Oh, Christmas Tree! Revisted

 

Which one do you resonate with? Honestly, I like them both, but it was an unsolved puzzle that made me want to revisit this painting.

The key to solving that puzzle was found in that black and white drawing on the upper right hand side of my sketch book, plus going back to the original source material.

 

 

This was the original inspiration, and even though my painting from 2020 is nice, it has bothered me since then that I didn't capture that same sense of winter magic, I wanted my lighted tree to glow at night too, dang it! 

(Note, I would give credit to the artist if I could find them, if you know, please tell me.)

 What helped me see the solution was dropping all the color out of the original so I could get my brain to register how truly dark that background sky and foreground snow really is. 

 

The irony is, this is my first sketch in 2020 and I had the right idea. It's a mystery to me that I ended up with such a different final painting. 

 

I do know that even as a beginning artist, I always struggled to get the dark values truly dark. My brain seems to default to seeing a lighter value unless I consciously remind myself to triple check.

 

 

Even with this year's painting, I wish I had taken a photo of how light in value that first sky background was at the start. It took at least four more layers of ultramarine blue and purple to get that value dark enough!

 I'm pleased to say that now I feel that wonderful sense of completion from finally solving a puzzle. After the success of this experiment, I'm always going to make a value sketch of every subject before I start painting!

 For example, here's an interesting exercise I created for myself. I made the value sketch first from an idea in my mind, no reference photos, gasp! Next I did my best to match those values in color, it's not an amazing painting but I think I matched the values well. I'm determined to train that brain of mine!

Happy Creating!

>^-^<

Tina

P.S. One of my favorite things for making those value sketches, besides plain black acrylic paint and water, is a water soluble graphite pencil. The brand is "The General's Sketch and Wash" No links to sponsors or anything, I just wanted to share.