Got It!

First time in my painting class and I learned something. In all the drawing classes I attended, I never understood what the instructors meant when they said you have to darken the background and lighten the foreground to bring out contrast and give your object depth. I muck about my drawings and sometimes come up with something not too bad without ever knowing what I did right.

So in Painting today, the instructor said the same thing - darken the background and lighten the foreground, highlight the object and work in the details, etc. I said, "I don't know what you mean. I don't see details. I see everything in 2-D."

He said, "Let me demonstrate. If you don't see the details, make them up." Then he put dark colours around my objects and white dabs where the light reflects off the object. I stood back. It was amazing. My bottles and balls suddenly popped off the canvas in 3-D vitality.

"My god, that's a completely different painting," I said.

"No, that's your painting. I just showed you the technique to give it depth," he replied.

I love my painting class already.