Improve Your Paintings with Color and Value

Learn to make your sketches pop with brilliant light, dramatic shadows, and vivid color!

We'll start by working with just one color to truly explore value.

By setting aside color and working on exploring a full range of light and dark in our work, we can create art that makes a strong visual and emotional impact.

I’ll be demonstrating the wonderfully portable and affordable Pentel Color Brush Pen in sepia. You can take the class using ink or watercolor, and I’ll demonstrate each of those.

We'll do a simple warmup exercise painting a piece of fruit, and then we'll dive in to a classic Italian village scene, painted in sepia like the old masters used to do.

In this section you'll learn:

• The benefits of painting with just one color

• How to identify values using a value scale

• How to paint from dark to light in sepia ink or watercolor

• How to soften or sharpen your edges

• How to add finishing details and adjust your values to make your painting pop

• How to apply these techniques to full-color paintings and sketching on location.

Then we'll transition to a fresh exploration of color!

As an artist, you’re probably familiar with the color wheel, with the three primary colors of red, yellow, and blue, and the secondary colors of orange, purple, and green.

But—have you ever looked at a color printer cartridge and noticed that printers don’t use ink in red, yellow, and blue? Most printed material, including books, newspapers, and magazines, are printed with a different color scheme.

In this section, we'll look at:

• How the visible light spectrum really works

• A new version of the color wheel that was invented over a hundred years ago, but is still mostly ignored by artists.

• New ways to mix colors, and explore fresh ideas for building your own palette.

I’m going to do my demonstrations in watercolor, but this works in any medium, including gouache, acrylic, or oil paints.

The value scale and the color wheel are simple concepts that every beginning artist can learn, but even more experienced artists can benefit by re-evaluating their approach to light and color.