[joeygn72]

I am having a time figuring out things like contrast and composure etc. is there some book or video explaining that these aspects of art that some of you have used? If this is a natural ability I'm screwed....Thanks for any suggestions

 

[George924]

Look at anything painted by Rembrandt...his use of light and dark contrasting each other is beyond words a chiaroscuro master...I'm assuming when you say composure you are implying composition and design...you tube has a ton of videos related to composition but I'll look to see if there is some really easy to understand books to explain this.

When I get a little time I'll try and put something together that may make things clearer...

 

[joeygn72]

Hey George,thank you and yes I used the wrong word, I did mean composition. Thanks for the suggestions. I look at some of my work (if not most of it) and think it all just sort of bleeds together. Thanks again.

 

[George924]

Hey Joey, After waking up and looking further into this thread, I also wanted to elaborate more on the subject of tonal value. Values in a piece of art will surely make or break a piece of art work, unless the artist is going for a highly contrasted piece and forgoing the mid ranges of the values, mid tones will give the artwork a more realistic outcome to the final piece. I always try to have the darkest values and the lightest values come together and using the mid tone values to help set the realism into a piece.

Here is a fairly decent website that will explain the use of tonal values...http://www.studiocodex.com/value_tone01.html

 

[joeygn72]

Thanks so much George. I'll look at the site and get to work.