A reference card for anyone painting in this language. Everything below was measured on Mark Ferrari's Alpine Tarn at Dusk at its native 634×469 pixels, with the scripts in toolkit/. How each was measured, and how to read it, is in the tutorial. All values are CIE L* (0 black, 100 white). "Squint" means blurred with a Gaussian of σ = 2.5 native pixels.
The file
- 1268×938 PNG, an exact 2× nearest-neighbour upscale: 634×469 native, 172 colours.
- Pure black (0,0,0) is 19% of all pixels.
Composition, share of picture area
| plane |
area |
|
plane |
area |
| sky |
18% |
|
water |
17% |
| framing trees |
16% |
|
right bank (near, in shade) |
13% |
| left bank (near, lit) |
11% |
|
far forest |
9% |
| far banks |
7% |
|
left meadow (middle) |
5% |
| mountain |
4% |
|
island |
2% |
Values
- Three-value notan: groups centred at 16 / 42 / 70; cuts at 28.9 and 55.6.
- Balance: 51% dark, 27% middle, 21% light.
- Squint median per plane (5–95% range):
| plane |
median |
range |
| sky |
71 |
45–75, the low end only at tree edges |
| mountain |
48 |
17–72, the only plane spanning all three groups |
| far forest |
20 |
9–44 |
| framing trees |
16 |
5–40 |
| far banks |
18 |
10–28 |
| island |
28 |
16–52 |
| water |
29 |
14–70 |
| left meadow |
42 |
22–55 |
| left bank |
43 |
28–51 |
| right bank |
14 |
4–22 |
- Nothing is white. The sky runs L* 71–79, and only a few crest pixels pass 80.
Light
- Low sun from the left, slightly behind the scene. Lit faces are warm (b* > 12); shade is violet or dull olive.
- The sky is iso-luminant: flat across the columns (L* 73.5–74.7); from top to horizon, violet (L* 71.5, b* −8.7) to peach (L* 79, b* +21).
- Ground brightens as it recedes: left bank L* 30–45 at the bottom to 53 at its far edge; right bank 5 to 20.
- Hummocks and the island: brightest just under the crest (island L* 52), dark at the base (27).
Reflection
- An exact mirror. The axis is the far shoreline (row 228), with vertical scale 1.00.
- Reflected minus source: lights (L* > 55) −13.1, mids (30–55) −4.5, darks (< 30) +1.2; a* −5.1.
- Reflected sky is about 4 L* darker than the sky.
Edges (rise width, 20→80%)
- Silhouettes against sky: 50% hard (≤ 2 px), median contrast 69 L*.
- Banks and grass interiors: 58–64% soft (> 4.5 px).
- Lost edges, as ΔL* across the boundary: far banks against their reflections 0.3; framing trees against far forest 2.5; mountain against sky 5.
Clusters and dither
| plane |
colours covering 90% |
vertical neighbour same |
mean cluster (px) |
2×2 checker |
vertical stripe |
| left bank (near, lit) |
4 |
0.70 |
6.2 |
4.6% |
33% |
| right bank (near, shade) |
4 |
0.68 |
5.6 |
4.1% |
31% |
| left meadow |
7 |
0.56 |
4.5 |
6.1% |
15% |
| framing trees |
3 |
0.56 |
5.2 |
7.1% |
8% |
| far banks |
9 |
|
3.5 |
12.8% |
5% |
| island |
18 |
|
2.9 |
14.0% |
3% |
| mountain |
15 |
0.42 |
3.3 |
9.6% |
3% |
| sky |
8 |
0.47 |
3.0 |
24.5% |
0.3% |
| water |
69 |
0.33 |
2.3 |
8.4% |
6% |
- Near lit grass recipe: base ochre (196,131,70), L60, 38%; mid-brown stroke (115,92,35), L40, 35%; olive (62,59,23), L24, 11%; black-green gap (10,34,10), L10, 12%.
- Near shaded grass: near-black olive (28,31,4) 31%, black 28%, olive (62,59,23) 23%, grey-olive (66,63,42) 17%.
- Conifers: black 61%, ochre (136,101,50) 22%, dark (46,43,32) 14%.
- Sky: flat bands 6–10 rows tall, joined by 1–3 rows of checker.
Palette
- Two hue families: sun (ochre and orange, b* +15 to +45) and air (violet-pink, b* −15 to +20). The only greens are dark olives (a* < 0).
- Chroma peaks at mid values (L* 40–70) and collapses in the darks.
Depth, near to far
|
near banks |
framing trees |
left meadow |
island |
far banks |
far forest |
mountain |
sky |
| squint L* |
21 |
16 |
42 |
28 |
18 |
20 |
48 |
71 |
| darkest 3% of pixels |
0 |
0 |
10 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
36 |
71 |
| median chroma |
23 |
0 |
28 |
18 |
8 |
8 |
19 |
22 |
| b* |
+22 |
0 |
+27 |
+17 |
+8 |
0 |
−5 |
+1 |
Silhouettes
| contour |
1:1 steps |
2:1 |
flat run of 3–6, then one step |
drop of ≥ 3 |
| mountain crest (left) |
41% |
3% |
53% |
0 |
| mountain right shoulder |
43% |
29% |
5% |
14% |
| conifer line |
18% |
12% |
1% |
46% |
Masses meet water on a dead-flat base with a 1-px darker contact line. Shore stones: flat top and bottom, 45° ends, a light top row over a dark bottom row.