Home Forums Explore Media Oil Painting The Technical Forum Red lense glasses

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  • #480918
    chamisa
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        I’ve used a 4”x4” piece of hard red plastic for years that really helps nail down values when starting a painting especially with complex landscapes or a still life with a ton of distracting colors. It simplifies values for me into simple value shapes. (My eyes get tired of squinting)

        But I recently saw an ad for these and thought these glasses would be so much easier for starting a composition than holding up a piece of plastic to check values.
        Has anyone tried these yet?
        https://streamlineartvideo.com/products/paint-by-note-red-glasses

        Amazon has some for cheaper, but not sure the red lenses would work as well.
        https://www.amazon.com/slp/red-lenses/hbebhwdfhwjm5du

        #914501
        ilya K
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            If you have a tablet, you can switch its camera into b/w mode and use it instead of glass. Phone screen may be too small. But you can zoom the live picture too.

            Ilya K
            C&C always welcome

            #914499
            Richard P
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                Got any of those old 3D glasses were one was red and one blue/green. They might work if you close the eye of the one that’s not red.. ;)

                #914502
                marioz
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                    My guess is that a red lens does change values, not only simplify them. Red areas are going to appear brighter and lighter than, say, green areas. That may produce beautiful paintings, but I’m not sure I would want that kind of systematic shift.
                    B/W filters use a weighted average of RGB components based on human perception.

                    #914500
                    Richard P
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                        I agree with Marioz. I’m not aware of any simple lenses that can produce accurate greyscale values. You can do it with a camera or phone.

                        #914497
                        chamisa
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                            I read the comments on these for the red glasses (each comment tells what color they used) and most of them were artists using the red ones, and they all said they work great, and like me they were tired of holding up red plastic. Good price so I ordered these.
                            https://www.amazon.com/GloFX-Color-T…5636746&sr=8-6

                            #914498
                            chamisa
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                                RE on accurate grayscale:
                                I’ve used the hard red plastic for years and find it is quite close to accurate. Ive tested it with both my IPad camera and with my value finder app. It is close enough that the ease of using it for quick value shapes when roughing in sketch for plein air or still life painting really helps. I can always use my eyes for more accuracy and value detail later.

                                Here’s where the accuracy differs — if you see a light sky value as say 2 (or 9) on the value grayscale, it will be darker than a 2 with the red filter. But that’s not what you are going for
                                You are going for the RELATIONSHIPS.
                                The red filter shows you your darks in relationship to lights and mid tones quickly.
                                Then use your EYES for color accuracy RELATIONSHIPS to the grayscale numberss.

                                I try to simplify my paintings into just four values, sometimes five. Darkest shapes, lightest, midtone light and midtone darks.
                                So for some complex value studies not totally accurate enough, but definitely helps to start learning to see larger value SHAPES instead of too much detail.
                                Also helps to decide your composition design.

                                #914496
                                Anonymous

                                    I know others who use red plastic like Mike Rooney and it works good for them also.

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