Teaching about value (bright or darkness of a color), is probably one of my favorite lessons to teach because it is one of the most iomportant fundamentals in art. Knowing about value, value change, and how light sources and time of day affect value, an artist will be able to make something structurally 3D, or appear to be. Value also gives comprehension to form or composition, and can also have implied symbolism. I didn't introduce perspective, as it was mostly a lesson on how to make tints and shades from one color, and where to paint them in relation to a light source, and what the exterior environment is like (day, night, foggy, rainy, sunny, etc.)
We used one of Georgia O'Keeffe's more industrial style prints, "Radial Building" from 1927 for inspiration. Okeeffe's work is widely appreciated for her luscious, smooth, blended values in her paintings, and this was a good spin.
In her example, her light source was behind the center building. I had the students make a mental note that for this project, our eyes are the the moon. Our eyes are like headlights, shining right at the face of a city. Next, I briefly explained how color is affected by this light source AND with depth; color ceases with depth. At night = color ceases into darker shades. Daytime = color ceases into tints.
We added some windows and these came out really great!
