Unlocking Light and Shadow: Fixing Flat Paintings with Correct Values

In this video, you will see how to create life and vibrancy in your paintings by mastering the art of light and shadow. I'll show you how to identify and fix the common issue of incorrect value assessment, a challenge many beginners face.

Learn to draw inspiration from real-life scenes to understand values like never before. With a helpful before-and-after demonstration, watch as I transform an old painting, once plagued by overly dark values, into a painting filled with light and magic. Fix dark and flat paintings for good!

🎨 Materials:

[scottpitner]

I’ve heard a saying that’s something like “value does all the work, color gets all the credit.” Very true and as a beginner I’m seeing more and more how tonal value plays such a huge role in weather a landscape looks off or looks believable.
Makes me want to practice simple landscapes using just one color and its verity of tints, tones and shades. Kind of like tonalism.

[joannemurphy]

Hi Malcolm, Thank you for this video. Great instruction and explanations of why you were doing what you were doing...color temp, values, distance, etc. (as always). Loved seeing the transformation! Possibly the best part, though, was seeing what colors you used to mix what I'll call the chromatic "grays", like the sky and mountains and distant trees, etc. I really liked watching you mix this palette since I've been exploring more colorful grays lately and the mixing is the most challenging part. You mixed, but didn't muddy. Great tips on painting the blues in the shadows. Great results! Have a great day!

[suepidlubny]

Another great video. Thanks. I won’t be afraid to re-work some of my paintings that just don’t make the cut.

[nanvaughn]

Thanks for this video. It really helped. I’ve been stuck trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong and this video helped me see some of the issues. More of these please!!

[winifredjanevowler]

Brilliant and so helpful. I can see I have done this in my own paintings. I'm inspired to fix mine. Thank you so much!

[hollieharlow]

I did not expect that you would change *everything* but as you went, it brought a few of my past paintings to mind. Thank you!

[kamleshsunak]

Wow, what a beautiful transformation! Thanks for sharing. Always a pleasure to watch your demos and also learn.

[noumine]

What a marvelous transformation! Thank you for showing how you mix your colors as well. Extremely helpful! Thank you so much!

[thalaagdal]

Très heureuse de vous découvrir par hasard. C'était le cours que je recherchais. Très très intéressant les couleurs atmosphériques, indispensables à la profondeur. Le choix des couleurs froides ou chaudes pour renforcer tout cela. Je m'abonne et je like toutes vos vidéos et je suis désolée de ne pouvoir vous rejoindre car je ne comprends l'anglais. Merci pour votre générosité. De Paris, encore merci.

[natalykenny]

Amazing transformation, very visual!!!! Thank you so much for this video tutorial. ❤❤❤

[daleshawn]

Exactly what I needed. Thank you so much!

[meltemashley]

This is so helpful, excellent teaching with live demonstration, thanks a million⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[ChristineR-oekn]

Thank you for this excellent video . This is one of my favorites. helpful for a beginner !

[ruthconnell]

I get compliments on my “Painting in Rome” T-shirt (from the Malcom Dewey shop) wherever I go, and the fabric is a nice soft quality.

[Sheena]

That is an amazing transformation giving the old painting (which I thought was good anyway), a “face lift”, thank you for showing us how to breathe life into our paintings Malcolm. Always look forward to your videos. I would love to see you do more plein air demonstrations😘

[ladym]

That really helped; watching actual brush work most useful. The origional had good bones. The tonality's well thought out. Blessings.

[rowenapires]

All your videos are so helpful… its a great reminder of colour mixing, values and temperature… thank you Malcolm, so grateful to you, I have learnt so much!

[kanchanshingwekar]

Thank you for this video. Very helpful!!.

[manjiabanti]

Wow what a transformation ❤.. your voice is very calming

[mona]

Thank you Malcolm for this tutorial, I really needed a lot of help on color mixing.