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Norrette Moore

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Catching up on my reading of LP/TA magazine, I read about an App called Value Study. in last months issue.  I'm not very good at value scales, even if I turn my reference picture to grey scale, maybe its something to do with my eyesight. So I thought I'd give it a go. Wonderful! I feel like it's day one of my painting journey. You can trial it for 3 reference images, after that you need to pay.  But it's a reasonable amount, and after fiddling around for 20 minutes, I decided to take the plunge. There's a youtube channel that the software developer has created, which is worthwhile checking out to help understand how it can be used. You can save or print your study. Example here -  3 up to 7 diff levels. I think. So if I choose say 4 levels and want to know all areas that are level two in that range, I just click on it and it colours it, like so.  Everything's configurable.

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by Norrette Moore

Alan Bickley

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Interesting, I can see the principle, and it could be a useful tool but I don’t need it myself, I’ve never had any issues with tonal values. But, as many of us know, they are one, if not THE most important element in putting together a successful painting. Certainly more important than colour in my opinion! Amazing what they think of in these times of technological innovation! No interest here as yet on this topic but my comment might stir a few thoughts…

Norrette Moore

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I think it is to do with either experience or eyesight, Alan. (or both) In the above example, I find it difficult to differentiate between the dark of the island castle and that of the upper sky. Especially when viewed in colour. But the app has shown me that the patch of sky is lighter. ie the sky area is marked green.
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Marjorie Firth

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I’m not sure it has anything to do with experience Norette - but what is “ experience”? The length of time one has been painting? No, because I have come across many who, although they have painted for years, still aren’t aware of the importance of tone. Eyesight? Not sure about this one either…I have glaucoma in both eyes, have had ops in both eyes and find it difficult to adjust to the light in certain situations. Yet painting, thankfully, doesn’t present a problem ( hope I’m not tempting fate here ). I’m thinking it may be partly about close observation and questioning, never totally accepting something without the two. Also, “ balance” is important - applying to both tone and composition. I always feel when something is not quite right and search for reasons why.

Norrette Moore

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Yes, the "something not quite right" I agree with, Marjorie. Although that often happens when I look at an old painting, when sometimes it is too late to fix it. Thank goodness for oils. I may also use this software to compare my paintings to the references. Sorry to hear about the glaucoma.  I hope they improve

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by Norrette Moore

With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Certainly interesting, and probably worth a punt - if it helps less experienced painters than Norrette and Marjorie, I'm all for a play with it - wondering if I  need it myself; am not immediately convinced, although I am aware I sometimes get tones wrong, or at  least not strong enough.   But Norrette - you can also work again on acrylics, as well as oils; I wouldn't muck about too much with watercolour (though I have!) and pastel, or gouache.  I have a book tucked away somewhere in which a well-known watercolourist - might have been David Curtis - takes a watercolour, dunks it in the bath, and has another crack at it: don't think I'd dare.  I imagine the success of that method depends a lot on the resilience of your paper.  Best to avoid reaching that stage, I'd have thought: whatever helps, anyway.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Robert , I have run a few paintings under the tap to rinse of the painting I had messed up or did not like. Can e done but you certainly need a decent paper , it never totally removed the colours but what was left soaked into the paper . It gave an excellent background to work on , not something I would particularly recommend as a method of creating a background. It happened to me once when I was at school l task was to creat a portrait not my thing at all , just finished and put it on the desk , when someone knocked over the jam jar of water . Quite mope up and the face looked like it had half melted, called it mutation, only won the school prize for art with it . 
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Marjorie Firth

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Ha ha Paul - maybe they thought you were a future Francis Bacon or a Picasso .

Denise Cat

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That's hilarious Paul. You should try another and enter it in the Turner Prize.
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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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Caused a lot of problems as some of the other students were so cross , one boys parent wrote and complained about it .  Had a word with the boy after school and he soon let his dad  know that he really wasn’t bothered, must have been my charisma or the thought of my fist been harder than his nose . It hung in the headmaster’s office and every week when I went for my weekly chat ( reprimand ) I looked at it while he rabbited on and on , I wasn’t a bad lad really just misunderstood as they now say , used to be that your were called a rebel .
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Marjorie Firth

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And here we go - The Rebel - Tony Hancock! Still art- related but off at a tangent, why not, hilarious! Will always remember “ Aphrodite at the Waterhole”.

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by Marjorie Firth

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Paul (Dixie) Dean

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I don’t think I would use the program now , but I wonder if it had been available twenty years or so ago I I would have used it . Over the. last couple of years I have been using the photo editor on my iPad to make a monochrome version of my painting  at each stage as this enables me to check the tonal values as I progress. It’s something I now do routinely and have found it to be most helpful, well it certainly works for me . 
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