Still working on the color. I’ve laid in basic washes and midtones and am working on my values now.

This is the place in nearly every painting that I struggle. I’m afraid of the dark.

I spent a long time with several of the instructors with them in the driver’s seat showing me their techniques on achieving form and value. While both of them had a lot of advice on how to get to where I want to get, I still have to translate their style of working into the equivalent end in my style. It’s a plateau I’ve on for a while and one I hoped to find the way off of this week.

I’ve only just started with the darker values in the sample to the left. I think the bright values on the sword are great, but I need to pull the glowing feel into the fronts of the figures. This will be easier to do once the backs of the figures have some deep darks. I just have to grin and bear it as I find myself lightening everything when I put it down. The painting just looks “wrong” and I keep trying to adjust it to make it “right.” And in the process, I kill my value range every time.

I had an embarrassing fan-girl moment last night when Adam Rex came around to view the students’ WIP. And witnesses. I think I may hide in the corners today.

Adam was very complimentary of my work. In fact, when I first pulled my web site up to show him, he commented that he’d seen my work before and was familiar with it. (Warm fuzzy moment.) His comment to me was I need to work on my values. Yep. I don’t need a brick to the head.