Local Tone as a Visual Approach

A couple of weeks ago an artist friend of mine gave me an earful for not posting in such a long time.  She was right!  It's been forever -  but there was Christmas, a house full of people (my daughter got engaged!), New Years, more family, you know how it goes.  Anyway, my last post was about light- dark pattern as a visual approach.  I have not included any information on equalization.  As a visual approach, equalization drove me slightly crazy.  Basically it involves bringing a uniform sense of pattern to the entire canvas.  Good examples can bee seen in Gustav Klimt's landscapes.  They are beautiful but I found drawing or painting using total equalization to be daunting.

In January we began to use color.  The painting above is an example of local tone as a visual approach.
Local tone condenses value in to 3 groups, light, medium and dark.  It is similar to what you see on an overcast day.  Everything is flattened down and there are no cast shadows.  The medium value group ties itself to either the dark group or the light group.  If the medium group is tied to the darks, the light group will stand out.  If tied to the lights, darks will stand out.  Groupings can contain several value shifts.  The group with the most value shifts draws the greatest focus.  The number of value shifts within each group should be unique.  For instance the light grouping could have 1 value, the medium 5 value shifts and the dark 2 shifts.

Artwork by Van Gogh, Andrew Wyeth, Cassatt, and the Russian School painters are all good examples of local tone.

We're moving on to Light and Shadow as a visual approach - then color theory.  Can't wait.  Paid for the next 6 months of instruction last week.

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