Page 15 - The Decorative Painter Summer 2017

Invaluable Values PART 2 OF A 2-PART SERIES
by Nanette Hilton
There are many
ways to create
value change
in your paintings,
depending on your
medium. For ex-
ample, “grisaille” is a
centuries-old tech-
nique for creating a
painting entirely of
grayish values and
was employed by Old
Masters, like Italian
Renaissance painter
Giotto di Bondone,
in their oil paintings
as an undercoat to
transparent layers of
color. The concept
is of particular interest since it underscores the value of value. (Yes, it’s easy to get tripped up in terminology so stay on your toes!)
Painting techniques for creating value change include brush blending,
which is highly achievable with slow-drying oil-based
mediums and less so with fast-drying water-based
mediums.
Layering of value is
another successful technique used in all mediums.
Layering techniques for water-based
mediums include a common decora- tive painting term: sideloading, (a.k.a. floating) which
means to apply a differing value atop an underlying value
so that on one edge of the brush there is
significant paint as it bleeds to nothing but
water on the opposite
Magnolia Swan,
by Nanette Hilton
published in The Decorative Painter, Spring 2017.
Email: nanettehilton@gmail.com Website: nanettehilton.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ nanette.hilton
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The Decorative Painter • SUMMER 2017 13
side of the bristles – usually done with a flat or angle brush, but sometimes with a filbert. Water vs. paint management is the key to success with sideloading. My design, “Magnolia Swan,” in the previous issue of The Decorative Painter, employs this technique.
Over the past 15 years or so, dry-brushing
has become a more popular layering method for creating value change in decorative art. Since it doesn’t require the tricky water-paint balancing act, many painters find it easier than sideloading when using water-based mediums. Very little paint (dry brush) of graduating value or amount is “scrubbed” onto the area of focus in less and less area to achieve value gradation – usually done with a mop or round blender brush. This is the technique traditional stenciling employs.
Stippling, crosshatching and smudging
are also age-old techniques for creating value change. These are good practice techniques for you to use when studying the basic
principles of value placement. Stip-
pling uses dot distribution to create
value change.
As we work toward the future, enjoying our creative process while adding to the world’s cache of hand-painted treasures, may we each strive to keep our values in order.
Example of stippling