PAINT! with Alex: Magic Middle - the First Halftone

Episode 2: Magic Middle: the First Halftone

This episode we start with Black (mix 50-50 burnt umber - ultramarine blue) and White and between them we mix MIDDLE GRAY! It's visually HALF WAY between white and black and so it is the first HALFTONE. It might not seem exciting because it doesn't say anything smart sounding or fancy, but we will learn more and more that this simple "value" on the scale of the "notes of the painter" gradating from white to black, is a fundamental, primal force for creating visual impact; easily as important as the concept of OVERLAP from episode 1.

Once we find that middle gray value I ask viewers watching to start an "eye keyboard" of their own and painting an 8" stripe of that middle gray mixture down the middle of a 14 by 18 inch canvas panel, then to the right and left of that paint straight white and straight black.

Then we take those piles of paint on our palette, white, middle gray and black, and whip out a cute Cat in the Window picture with a simple solid design easy enough for anyone to have fun with!

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