Alex Schaefer starting the Demo

      Alex Schaefer was the demo artists the month of October for the San Fernando Valley Art Club. He is a versatile artist who is at home painting a cityscape or a portrait.

      Alex gave everyone a crash coarse on the importance of values.  He described how to compare the values of different colors. He explained how to divide a color value scale in half and only use the top half for colors in sunlight while the bottom half values are used in the shadows. This relationship of sunlight to shadow can work using any color as long as the comparisons are constant. This is to this, as that is to that. In other words light is to shadow as another light is to it's shadow. Value relations are the key to giving a flat surface dimension. Alex took it further when asked what color he uses for skin, he said he uses every color and that any color can look like skin with the correct value scale.

At the Break Talking with SFVAC Members

      Alex's talk gave many of the members a lot to think about with his explanation of values. He also showed us his palette where he had already premixed his colors with white to create mid-range values. He said that this helped him incorporate more mid-tones into his paintings.

Alex's Palette

       But now it was time to paint. One raffle ticket was drawn at the start of the meeting to determine who would sit to have their portrait painted. Alex started with a charcoal sketch. Using lots of paint he began to work in the colors. Someone gasped when he started the blond hair using a very dark grey but Alex proved his value theory works when the end result was a wonderful portrait for Arlette Manard to take home and enjoy.