Mentor me this

[Jack the R]

I'm working on revamping my painting process, after reading through Briggsy's Dimensions of Color write-up. (http://www.huevaluechroma.com)

The big eye opener for me was being able to use black to shade, (http://www.huevaluechroma.com/101.php) after being told adamantly that you can not use black to shade. According to shortcut 3, the "glazing" technique can be done in a technically accurate way. I've disliked the results I've gotten with the glazing technique in the past, but I was doing it wrong, using overlay or color. After reading through Briggsy's explanation, I hope to get better results.

(I still need to test what multiply does with relative brightness at 255 and varying levels of saturation - is the relative brightness of the final color equal to that of the grayscale tone, or is it decreased/darkened? I think the final color will have the same relative brightness, and take on the hue/saturation of the multiplied color layer, but I'm not sure yet.)

I usually start out with a loose line sketch. I've got no idea whether it is better to start out this way, or with a tonal sketch. I may prefer sketching because I'm more comfortable with line art, but it also feels faster. I also like to build around abstract "lines of motion." There's bound to be a terminology for this which I do not know.

http://www.extinctionlevelevent.com/learning/process_01/gb_process_01.jpg

Next I started working out the tonal pattern. I got this far -

http://www.extinctionlevelevent.com/learning/process_01/gb_process_02.jpg

and then decided to "preview" the glazing -

http://www.extinctionlevelevent.com/learning/process_01/gb_process_03.jpg

I'm happy with the direction the tonal painting is moving in, but not sold on the glazing technique. I'm sure it will look better over a finished tonal painting, but not sure it will look as good as it would painted straight in color. I'll think about it more tomorrow. I look forward to any comments any mentor types want to leave :yum:

[Sepulverture]

I think you're posting in the wrong section, friend. This type of request seems to be more suited for the critique forums, or the sketches/works in progress. You could always post in the mentor sign-up thread stickied to the top of the page and ask for a mentor to help you with this coloring technique, but I think most people who post regularly on these forums subscribe to the "don't use black as shading" camp.

I could be wrong, and I know that Rembrandt (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=rembrandt&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) used black for his shading in his paintings, and achieved a very dramatic effect with a lot of them so it is possible, just not plausable to find a many members here who are down with that sort of thing.

Good luck.

[Jack the R]

Hmm, I was thinking the tonal painting could be used as a mask to shift the shadow color. I've left a question in Briggsy's thread asking how to determine the exact amount of hue shift in shadows, based on light color. No response yet.

If a mod feels this is better off elsewhere, feel free to move it. Just drop me a PM to let me know where it went.