Clever little help
 

Well, I will be brave and post a quite unflattering a photo of myself with my new little gadget.
IT WORKS: you put it on and look at your subject and at your painting.
Like magic, the tones are suddenly clear, all the drawing mistakes appear evident, it is really a fantastic little trick.
I had it on Thursday at my open studio class, and the next day we must have been all ridiculous to our model Sandra, looking at her through our red goggles!

Hi Ilaria,

Thanks for your tip. You look mahhvelous! Where does one find this Selectatone spectacle? Is it basically a red filter that eliminates the perception and distraction of colors? Is this something we can make ourselves with some red acetate?

Garth

Ilaria,

Personally I like the look - It says "I am a serious artist! Dont' mess with me!" I would like to try it with my serious artist shoes.

I think I once pulled one of those red goggle things out my daughter's Happy Meals when she was little.

They can actually help you to see values (the goggles not the shoes).

PS yes red acetate will work fine.

Garth, thank you dahhling, I did not want to encourage piracy, but since they are not on sale in USA... I think red acetate will easily do it.
You might as well stick it to kids 3D glasses.

Chris, really those shoes are unbeatable, come on, show us how you look in them...
I want to find red lenses sunglasses, and use them when I go and see clients, looking like an eccentric !


Ilaria

Ilaria, I quite like how you look in the red glasses. I'll bet that's a classic Ilaric expression.

Chris, do you mean to say you actually own a pair of those shoes?

Actually, I have two pair- one is a sandal but not as comfortable as the tennis shoe style. I might go far a new pair this summer, depends on whether the fashion bug bites me - although those Oscar gowms were an inspiration, I have to admit.

Wow!!
How many miles per jump?
Nice legs

Ilaria

Alex...it is.
I.

Seeing red works!
 

Hey Ilaria,

You are so influential! I found an old sheet of red acetate and took it into my portrait class this morning. It's a clever little help, and it became easier to explain the value hierarchy on the model and within the student's paintings. Even I had to correct my demo after seeing red.

Thank you!

Garth :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I wouldn't have endorsed it if it didn't do, I have high moral values
( just bought shares of red acetate factory)
Glad to share, this is the whole point of the forum, no?
Ilaria

I have the shoes (thanks to Chris for sharing them) and the red stuff! I wear both at school. (The shoes more than the red filter.) I can't count the times I've been asked to jump! You can find red filters at quilting stores. I don't remember the name but if you're interested I'll look and post it.

Hi Debra,

I am curious: why are red filters used by quilters? Is it to better see the patterns?

Garth

I usually use my mirror but from what you say this could be a better thing. Do you think cheap red glasses would work as well? Have you tried yet?

By the way I'm so exited for you.

Ruby Beholder
 

Garth, quilters use the red viewer called the Ruby Beholder for the same reason: VALUES. Quilts can be paintings in fabric. This neat, little gadget also has a 1 1/2 inch square cut out at the end of it for cutting squares of fabric to create watercolor quilts. This same square could be used to frame the composition in painting.

Neat shoes and very cute tattoo, Dorothy. (Such a wild child.) All you have to do now is click those heels together and they'll take you wherever you want to go.

Cool shoes! Now, what exactly do they do, other than add a view inches? I have a pair of red glasses that make me look rather groovy, according to my family, but they do work.

I sometimes think if Leonardo could see us today with all these gadget! I bet he would have a good laugh! I think it' time for a newly revised edition of the craftman's handbook. ;)

Enzie, I think old Leo would have been an enthusiastic tryer, he was a bit of a gadget freak!
Ilaria

Hi, sorry it took a while to get back to you about the shoes, Enzie. The springs take a lot of the pressure off your feet and legs. They've been a real life saver for me. I stand at an easel all day and sometimes half the night and my feet had gotten so bad I ended up with plantar faciitis my second year of school, and was wondering if I was going to be able to make it through the four years. My poor feet have wonderfully greatly improved since getting the shoes! Friends who have them tell me that they help with back problems too. But it was kind of weird getting used to them. The first time I wore mine I was working in the kitchen and shifted my weight from one leg to the other and caused the spring to compress - my first thought was EARTHQUAKE! (I've been through a few of those.) They're pretty good for starting conversations at the mall too, complete strangers will come up and ask about them. Or just point at your feet and look at you like you're crazy.

About red filters, mine is called Color Evaluator II, and comes with green and red. I use both, but mostly the red. These don't have the hole like the Ruby Beholder. Their website is www.cottagemills.com

Thank you for the insight on the shoes, it is good to hear that they have helped you considerably and that they can alleviate back pain as well.

I was curious too.
This can

Yes Allan, there is a problem with red looking lighter, but overall
it does help a lot with reading tones.
Ilaria

Ilaria,
If it is pure colors it will be much lighter.
Allan

This is interesting and all, but the real burning question is ....
what's the tattoo on Chris' ankle? :D

Heart. Circa 1969. Low-down, run-down biker shop, New Berlin, WI.
I had a lot of nerve in those days.

Allan, the best book, the palette of a master, the most expensive brushes, none of these can make me a perfect painter, but they can help.
Those glasses are deceiving, obviously you can't entirely rely on them.
I found them useful when checking the drawing, as by eliminating colour distraction they make it easy for me to see drawing mistakes.
I have checked them out by looking at pastels on the first day I got them, and they distort tones as much as a photo can distort perspective. Still we all use photo references and correct perspective with our own experience!
But anyway, I found your researches on colour and light relationship very interesting. Did you manage to start painting again? You sound as you are spending a lot of time thinking!
:sunnysmil
Ilaria

Ilaria,
please don

Oops, Allan, rereading my posts I sound like Mrs Red Glasses !

I use the "red glasses" mostly for checking my lights on figure drawings or paintings. I look through the lens and note which areas stand out as the lightest on the model and then I check to see if those areas are standing out as lightest in my work. It's different than using a black mirror - which is safe to use for checking value, unlike the red lenses.

I also use a reducing lens to check drawing; it looks like your typical Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass. You hold it next to your drawing so that you can see your model through it. It kind of compresses or shrinks the model to make it the same size as your paper. And you glance back and forth between the two to check drawing, value, and color. I'm not sure I'm explaining this well, I hope it makes sense. Just a note, if you hold it at an angle to the model it will distort.

One of my fellow students swears by paper towel tubes! She says they really help you focus in and define an area. I haven't tried that one yet, I probably will sometime when I'm desperate.

Something to try in lieu of red glass is a black mirror. It has the same effect of making the values easier to see while eliminating color distraction. The color red gets equal treatment with the black mirror so you don't have to compensate for it as with red glass. The added bonus is that since you are looking though a mirror you get a fresh look at your composition etc.

Mary

This reminds of me a tip that was given to me many years ago.

I was told to keep a pair of sunglasses always handy with my paintings and alternate painting with them on/off. This helps see the values also.

(I hope that wasn't mentioned earlier in the thread, I only had a chance to skim the responses!)