this is a value and color comp for a painting im doing. when i add the color the value seems to dissapear any ideas evan if basic would be appreciated. on the advice of tyler i have changed the color of the lit side (right) side of the background to a more neutral color evan though it reads as that purple red to me
8 comments:
these are good lil mock-ups.
you said 'when i add color,' are you painting the color on top of the B&W comp?
but simply, you're losing value because the colors you're using don't have the same value as what you think are their equivalent gray values. color saturation tends to fool the eyes as to what value it actually is. i've found it useful to make a 4X6 grayscale card in Photoshop, with 10 tabs of value, white at one end, black at the other and the incrimental scale inbetween, 10%, 20%, etc. print it out like a standard photo at anyone of those places (26cents or something). then you can use it to eye colors on your palette, close one eye and squint so that hue takes a back seat to value. you'll be able to see what value you actually have vs what you need, if it matches or not.
Geoffs comment makes a lot of sense. I think having a black and white picture to compare it to will also help out. There are some odd changes in value happening between the b&w and the color images above. Are you trying to match the values in these?
You might want to consider your drapery choice. Cloth is that tough thing that has structure, but still responds to gravity. Your cloth does not have weight. It can be done, but usually the viewer needs to see the gravity for it to be convincing.
A black and white painting also has the benefit that all the colors used have a similar core-color used (in this case, black and white).
The impressionists brought this core-color idea into their paintings by choosing an arbitrary color and mixing at least a bit of it into EVERY color put down on their canvas. It has the effect of making all the colors look like they belong in the same image.
For example, the green ball in your image works better than the red one. The color used for green ball has some of the same yellow that was used for the brick, so it looks like the same light is hitting it. I might try bringing that yellow into more of your colors.
I think you're values are actualy spot-on (except the right-side of the background and the red ball may be too dark). Well done! The major difference I see between is the the colored painting differs in intensity (in certain spots) from the black and white painting.
For example, in the colored painting, the red and greens jump out at you, while their counterparts in the black and white painting do not. You could solve this problem by either 1) dulling down the reds and greens using the core-color method I mentioned in my other post or 2)increasing the intensity of the surrounding colors. This can be done by using pigments that hold their intensity when mixed (see below).
MIXING: Traditional pigments are basically naturally mined minerals and DO NOT mix well. Their intensity drops dramatically when mixed. The classic example is Cadmium red, which turns pink with only the slightest bit of white added. Examples of traditional pigments are Cadmiums, Cobalts, Earth Colors like Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna, etc. On the other hand, Modern pigments are synthesized in labs (the pigments resemble tiny, translucent chips of glass) and DO mix well. Examples are Pthalocyanines, Quinaciidrones, Dioxanese, Napthols, etc. In contrast to Cadmium red, Napthol Red will hold it's intensity, even when a lot of white is added. (You should try the red-mixing expirement. It's actually kind of awesome.) For increasing the intensity of the brick, the only (common) Modern yellow pigment is Hansas yellow. I might try using that.
Sorry. I want to take a minute and apologize for my grammar mistakes in my last post. Really, I can write in legible English when my son isn't sucking on my cheek.
i was just thinking, now that you've got both of these images digitalized, take them into Photoshop, convert the color one into B&W, then compare it to the BW study. you should be able to distinguish the discrepancies pretty easy.
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