Reference Photo Hints a la Maggie

You probably know that "our" Maggie Stiefvater is now a famous author and pulling back somewhat from her painting and drawing. She is offering up some helpful hints on Sundays so as not to abandon us, the faithful followers. Today's post is about using photo software to help you use a photo reference in painting.

I often use her ideas and should use the check for value by changing the image to black and white more often. You can immediately see the areas that need work. You can see in this painting a good variety of values. This painting is a mid value painting with touches of highlights and dark values.

San Miguel Church
Colored Pencil, 8 x 10 inches

Try taking snapshots of your WIPs (Work in Progress) and looking at them in black and white to see how the painting is coming along. You may be surprised. Take a look at this post about value on my painting, Pears on Red, for a little more insight.