Week two of the workshop detailed the techniques of painting in black and white to capture Value and then, add a color layer over the black and white painting as a Digital Glazing.
It was very inspirational to see how far everybody progress just by watching a few video tutorials.
A couple of things I picked up during this week :
– Don’t get discouraged when the painting is ugly and wrong. It will stay wrong for a long time but eventually things work out. Don’t give up before they do.
– Work on a small size with large brush early. Things all into place a lot easier if the painting looks good at smaller scales.
– Use few brushes (one) and few colors. Limitations increase creativity.
– What made a huge difference was the selection of a brush with the right properties (sharp edges on the outside and soft transparency along the flow of painting).
– Nail the eyes, nose and lips early. The rest of the painting can be very forgiving if the facial expression is just right.
– Keep turning the color layer on and off as you go to make sure you don’t lose the Value you blocked in black and white.