Observing a house across the street from my house, as I squinted looking toward the house, I noticed that the sun shining on the black roof caused it to appear lighter than the white carport in shadow. I had always known that a white piece of paper appeared black in a dark room, but I had never thought that black in bright sunlight would appear to be a light gray. A painter must always keep this in mind because your mind tells you that white is white and black is black. To produce a good painting, you have to paint what you see in this case rather than what you know. Notice the matboard device that I made to demonstrate the wide range of values that I observed between sunlight and shadow. I use this device in talks presented to art groups.
If other artists would like to use this demonstration in their art talks, they can receive a high resolution image to use in their hand-outs by emailing me at tommy@tommythompsonart.com.
