08-15-2016, 04:03 AM
So I thought I'd do a paint-over/critique thing of my own with your illustration because it brings an issue to attention that I rarely see addressed thoroughly. I touched on this recently in a critique thread so you might want to look for it there as well.
So the issue I want to bring up is a lack of hierarchy in values. Values exist in relation to each other. We can differentiate between values by their contrast to each other and with this we can then say one value is lighter/darker than another. This is a core principal we need to establish in images when we work. We need to be able to clearly say that one thing is brighter/darker than another however there is a problem with doing so. We do not have the full value range of real life to work with (as well as the exposure to light our eyes adjust to through the iris.). What we need to do is to find a way to compress values into a scale our medium can use. This is a somewhat complicated subject so I'll present a basic version of it.
What we need to do is to first establish where our lightest light and darkest dark is in our subject/scene and then we need to assign these points with a certain value. Normally a variation of white and black (unless you're using limited values like the thing in my profile pic, but that's another story). This is called a key. So when we have these two points, we can start finding additional points and compare them to our key. Let's say we find a medium grey and it looks like it fits just about in the middle of the brightest bright and darkest dark. We paint that into our image and then on to another value, this time we find a light grey that is closer to the brightest bright than the darkest dark. We paint it in and what we can do now is to compare it to our medium grey. If we're fairly sure that our medium grey is correct, we can compare the contrast between our medium grey and our light grey and if the contrast is for example too low, we can know that it needs to move further to the brightest bright for it to be correct.
This is more or less what you do all over the image while working on it to see if the values are correct. This can be really tedious but the more you do it the faster you become with it. You can also create shortcuts like finding two points of equal value in the subject and ask the question, are they of equal value in the painting.
Things get a little more complicated when working form imagination but all you have to do is ask, is X brighter or darker than Y and you can go fairly far by doing so. There is something that happens when working with a medium where the values of the subject is wider than your available value scale. The short answer for what you do in this case is not to reduce the contrast (like many many people do) but rather to compress the ends of the value scale so the brightest bright in the subject and the next to brightest bright both become white (and then vice versa for the darks). This way you preserve your contrasts while painting something with a wide value scale.
This form of keying can be used to create some very impressive effects and moods in a painting if done with a sense of design. Look at Rembrandt paintings as an example. If you see them in real life, they're actually fairly dark but this is so that the bright points are in comparison very very bright.
I would caution you about some of Fedodika's advice. Those "hotspots" can only be hot when things are relatively "cool". Back to the Rembrandt example, if everything had that very bright light on it, nothing would because these values are relative. It's like balancing an orchestra. If you can't hear the violins, instead of increasing their volume, maybe turn down the cello.
Anyway, apart from values, the image holds up fairly well :)
So the issue I want to bring up is a lack of hierarchy in values. Values exist in relation to each other. We can differentiate between values by their contrast to each other and with this we can then say one value is lighter/darker than another. This is a core principal we need to establish in images when we work. We need to be able to clearly say that one thing is brighter/darker than another however there is a problem with doing so. We do not have the full value range of real life to work with (as well as the exposure to light our eyes adjust to through the iris.). What we need to do is to find a way to compress values into a scale our medium can use. This is a somewhat complicated subject so I'll present a basic version of it.
What we need to do is to first establish where our lightest light and darkest dark is in our subject/scene and then we need to assign these points with a certain value. Normally a variation of white and black (unless you're using limited values like the thing in my profile pic, but that's another story). This is called a key. So when we have these two points, we can start finding additional points and compare them to our key. Let's say we find a medium grey and it looks like it fits just about in the middle of the brightest bright and darkest dark. We paint that into our image and then on to another value, this time we find a light grey that is closer to the brightest bright than the darkest dark. We paint it in and what we can do now is to compare it to our medium grey. If we're fairly sure that our medium grey is correct, we can compare the contrast between our medium grey and our light grey and if the contrast is for example too low, we can know that it needs to move further to the brightest bright for it to be correct.
This is more or less what you do all over the image while working on it to see if the values are correct. This can be really tedious but the more you do it the faster you become with it. You can also create shortcuts like finding two points of equal value in the subject and ask the question, are they of equal value in the painting.
Things get a little more complicated when working form imagination but all you have to do is ask, is X brighter or darker than Y and you can go fairly far by doing so. There is something that happens when working with a medium where the values of the subject is wider than your available value scale. The short answer for what you do in this case is not to reduce the contrast (like many many people do) but rather to compress the ends of the value scale so the brightest bright in the subject and the next to brightest bright both become white (and then vice versa for the darks). This way you preserve your contrasts while painting something with a wide value scale.
This form of keying can be used to create some very impressive effects and moods in a painting if done with a sense of design. Look at Rembrandt paintings as an example. If you see them in real life, they're actually fairly dark but this is so that the bright points are in comparison very very bright.
I would caution you about some of Fedodika's advice. Those "hotspots" can only be hot when things are relatively "cool". Back to the Rembrandt example, if everything had that very bright light on it, nothing would because these values are relative. It's like balancing an orchestra. If you can't hear the violins, instead of increasing their volume, maybe turn down the cello.
Anyway, apart from values, the image holds up fairly well :)
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