In this oil painting value study, I show the four main value areas you need to get right to paint light and shadow:

In the light:
. General light
. Halftone

In the shadow:
. Core shadow value
. Reflected light

This video is an edited recording of a live online wokshop taught as part of my Threads workshop program. Find out more about Threads here:

http://www.learningtosee.co.uk/thre...

To do this tutorial you will need:

MATERIALS LIST


The reference photo:
http://www.learningtosee.co.uk/wpc...

And:
. a premixed value scale
. something to paint on
. some brushes

For the value scale, if you don’t have a Munsell scale don’t worry. Take white as your lightest value and ivory black as your darkest.

Mix a value you think is half way between them (you can use the value scale on the reference photo as a guide). Then mix two more values, one half way between the white and the middle value, and one half way between the black and the middle value.

Now you have a 5step value scale. If any of the steps seem uneven to you, adjust them until you’re happy.

The five step scale will probably be fine, but you can also mix a value between each of those, giving you a 9 step scale which will correspond to the one on the reference photo

Brush choice is up to you and not critical. Hog filberts will be fine, or flats, whatever you’re most comfortable with. You’ll want three about 5mm wide ideally, so that you can have one brush for lights, one for darks and one for middle values. Also one or two larger brushes for the background.​