Recently Jeff had me do a couple painting exercises where I focused on breaking down the value shapes into planes. It took me a couple days to get the hang of it, but once I made myself slow down and get the values right I felt like my accuracy and speed sky rocketed! This reminded me of something I've heard Jeff say. He tells us if we want to finish a painting or drawing faster we need to slow down and get it right the first time. So wise, so wise.
Here is an example of my assignment:
I started a new painting on Monday using the same technique, but being a little less rigid with the planes. It has helped enormously. With previous paintings I felt like I kept painting over the same area again and again each day to try and get the values (and shapes) right, but by blocking the correct values in at the beginning it saves me countless hours of frustration. It sounds so obvious, but it has taken me a while to really comprehend how to overcome that problem.
By the way, this was one of my childhood toys. I think she's cute, but there seems to be a creepy consensus regarding this little one. I suppose I agree.
