Establishing values...

Often when I begin a painting, I feel I paint too much without description in these demonstrations. I have vowed to break the painting process into smaller and hopefully more understandable segments as this demonstration progresses.

The approach that I have chosen is to paint the pleats next, actually not the pleats but the shadow between them, in order to set the stage for the painting of the shell's shadow.

To obtain a warm gray that I liked, I mixed equal parts of Cadimum Red, Azo Yellow and Prussian Blue. Thinning this mixture down considerably I established the pleats with differing quantities of water for the different values.

Now back to the shell shadow which caused me to paint the pleats roughly. I have placed it lightly in the image below.

In the image above I have begun to establish values. "Value" in art talk means the relative lightness or darkness on the gray scale from white to black. I have painted colors above, a light wash of Yellow Ocher, a darker Raw Umber tinged with Cadimum Red area on the shell and a-darker-yet Raw Umber area on the shell with dark/dark Raw Umber across the background.

Each of the colors is of different value. Lets call the term "color" hue instead. Each hue can have its own set of values. If all this sounds, confusing, don't sweat the terminology, just get the values somewhere in the correct ballpark.