VALUE How do I stay away from middle values in my painting?

There is a natural tendency to paint more and more middle values as you work on a painting. Becoming tired, and not getting far enough back from a painting, sometimes leads to creating a middle value painting. If you would like a trick to snap yourself out of the mid-value blues, paint a true patch of absolute white and black temporarily in your work. Doing this will help you see how far away from white your light values actually are. The same goes for the small patch of pure black. Both will help remind you to have a full range of values in your art…especially in the beginning phase of your art making.