Methods and Systems

In "Side Street in Rome" I approached the painting with a design that conveyed a sense of light and shadow. The sense of contrast is kept fairly subtle, the painting stays predominately in a middle value range. I massed in the large pattern first to establish the design and to remind myself to stay within a set value range for the lights and another for the areas of the image that were in shadow and indirect light.
I tend to mix on my palette with value in mind. The middle of my palette will have the puddles of color that are in the mid value range, the darks are mixed to the left and the lights to the right. The value puddles mimic the arrangement of colors on my palette. My palette is arranged from warm to cool from right to left and my white is on the right hand side, I'm right handed and the placement of white on the right makes sense to me. After years of working this way it has become second nature.
To get my point across when teaching students about value I compare light and shadow to Mafia families, the lights are the Colombos and the shadows are the Gambinos, if everybody stays where they belong in the picture nobody has to get rubbed out. So if you are painting an area in your image that is part of the shadow, not being lit directly, you load your brush from the middle and dark puddles on your palette.
I don't premix a range of values and colors, I can see it is a helpful method and it does help yield consistent results and the consistency is part of what I don't like about paintings of the premixed palette approach. There tend to be the same color and value choices regardless of the image being depicted and often times the darks never seem rich enough.
There is also a tendency to use the premixed color because the value corresponds to what is seen even if the color doesn't. There is a lot to be learned from various methods and systems and control is a great asset, until it controls an artist's willingness to take chances and respond to what a particular painting calls for. Method and system driven art tend to be safe choices offering few surprises along the way, there's a bit of a guaranteed look. There are key principles in approaching a painting or drawing, training and developing a reliable set of skills and working knowledge is crucial, just don't let the technical aspect of creating hamper your range of choices.
A work of art is the trace of a magnificent struggle. (Robert Henri)

Contrasting Textures while Maintaining Unity

In "Window Watchers, Siena" I was drawn to the aged facade of the building and the gestures of the figures in the window.
In building the painting I focused on laying the paint on and creating a surface quality that conveyed the tactile quality of the various elements. The brick, shutters, window frame, drapes and figures all vary in paint application while maintaining unity.
In terms of color scheme I played the blue grays off the orange-reds of the brick. I also limited the highest contrast to the figures, the focal point of the painting. The strong dark triangle created by the space between the drapes behind the figures anchor the focal point and draw the eye in.

Paintings Of Italy

Painting outdoors is the key to creating better paintings in the studio. Working outdoors under changing light conditions forces you to edit and develop color handling that is informed by light filtered by the atmosphere. While work created on the spot can be frustrating and yield results that you may not be satisfied with, the knowledge attained through both the successful paintings and the canvases you scrape off at the end of the session becomes a valuable resource.

The paintings I'm posting were created in the studio but the handling has been taken to a level of resolve somewhere between the plein air work and some of my more rendered studio pieces.

I create images a number of different ways, I tailor the handling to the subject, sometimes the work can be painterly, other times tighter and a bit more hard edged.

Visual art can be alot like music, if a musician or a group played each song the same way, incorporating the same instruments and musical notes, their song list would be pretty limited and if an artist approaches each image with the same set of visual marks each time that artist's body of work will have the same kind of monotony visually.