Value Adjustment

Last week I had a chance to sketch in California with sketcher friends Suhita Shirodkar and Laurie Wigham.  We all met up at the Stanford University Campus and sketched the Memorial church.

I was sitting in front of  an arcade looking towards the church.  The structure of the arcade was in shade and the church facade was also on the shade side but brighter than the arcade.  In real life we can see with clarity and much more brightness things that are in shade.  However when you take a photo of that same image the areas of shade appear darker.  And to create depth in a picture you also have to adjust or exaggerate values. 

Here are the two images of the view I sketched the first was painted on site using the values of the arcade as I saw it from where I was sitting.  The blue sky seems to have the same value as the arcade and everything looks flat. What is separating the shapes is not value as much as color.

This second scan was after I added another layer of color to the arcade.  This created more depth and makes the church and the sky appear brighter and in the sun.