23 December 2014

What’s a Low Key Painting?

Home » What’s a Low Key Painting?

Talking about a low key painting seems appropriate at this, the darkest time of the year (in the northern hemisphere anyway!). So what is a low key painting? It’s one in which most of the colours are predominantly dark in value and often subdued (i.e. not bright colours).

I’ve just uploaded a video of me demoing a low key painting. Have a look:

You can see my set-up below. I painted the piece directly from life but I must have changed my angle when I began to paint; I didn’t see any secondary highlights in the shadow side of the bowl like the ones you can see here.

The bowl and pepper set up for low key painting — The bowl and pepper set up for the low key painting.

The thumbnail in preparation for the low key painting — The pen and ink thumbnail in preparation for the low key painting

The initial drawing for the low key painting done in vine charcoal on toned Wallis paper — The initial drawing in vine charcoal on toned Wallis paper

The pastels used in the low key painting — The Schmincke pastels used in the low key painting. There are 14 of them! I was struggling to create the colours I saw, keeping them in the correct values, hence the apparent need to use more pastels than usual! You can see what I thought was ‘black’ is actually a ‘cool grey’ (top left).

The low key painting: Gail Sibley, "Peppers in a Bowl," Schminke pastels on Wallis paper, 6 x 6 in — Gail Sibley, “Peppers in a Bowl,” Schmincke pastels on Wallis paper, 6 x 6 in

Here is that low key painting again but photographed in black and white. This really shows you how dark the painting is.

A couple of months ago, I did a video on high key painting. Check it out here. You can see how completely different the painting looks from this one!! High key versus low key in action!

Wow, it’s almost Christmas Day! Wishing you a very special holiday surrounded by love and laughter. I’m so looking forward to spending the next few days with my Mum and Dad, my brother and his family, and my honey.

With warmth and huge thanks,

~ Gail

PS. Because of the time of the year, you may want to watch me painting a branch of holly 🙂

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Gail Sibley

Artist. Blogger. Teacher.

My love of pastel and the enjoyment I receive from teaching about pastel inspired the creation of this blog. It has tips, reviews, some opinions:), and all manner of information regarding their use through the years – old and new. Please enjoy!