Black and White: Friday Photograghs

Posted bydebirileyPosted inart, inspiration, painting, photographyTags:, , , ,
friday photgraph black and white, debiriley.com

Objects of Nature, plants and trees are an endless source of creative inspiration!  Drawing, printing, doodling, painting – Nature is the ‘go to’ gal. Sure, I have stacks of books, magazines, google, pinterest… but,  truly when MY eyes look upon even a cloud, a flower or a piece of bark, that becomes an endless world for me to explore.

friday photgraph black and white, debiriley.com
Succulent B/W

Low Key  – Tonal Values

The B/W succulent photograph in vertical format, a dark Low Key image, created a transcendence in which the plant seems to become something other, and mysterious.

Black and White photos are a great way to make sure you get enough light, white, mid tone, greys, darks, black tones in your photographs.  And,  by referring to these, it helps you in your paintings, doodles, printing, collages, pastels, etc. as well.  Because you can see the tonal values clearly.

 

The lovely close up of the magnolia,  from our garden,  not The Neighbor’s –  has soft delicate petals that curve gracefully. And,  they smell divine.

monochrome black and white photograph magnolia, debiriley.com
Magnolia Monochrome

Negative Spaces are Shapes

The cropped branches of a pewter tree against the black background lets us see all the beautiful negative shapes and spaces in between that create such intricate patterns to hold our eye.   Each of my images,  have negative spaces, but this one is the most obvious.

 

black and white photo, branches, photo, debiriley.com
Branches

 

Temperature

By choosing black and white, I chose to ‘cool’ down the overall image.

Going with color would warm it up. I wanted to provide a sense of relief from the heat.

At 43.6 c in the patio shade for a couple days running, any cool relief would be lovely.

 

 

 

Inspiration

Just these 3 objects,   can provide 100’s of creative paintings, drawings, collages, prints, doodles, photographic digital art.

Amazing, isn’t it!

 

 

Published by debiriley

The act of creation, in any media is a fascinating and magical process. I simply love to create. Expressing in color, line, tone, texture - as if, they were words upon a page. Creating a uniquely me, interpretation. Enjoy More of my "one-of-a-kind" expressive art at society6.com/debiriley and, redbubble.com/people/debijriley/shop

47 thoughts on “Black and White: Friday Photograghs”

  2. G’morning, Debi.

    I paint with a friend of mine every week. She asked me to teach her, which I think is impossible, so I give her tips & hints for her to practice. We were talking about “tonal values” only the other day, so I passed your post onto her – perfect timing!!

    Atsuko xxx

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    1. Good Morning! thank you, and double thank you! rec’d the Olsen info and Loved it… as you knew I would! lol You will be an Excellent teacher Atsuko, I’ve no doubt in my mind at all. She’ll be lucky to get wonderful tips from you! 🙂 enjoy a lovely weekend, Debi

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  4. It is amazing! Beautiful images, Debi! 🙂 This is how I learned to paint in watercolor – we couldn’t use any color but Payne’s Gray for 6 months. It was painful not to use color but it really helped me to see value. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂

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      1. It just crossed my mind that I have never made an all black and white illustration…maybe I should 🙂
        Color is my driver as well when it comes to illustrate, time for a change and a good challenge 😉

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    1. thank you Cynthia 🙂 I really wanted to push that abstraction feeling as far as I could with two images and leave the flower fairly intact and tangible.

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    1. thank you so much! the magnolia is definitely a … tangible image, with less soft abstraction to it. I’ve always adored the scent, so I’ve planted it just outside our bedroom. lol

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  14. Neat Black and white photographs today Debi!.. Excellent teaching series — !!.. Interesting to me that just yesterday, in an attempt to attain balance , I found myself snapping pictures of the trees and snow outside in black and white !!.. Loved those few moments of thrill, chill, and then warm glow inside!. I felt I had captured some Beauty😊!! This is so timely for the artist in me!!.I called them ” Canadiana winter” .. Step# 1 – Take the Picture Joanne !!..now, be Confident!!..the brush will follow… Cheers Debi !!

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    1. Joanne, this is great! honestly, as a painter I found tone/depth the hardest challenge. color = easy. then, B/w and monochromes made me see, and it all got easier. I’m GLAD you are enjoying the post and the idea of translating b/w into tones, then… to color magic! 🙂

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      3. Did you ever try agave syrup instead of sugar? Don’t you have a lot of camels in Oz? I just saw in tv yesterday how healthy this milk is, maybe also for you?

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      8. I put it in here now:
        Here is No. 1 for rose jelly

        20 rose blossoms

        1 kg jam sugar

        750 ml white wine

        Don’t forget to cut off the white receptacle (the white verge of the blossom) because they contain bittern

        Pour 750 ml white wine in a pot that’s big enough

        Add the cleaned rose petals. Heat up the wine together with the petals shortly before the boiling point.

        Take the pot from the stove and let the wine and the petals cool down a little for 15 minutes

        Pour the petals into a sieve and leave the fluid in the pot. Add 1 kg of jam sugar. Heat the fluid again and let it boil bubbling for 5 minutes.
        Then you can pour the warm rose jelly into glasses. Keep the jelly in a cool and dry place

        and No. 2 for rose jam

        100 g fresh rose blossoms

        240 g jam sugar

        350 ml water

        3 organic lemons

        1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

        The rose blossoms should be very fresh and organic. Remove the calyx of the roses. Mix the blossoms with the sugar and leave it to draw for at least 4 hours.

        Mix the mixture of roses and jam sugar with the immersion blender. Squeeze out the lemons and add the juice together with the vanilla sugar and the water. Cook it up once again and put the marmalade into glasses immediately.

        You could also take white wine instead of water.

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  17. It is amazing! I’m a huge fan of black and white and have made some of my own into brushes for my graphics program. Looking at tonal values has made me a better artist.

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