Painting No. 39 - Two Steps Back

8" x 6" - Oil on Canvas Board
NFS

Number 38 is a clunker. I was getting in a little bit of a groove and then got so distracted by the color with this one that it threw the whole thing off.

Not to get too technical but in any kind of painting you have value (the lights and darks) and color. These two things are totally different but in successful paintings they work together seamlessly. Ideally you create the value with color – not just adding black to things but using different colors to make things look darker or lighter. That, sadly, is not happening with number 38.

So there you go. In the immortal words of MC Skat Kat, two steps forward, two steps back.

I will say that this whole value vs. color thing totally shapes the next 6-7 paintings and has helped me a lot. More on Tuesday. And then there's this.