[Thomas Nash]

Michele, I think your'e right, They do all seem to be made with damar. One reason I resist spraying is that unless you do the entire surface you are creating an arbitrary pattern of spray on your painting that has more to do with the nozzle of the spray can than your composition. Sometimes I try to shape or mask where the spray goes by holding a card nearby.

Bobbi,
I know I talked about how some halftones. seem to "want" to be part of the shadow group. I can explain that further, but I'm not exactly sure about the specific part of the painting you refer to and where it would be classified; at least not at this time of night!.

As you know there are all kinds of half tones from the lightest to the darkest ones. Many artists will group the "dark half tones", with the "shadow group" (shadow, reflected light in shadow and dark accents) because even though they clearly are "part of the light" by virtue of the fact that the light does in fact strike them, if only a glancing blow, they are so dark and so close to appearing to be a part of the shadow, that they prefer to think of them that way for "modeling form".

Reflected light , just like the main light, comes in two main types, spectral --the more focused and specific, and ambient- the more scattered, defused. An example of the first would be the light that bounces off of something close by like the light from a shirt bouncing up under the chin or the nose. I would also include something like a wall that is very close to the model which bounces light back into the side of the face. The light bouncing off of a cheek, up into the eye socket also falls into this spectral category. The reflected light off of more distant walls or the blue of the entire sky on a sunny day are examples of more ambient, less focused reflected light, or "a secondary light source" is how some artists prefer to think about them.

We recognize reflected light more clearly when it illuminates shadows and it is even more obvious when it's color is very different from the color of the main light. That does not mean that it is not also hitting the form that is in the light,. The geometry of the situation often means that the spectral reflected light, the closer more focused type, is not going to be as likely to spill over into the light areas. It generally is coming back towards the form in a direction directly opposite the angle of the main light and therefore shines into shadows mostly or at least is more APPARENT there. On the other hand, a big diffuse, ambient reflected light, like the studio walls or the blue of the sky is free to go all over the place and is more likely to hit anywhere the main light also hits. It usually is not apparent because the stronger main light overwhelms it. It is in the dark half tones that this "secondary light source" has the best opportunity to have a visual impact on part of the form that is already "in the light".

So if you are trying to "figure out" what the light is doing, (something I think is useful), you can look around and see what the colors of the general area are and any other information that can help you understand what colors can be "coming at" your model. I should emphasize right here that this in no way stops you from simply looking and trying to paint the colors you see. As you know from the Academy, I recommend doing both so that the one can reinforce the other.

In the end the proof is in the pudding and regardless of what you figure out or what you think you see on the subject, it has to work as a painting or else you change it!!! ....and that's one more reason they call it "an art"!!!