Black & White

Gosh. I love a good black and white photo.

If you've been a student in one of my classes you know how I use a black and white copy of my color photo reference to see my values before I paint.  Then, when I'm done painting, I take a photo and turn it into a black and white version where I then evaluate my painting in terms of values.

This is a digital painting I was playing with this morning.  It started off earlier this week as an acrylic painting. I got 1/3 of the way done and decided to import it into Procreate on my Ipad to look at different painting options.

I completed the painting digitally in color and then turned it into a black and white version to analyze.  You can immediately see the values and (yay!) it works.

Using black & white photos is one tool in our artist’s toolbox helping us to see and ultimately create what we see.