Clayton Beck's values

Clayton Beck III, a friend and esteemed peer of mine, creates remarkable paintings. Every time I look at his work, I wonder how he pulls off such beautiful work with such efficiency. I feel that the struggle I go through with each painting is part of the process, and yet I look at Clayton's work and think- "This is just simply beautiful!"

Clayton reveals a little bit of his secret on his site (www.claytonjbeckiii.com) on his Instructional Pages. We are both teachers, and I know that understanding values is one of the crucial requirements of producing a good painting, and yet it is consistently one of the areas that many students fail to grasp. However, Clayton sums up the value process well:

When trying to get a grasp on values, the first thing that you want to understand is the limits of edge and value.

Where is my HARDEST EDGE?

Where is my SOFTEST EDGE?

Where is my LIGHTEST LIGHT?

Where is my DARKEST DARK?

The answers to these questions will help you to organize your work into something that may not be so overwhelming right from the beginning. Once I have a few of these anchor points, I no longer feel lost and I can start my work with some confidence. I no longer feel that my subject has me lost and I feel I can begin with a clear path in mind. All work should begin with some sort of plan.

I encourage my students to ask the same four questions before they lay one stroke on their canvas, and then again as the painting develops. Knowing the answers to these questions is a definite step towards achieving a balanced painting, and avoid running out of values before we're done. Maybe, just maybe, then we'll someday be able to paint like Clayton.

Above image is a detail Clayton sent me of a recent painting demo.