Painting a Dynamic Domestic Scene with Strong Color Harmonies and Strong Value Contrast

Take a photo from a typical weekend morning at your house or find an old photo from weekend mornings from your past. It could be the Sunday morning household mess, a picnic in the park, brunch at your regular place. We'll take one of those everyday moments and liven it up with a bold palette and strong lighting. This video also looks at the work of some great contemporary painters like and Aliza Nisenbaum and Andrew Cranston who give us a look into the private lives and domestic moments of other people in paintings that are steeped in interesting palettes and strong lighting. Step one: Do 3 or 4 pencil thumbnails to map out the values and an interesting perspective for your painting. Step two: Use your color wheel to find an interesting color harmony. I used analogous colors in the first painting (red-violet, red, red-orange, orange and yellow) and a split-complementary palette (red-orange, blue and green) in the second. This will help your painting escape the everyday, expected, traditional world. Step three: Lean into capturing the light coming into your scene. Look at where light is hitting places in your space and where shadows are providing contrast. Step four: Is there a way to exaggerate or stress pattern or rhythm in your image? Do it!