[Rinthe]

working on my values, please critique.

_________________
ericpaints.it | blog | facebook

[Duracel]

If you'r trying to get the values richt, first get the difference between direct light and shadow. It has to be clear. There is no "its half in light". Its directly seen by the lightsource or it is behind something in the dark.

Midtones occur if the surface is turned away from 90� to the lightsource, but its still in light. But theres always a point where no direct light hits the surface anymore - point it. Its always weakens a realistic approach, if you're unsure about this.

This important border get lost in this scenere.
_________________
Lars G�tze

www.duracel.de Gallery

Detailling a speedpainting is nothing but speedpainting in detail.

[Rinthe]

what if the material itself is dark?
_________________
ericpaints.it | blog | facebook

[Rinthe]

[Jabo]

Maybe what Dura is trying to say is that you have to limit your value range by setting the highest and lowest value (absolute light, in this case the open door, and absolute dark, in this case the side of the bed facing the viewer), put it all to work with just those two values and then work on the rest of the value range. A result of this woul be a higher contrast, which is needed in this kind of scene to convey what you're trying. A scene like has a very high contrast because there's only one lightsource and just darkness where it doesn't go.
_________________
CA SB|Flickr

[Duracel]

The Door doesn't need to be the lightest part cause the Door is not the lightsource ... if the door would be the lightsourse, it would be a totally different situation, where the whole wall on the right would be lit.
Thats the case you have with a window on a cloudy day; there is the window like the lightsource. (thats why such a situation looks most realistic if you paint the while window in white, instead of showing the view)

Here is a typical situation where the lightsource itself is hidden; the shadow on the wall looks like a lamp on the ceiling.


Back to the main point.
Im not talking about highest and lowest value, nontheless an important point - but mainly in diffus light-situations.(in normal situations too, where its most of the time a combination of direct and diffus lighting.)
One important part of painting good values is not to mix up light and shadow. So, in light is every surface has a direct connection to the lightsource, in shadow is everything where there is something between the surface and the light.
You can think about that like, if you're watching the scenery like you are the lamp - everything you can see from this point is in light. Everything else is in Shadow.
So there is no such a thing as "half-seen".

Its very important to get that clear first.


first one: the door as lightsource ... no reflected light added(would be a lot, but doesn't change the bit elements, only soften them.)
second one: only a hidden lamp as direct lightsource
third one: combined both for a still simple but more complex approach. - you see, the direct light is in normal case the dominant one, thats way you have to think about it first.
forth one: added some reflected light to get a feeling of the direction to where it leads.


_________________
Lars G�tze

www.duracel.de Gallery

Detailling a speedpainting is nothing but speedpainting in detail.