Value in Painting - Black and White Boards

"The most important aspects of a painting is VALUE  and DESIGN. These two trump colour, texture etc." Nicholas Wilton

Value is essentially the lightness and darkness of a colour. The correct use of value gives a painting (both abstract and representational) depth.

I must admit, because I use a lot of colour, the values can sometimes go awry and I have to always be very conscious of that. So getting more of a grip on this, is my goal for this aspect of the course.

The second assignment of the Art2Life course, was to create two boards using only black and white. I based one on one of my failed paintings to see where I could make improvements and the other was purely abstract.

This one still exists as shown, I have yet to put colour on it

The first one, received some limited palette colour:

I have not taken this one forward and I shall have to find it again in my pile of unfinished boards. I can see it is too busy (so obvious now) and it needs to be unified.

Black, White and Red landscape abstract

This is the second painting for the September challenge on the Daily Painters International blog where I missed the deadline. This was an abstract landscape that sort of developed as I went along. I mixed the greys on the paper as I went along. Adding the red was a last minute decision.

 Abstract landscape, black and white plus one by Marion Hedger

Acrylic and gel medium, palette knife

A4 on cardboard 

The three black and white paintings in this series were done very loosely and quite quickly. Perhaps that is why I enjoyed creating them as I had no preconceived ideas and nothing to lose as they were an cardboard cutoffs. The tree is a nod to my location here in the Alpes Maritime, Provence.

Here is a close up of the palette knife work:

Black and White plus one III

This is the third and final study in black and white plus one colour. This one is smaller than the other two and on canvas board with a black gesso ground.

 Abstract tree, black and white and red

10x15 cm (4x6") on canvas board

This exercise was interesting and tells me that I definitely need to loosen up in my normal work and this is an idea I am thinking of taking further - maybe not the white and black theme but definitely the loose palette knife work and using the gel to thicken up the paint. As this was only an exercise I used paint which was very fluid and not true artist paint. I wasn't sure if the gel (Golden gel medium) would work to give me a 3D effect but it worked well.

Black and White plus one acrylic painting

Abstract seascape, black and white plus one by Marion Hedger

Acrylic and gel medium, palette knife

A4 on black card

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 I missed the deadline on the September challenge from Daily Painters International Gallery of painting in black and white plus one colour, as I was away on hols and forgot to post my paintings before I went away.
I used acrylic because I do not have a black oil paint and I could not achieve a nice black by mixing. I also decided to try two additional things as well as the black and white challenge, (I should learn to take one step at a time LOL), palette knife painting and abstracting.
I had a vague idea to do a landscape but with nothing else in mind I started playing with the paint which I had mixed with gel medium to give it more body. Somehow this turned into an abstract seascape, hence the use of the blue. I used thick paint on the palette knife and mixed the greys on the painting. I was quite pleased with this way this little exercise turned out and painted two more, which I will post in a later painting.