Not a beginners question but..

musicmacd

The Createx Bandit
Here’s a comparison of what going “too dark” does for your work. We all do it, pulling back on that trigger is so satisfying it’s hard to resist.
The trouble with “too dark” is that it leads to higher contrast, which usually leads us to make it more saturated that it should be!
With a lot of practice and good guidance from Dru Blair, I’ve learnt to slow down and control the urge to spray more than I think! he has a saying - “ you’ll never be sad if you’re too light” and bam it’s sooooo true!

now I don’t expect anyone to read this and not go too dark! But what I would like this post to do is to plant a seed,
that LESS is truly MORE.
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Paul, I certainly agree with you, but with a caveat: It also depends on the scale / size of the painting... the larger the painting the more important contrasts get or the whole thing appears boring and flat. I see a lot of work online (i.e., portraits, although not in this forum, mind you!) where the paintings, with whatever medium and method, do not pop because they lack contrast, and nothing that "grabs" the viewer. There is a devil and an angel sitting on every painter's shoulders - "go realistic, don't deviate from what you see" vs "no, make it more interesting and use more creative license"... and it's our own judgement how we want the painting to appear. Having said that, I actually like both your Freemans equally, incl. the darker one.
 
For most it does indeed get too dark too quickly.
I used to get the comment that my work looks like it has been washed too often.
I stayed too light in the shade.
So it can go two ways.
I regularly catch myself trying to make it lighter and basically everything around it should be darker.
 
When i was taking Life Drawing lesson years ago with a awesome guy from the New York academy of fine arts, he told me that when sketching if you draw a dark line your brain sees that as final and finished, then you struggle to move values of depth towards that dark line, i never forgot that and was something i took away from lesson but it is a hard habit to break .....
 
When i was taking Life Drawing lesson years ago with a awesome guy from the New York academy of fine arts, he told me that when sketching if you draw a dark line your brain sees that as final and finished, then you struggle to move values of depth towards that dark line, i never forgot that and was something i took away from lesson but it is a hard habit to break .....
That’s a good tip! Thank you
 
I can certainly see the difference in the 2 paintings. They both look good but one does look less realistic. I must try harder to not go dark. Did it on my PP then cant go back. Frustrating thing is I did it 5 times lol, However I know I can stay light as I've done it in portraits.
 
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