My 5 stages of painting in oils that never let me down! Stage 2: Massing in the big areas of value!

Hello everyone!

Today it's time for stage 2 in my one a day series, 5 stages of painting in oils that never let me down!

To read the first stage, here is a link to yesterdays post;

https://steemit.com/art/@mayasky/my-5-stages-of-painting-in-oils-that-never-let-me-down-stage-1-the-big-proportions

This is the painting I will be discussing the stages from;

Me photographed with the painting.

The finished painting. ''Summer morning'' oil on panel, sized 100 x 80 cm.

In this series I will talk about five stages I go through more or less every time I make a painting. The same "recipe" is also applicable in portraiture or still life painting.

Yesterday I was talking about getting in the big proportions, today I will be talking about what comes next!

So lets get going on stage 2!

Stage 2- massing in the big areas of value

In the second stage it's all about starting to make the big impression work.

After all, if the big impression, meaning all the big values and relationships between them, doesn't work, it doesn't really matter about that one little cloud you painted so perfectly.

No one is gonna pay attention to that anyways is all they can think about is how that sea looks way to dark and grey compared to that way too yellow sand.
In this stage it is more about just massing in the values, meaning just laying in the big areas of color next to each other and making them work. This is one of the stages I've struggled with the most in my time as a painter. Knowing the impact of color and values and how they play off each other becomes pretty evident in this early stage and often takes some practice.

One thing that can be helpful in this stage is introducing your lightest light and darkest dark. That way you have something constant to relate to the other values and makes it more likely that you don't end up with a bunch of values too light or too dark.

Do you ever use this stage when you paint a painting?

Do you have any questions about this stage in particular?

If you do, I am more than happy to try and answer the for you! ;)

Stay tuned for tomorrows stage 3; breaking up the big areas!

I wish you all a wonderful and creative day!

Much love,