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Author: Deborah_Christensen_Secor, Contributing Editor
 | Next is the value map. For this I used an enlargement of my photo, which I printed on white card stock. I then placed a piece of copy paper over the top, held it to the window and traced very quickly and loosely the outline of the shapes. This allowed me to see even more of the details, such as the placement of the flowers and the branch hanging into the dark area. I often checked the blurred photo to help me see the values.
I find that this helps you understand values, the lightness and darkness of the colors. 'Value' (or tone) is best understood as the TV with the color turned off. Ricky and Lucy were in living color in real life but on TV we understand them by their values. If we didn't organize color by value we never could have understood that Lucy was stuffing chocolates in her mouth or Ricky was playing the congas. Doing this map also shows you how the values are masses, not just colors. The darks form a shape, as do the mediums and the lights. Drawing it helps fix it in your mind, and increasing the scale begins to prepare you to make the underdrawing. |
 | Here's the underdrawing. I used a 9x12" piece of Wallis paper, which I toned with a layer of pale gray pastel that I rubbed in thoroughly with a foam brush. Then I used extra soft thin vine charcoal for the underdrawing. My students always tease me for telling them so often that they need to get charcoal with all four words: extra, soft, thin, vine--but it results in a good range of values.
Following the value map made in the last step I laid out the value on the paper, which is a very simple process after all this planning! I don't fingerblend pastels much, but I encourage you to blend the charcoal, in order to set it down into the paper a little and thereby avoid dirtying colors. |
| This is the first layer of color. I loosely laid down the colors. I'm not interested in any details at this point. I just try to find the right colors, using the photo as inspiration and the values for guidance. There are probably four colors in the wall in the upper right corner: yellow, blue, pink and green, all in the same value. Also notice the orange in the door. It was just getting too turquoise for my taste, so I grabbed a complement in the same value to modulate it a little.
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| Next comes the second layer of color. I further refined the greens and shortened the branch that hangs into the dark area, as well as the one above the doorway. I had a lot of fun with the colors in the archway, too, adding blues and violets to make the light. The delicate work on the stones to the right is simply done with the charcoal.
I also added a bushy shape on the left side because I wanted to enhance that shape. It's never too late to improve the underlying shapes, as long as you're sure the change is an improvement. As I looked back at my original value map I noticed that the little triangle of dark to the left of the door was there, so I was confident it would work. |  |
| Finally, here’s the completed painting. I took some time away from it so that I could see what needed to be improved.
First I worked on the shadows along the wall in the upper right hand corner and to the left of the doorway, softening them and defining the shapes. The flowers on the center branch are the biggest new addition. As I looked at the branch hanging into the dark shape of the shadowed doorway it was so clearly the focal point, yet it disappointed me. It seemed empty, so naturally I added some flowers to give it a reason to be there. It had to be one or three, and I chose three flowers because of the size of the branch and its location. It seemed to be a younger branch that wouldn’t be heavy with older blossoms. I worked to refine all the flowers, adding a suggestion of their individual shapes using the charcoal, as well as a few bright white highlights. I refined the dark foliage around all the flowers, and then spent a little time reshaping the plant standing in the left fore so that it arched slightly more, and adding some highlights to the triangular plant to the left side. I added a bit more texture to the door, playing with the color a little (but that orange is still there), and corrected the angle of the bottom of the door, as well as improving the shapes of the shadows cast from the little plant on the right side of it. I made almost no changes to the inside of the archway, the shadowed areas, or the rockwork above and beside the doorway. |  |
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