Tonal Painting

If the painting works [e.i. has a balanced and pleasing tonal distribution] in black and white it will look fine in color.

 German Village, 12x14". Oil on Canson Canvas Paper.

Here is another tonal painting of a village outside Rome, Italy.

Rendering Architecture

Here a 4" x 5" study where more accurate architecture and the correct values of  the buildings are essential.

 

Quiet Afternoon

Poster Tempera

City Composition Stems

The amount of detail that a typical cityscape has makes harder to focus on rendering correct values. Here I used the values of the bridge as reference to determine the correct values of the surrounding houses. Painted with Black and White Dick Blick's Premium Tempera and Vegetable Glycerin.

Counterbalance or Steel Yard Composition Stem

This one is a little over 6" x 4". Here I attempted to capture more of the true light of the scene. To that effect I did not use pure black. Notice that the medium dark mass of the slop and the small trees on the left counterbalance the dark shapes of the foreground tree. This is a well tested successful composition format.

 

End of the Tree Line 

Premium Tempera on hotpress watercolor paper

B & W Landscape Comps

Here is a set of landscape comps made with  Dick Blick's Premium Tempera as a substitute for the much more expensive Lukas and Utrecht brands. I used hot-press watercolor paper as a surface.To slow down drying time I use Vegetable Glycerin USP 100% pure. Glycerin also helps tempera to stay flexible.

 

These compositions are no larger than 2" x 2-1/4". The comps show their relative size to one another.

Doing black and white composition allows me to understand the relative values, identify the best composition  and potential problems in placement and size of the main elements. If the values are placed accurately, It also gives me an idea of the particular "light" of the landscape. 

Gouache and Tempera, unpretentious as they are, are a very sophisticated media, capable of very fine detail. They also are a good stepping-stone toward learning to paint with oils.

Another Study

Here is a small Painting of a farm in New Mexico. Painting the foliage structure was tricky.

Oil on Canvas Paper

These winter scenes were painted on paper canvas. Personal collection.

Oil Studies on Poster Board

I painted these small studies on white poster board primed with Gesso. This is a very nice surface to paint on.

Testing Canson Board

This 6x8 was painted on Canson linen textured board.

Painting on Polyester Canvas for InkJet Printer

This was painted on a piece of 8x10 in. Polyester canvas. Very nice surface to work on and of archival quality. Primed with Liquitex Basic Gesso.

Experimenting with Dick Blicks Premium Tempera - Poster Paint

Here are a few landscapes done in gouache and Dick Blick's Premium Tempera (Poster Paint). I am amazed at the quality and concentration of the pigments. Great for doing studies.