Where I Left Off!!

As much as I like to paint first things first came calling.....like being with my 85 year old sister as she went through shoulder replacement. With that said all is well and I am trying to untrack. Although I was unable to paint, reading books from my stock pile brought me back to some basics. Although I understand mid values this review caught my attention concerning the importance these values play in a composition. When lights and darks sit side by side they don't enjoy one another without mid-values. They tend to always be in competition with each other...along comes mid-value and romance begins. Mid-values can be a mixture of the colors being used, which some call mud....actually they are cool or warm grays that unify the painting as a whole. A mid-value painting can be mid value colors these 'middies' are what I refer to as colors that are easily recognized (cobalt/reds/greens). When these bright colors take center stage the neutrals or mid-values they create support their importance. So mid values can be a large portion of neutrals or pure hue...check out some of your paintings for the mid-values.

I quickly sketched a very busy street with the thought in mind to concentrate on mid-values. So this is the sketch and the three steps which entertained me for the afternoon....