Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Creating Light - Michael Chesley Johnson

Creating a sense of strong light has to do with correct value and color temperature choices. Many people think strong value contrast alone does the trick, but it's not true. Temperature contrast also plays a part. In the demonstration pastel sketch below, not only did I keep my lights well-separated from the darks, I kept the shadows considerably cooler than the lights. I started off with a red-violet underpainting for Cathedral Rock and then layered more neutral browns and greens over it - but still keeping the color cooler than the sunlit greens and "rim lighting" along the edge of the rocks.

By the way, there are still a couple of spaces in my pastel plein air workshop next week Also, in conjunction with the workshop, I am hosting a two-afternoon "art sale" of my work.  The sale will consist of both framed and unframed work, oil and pastel, and of all sizes.  Dates are Thursday, March 26, and Friday, March 27, from 2-5 pm.  Work will be displayed in the Theater Classroom.  Come down and see some of the work I've been posting.



"Cathedral Rock Sketch"
5x7 pastel


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