Let’s take a closer look at The Little Worker by Helen McNicoll—a pleasant landscape with high-key colors, compressed values, and an intimate perspective. Dimensions: 20 x 24 inches (51.3 × 61 cm) Year Created: c.1907 Medium: Oil on Canvas Current Location: Ontario Art Gallery, Toronto Click here to download a high-resolution photo of the painting. … Read more
I’ve been experimenting lately with color ranges and techniques. I’m particularly interested in high key value ranges, where all the colors are pushed towards the light end of the value scale. Below is a recent high-key painting based on Maleny’s beautiful landscape. The idea was to capture the midday sun’s shimmering colors and sense of … Read more
This post will be all about using an analogous color scheme to create beautifully harmonious paintings. I will say first and foremost that a color scheme is not really that important. I rarely start a painting with a pre-determined color scheme in mind. The color scheme itself does not really create harmony, it is just … Read more
In this post, I discuss how you can use a high key to create beautiful displays of color in your paintings. So what is a high key? It means you push all the values in your painting towards the lighter end of the value scale. So your darks will become mid-tones, and your lights will … Read more