BeckerArt FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter January 19th Posterized Value Pattern

Published: Tue, 01/19/16

 
Hello 

Welcome to the FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter #38 Posterized Value Pattern

3rd week into the new year.... are you still trying to keep that new years resolutions or has it gone to the wayside. I haven't had the chance to begin my regiment of painting more, but I hope to soon.
Maybe I will pretend that the year starts in February and start the resolution then. Better late than never!

This week I want to talk a little about the use of photographs to help you paint your paintings. I will be showing you how you can tweak your photos so you can see if you have a good value pattern for your painting or if you should just scrap the photo.

This week a student of mine that was somewhat of a celebrity in Chicago passed away. His name is Johnny Bach, he was an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan played Basketball. Johnny came to my class because he wanted to learn how to paint in watercolor and for a good 5 years I taught him everything I could. He became a very good painter and even had a show here in Chicago. He is best known for being the creator of the triangle offense, I will always remember him as the best storyteller and the painter of the congressional medal of honor winners. Rest in peace Johnny.

YES to Class this Thursday at the Civic Center in Libertyville
YES to Class Saturday at The Studio in McHenry.

Happy Posterizing!
David
 
Posterized Value Pattern

Last week I talked about how to develop your mind's eye, this week I will show you an easier way then working from your mind's eye if you don't have that developed mind's eye. Photographs are great to work from but many times they are not as good a photo as you may think. I want to show you how to break down those photos so you can get a clear image of if your photo has a good compositional value pattern or not.

Step 1. Below is the color photo that I will be testing to see if this image has a good compositional value pattern.
I usually tell my students to squint their eyes at their colored image to see if the image has a big value               pattern of Light and Dark. Squinting your eyes makes you see the big picture of values and takes away the       details that are not important when determining the big value pattern. Many times this doesn't work well for       beginners so I have them do step 2.

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Step 2. An even better way of determining if the photo has a good value pattern is to turn your colored image to black and white. this can be done with an editing program, a B&W printer, an app like Instagram or a website like picmonkey.com   In your program or app first look to turn the image B&W

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Step 3. If you have a good editing program you can also posterize your Black and White image to eliminate even more details. If your app for program doesn't have a posterize filter, use the contrast button and turn the contrast all the way up to B&W.
look for a simple large, light and dark pattern, like this one below. 
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Step 4. Here is a photograph that I posterized that doesn't have a very good pattern. You can see when you turn everything into B&W that there are too many small patterns of light and dark all over the place. The color can only help your composition so much, work to better your B&W pattern first.
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Dillman's Festival of Artists at the Marco Island Center for the Arts Jan. 31st
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On January 31st, I will be demonstrating for the Dillman's Festival of the Artists in Florida at the Marco Island Center for the Arts.
Read More
 
BeckerArt Brushes
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NEW! The BeckerArt Brushes are now available to purchase.

1 1/4" Flat Series 020, #16 Round and a #4 Rigger Holbein Gold, Short Handle, Superior Synthetic Blend Watercolor Brushes. Made to my specifications, which were, The point of the 1 1/4" flat brush and the # 16 round had to come to a razor sharp point, along with a bounce back to straight action when applying watercolor to paper. The # 4 Rigger had to be the perfect length, the perfect thickness and the perfect point.


The BeckerArt  1 1/4" brush retails for $40.65  you can get a personally autographed BeckerArt Brush direct from me for $25.00
The BeckerArt  #16 Round retails for $25.00  you can get a personally autographed BeckerArt Brush direct from me for $18.00

The BeckerArt #4 Rigger retails for $8.75 you can get this brush direct from me for $6.00 To small to autograph

Buy all 3 as a set which retails for $74.40 direct from me for only $45.00
Priority shipping along with handling per order is $6.00


Click Here to Shop


 
Workshop Flyer
 
NEW!  Watercolor Artist of the Week
Each week I will be bringing you an artist that I admire and that amazes me. I hope these artist's will amaze and inspire you to keep on painting and develop your own style as much as they inspire me.

Ilya Ibryaev
I spotted this artist's work on Pinterest and had to search him out because I love how he simplifies a landscape and the way he does the light rays in his paintings. Beautiful style!
 
Link of the Week
picmonkey

Need that website for photo editing....This one seems like a great place to go if you don't have photoshop or Instagram.
PICMONKEY 
​If you want to try an app instead try PICSART
 
 For any other info please email me at david@davidrbecker.com