Black and White 

Black and white printouts with the images enhanced to reduce the number of tones to 3 or 4 lets  you see the mid-tones more easily. 

Colour from Different ‘Black’ Areas 

To pick up pin-spots of colour from different ‘black’ areas of an image use a computer to enlarge  particular areas, this will let you see the temperature of the colours more clearly. This process will clearly show the wide range of ‘black’ – e.g. reddish hues on the side bathed in  afternoon light, greenish hues on the shaded side, and all sorts of tones.

Tone 

Use photographs as a ‘cue card’ to make your own paintings. Remember that the dark areas in  the photograph appear too dark and to lighten them. The same for the light areas which appear  too light – darken them. This makes the painting believable.