
COLOR CORNER - Color vs. Value:Color attracts your eye and prompts emotional response. It can also help to identify subject, interpret image, and impart overall mood or message. However, while color provides the entertainment, value does all the heavy work. Value is the essential impact factor. Value, more than color, imparts the illusion of spatial depth and form. Light and shadow differences (value contrast) define surface contours and imply volume. Our brains rely on dark/light data collected by our eyes in order to make sense of what is being seen. We see value first, color second. The absence of color in black and white photos does not confuse us, nor does the waning visibility of colors as sunlight daily fades to darkness. Value stays on the job when there is insufficient light to reflect color. In every painting's delicious recipe, value is cake itself. Color, is just the icing on top.

TIP for better skill in seeing values: Compare digital camera shots of both your reference and your painting. Accurate value representation is far more important than matching colors in the reference. If the painting is dark where needed and light where needed, it will carry the image visually. It matters less which colors are used.

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Caroline's books and DVDs contain many references, demos, and exercises pertaining to the importance of value in art.
www.carolinejasper.com

I recently held a workshop at the Painting Cave where I introduced a very talented young artist to the technique of painting from dark to light or as some would term - chiaroscuro

Danni had painted a very similar subject choice in the method that most artist begin with. This method gets you used to mixing color, applying it to canvas and teaches you how to blend. Some artists progress from this stage to produce very beautiful paintings in their own unique way.

 The dark to light way  as seen in the second painting assisted Danni in achieving a realistic 3 dimensional type painting.

To view the 2nd painting, please go to my site and have a look.....

http://www.jacquisimpson.co.za
Please feel free to leave a comment on my site and sign up if you would like to receive my monthly newsletter.

Regards
Jax