Good Values

[Ari]

Greetings All,

This may sound strange, but I have a tendency to not bring my drawings to an adequate range of values. generally my drawings don't really pop. Part of it is not wanting to outright ruin a tight line drawing by applying a very dark value to the wrong area. So, I tend to sneak up on my values starting very light then going darker and darker very slowly. The problem is that I stop prematurely. this happens for two reasons. I get bored of the tedium of rendering (particularly with Prismacolor pencils) and want to move on, or the values look good to me until I put my drawings on the wall and compare them to other more punchy drawings. Any input?

- Ari

[gekitsu]

try the simple magic of B.B.:

BE BOLD!

buy yourself a 5b pencil and make your forms with that. details can be done with harder leads if you like. but major shadows do with the 5b. and don't just tap it softly over your paper... use pressure!
if you make a mistake... hide it in the shadows. if it's too evident, do it again.

or, you could try actively forcing the eye towards the center of focus by using the brightest whites and deepest shadows in that point.

just invent something that forces you to put down some harsh dark shapes and work around it.

who told you you have to be careful? who told you everything has to be filled with detail?
just be bold. :)

[KChen]

Hi Ari,

Good to see you here. Hope you had a good semster break :)

As for vaules, I have a few notes that helpsd me out when I work on an illustration:

- Do some small value comps.

Work small and see how your image would read from far away. It will give you a preview of the finish rendering. Keep your values simple at this stage, limit yourself to 3 or 4 values only. This will help you key your values for the final piece.


- Design your shapes.

If you are loosing your details from your rendering of values, you probably have bad shadow shapes design or bad lighting of your image. Try to design the value shapes so it helps lead your eyes to or frame the details or wrap around the form. Use the contrast of big versus small shapes, dark versus light, simple versus complex, straight versus curve to help you bring out your details or focus. It's more important for your image to read well and look detailed from far away, to give a impression of detail.

If you need a very detailed schemetic drawing then light it flat. If you need a form drawing, light it 3/4. If you need it for storytelling and mood, light it to tell the mood and the time of the day. Form would not be as crucial for the story image.


Hope this will help. If you want, feel free to bring your work by on Sat. I am at Art Center in room 103 from 8am ~ 1pm every week.

Good luck with your projects :)

[Ari]

Gekitsu and Kevin,

Thank you for the feedback.Much appreciateed!

- Ari

[KChen]

Hi Ari,

Here are some notes on organizing values & small comps. When I get more time I'll post some info on shadow shape design :)

http://www.imagewiz.net/images/kchen/91120_Value_small.jpg

Try doing some value studies from different artist you like. See how they organize their value scale, proportion, to help direct your eye or establish mood.

The Big Shape, Mid Shape, Small Shape value composition can often be found in Goya or Rembrant's paintings. It's just a way to establish contrast. It also can be used for line length, shape size, value distribution, amount of details, color, edge, and etc. Basicly any type of contrast.

Hope this will help.

K

[Jaku]

wow! thanks for that info!!!!:D

[KChen]

Hi Ari,

Here is an old reply post I did a while back on using contrasting space (Large shape, Mid shape, Small shape) to create some breathing room for your details. Hope this will clear some ideas up for graphic shape composition.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=447 (http://)