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added comment inProject - Designing Value Groups
Asked for help
I had the pear exercise on the brain so I went into this trying to simplify and design the shapes with a limited value range. Great project!
Thieum
8h
Great job! And very interesting to see the steps. Very nice result! Well structured and readable, even seen from a distance or at a small size

Jyayasi (*Jay-o-she*)
15h
Great shapes here, Melanie! I, too, was thinking about the pear and portrait exercise from our first lesson while doing this. Also, for the lay-in, the measuring proportions in the shape section helped.
Asked for help
Is there a reason that looking up is less intuitive than other angles? I did a couple rooms and tried to experiment with some basic skull constructions. It helps to draw through but I need to slow down as well.
Ry B
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2d
Asked for help
Anyone else really struggling? I don't know when to make my lines lighter or darker
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2d
It's a process of narrowing down from general to specific, and light to dark. If I would approach this drawing, I would start with a very very light and general "envelope" that maps out the general proportions. You can see I made the shell a bit too tall in my first sketch, so when I moved on to the next step in making things more specific, I adjusted it. I didn't need to erase anything because the envelope is so light it will fade to the back when I place my final lines.
Hope that helps :)
Mon Barker
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2d
Asked for help
Level 1 attempt. Workflow was lay-in, then thumbnails then could not decide between bottom two thumbnails so did lighter one then converted it to darker one, which ended up being better. Played around with shading a sphere methodology for the end of the nose - mainly to indicate reflected light on underside of nose. Thought I’d then keep working it to level 2 but realised this is not possible - once you get the 5 tones down in these big connected shapes you can’t grade between forms without a ton of erasing. Lesson learned. I’m still a bit puzzled how you’d go from the big shape basic tones to lots of smaller forms with more tones without losing the connectedness. Guess there is a lot of forward planning needed as you work…kudos to those that did this!
Tommy Pinedo
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4d
Asked for help
Here is my level 2 attempts on the thumbnail value study assignment. I am not sure if my thumbnail is too small for these type of studies.
took notes from the critique video and it helped. Feedback is always welcomed! 🙂
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4d
Thumbnails should be on the smaller side. You don't want to spend too much time on them because they are so preliminary and just meant to plan out the composition -- and like you said, you can try multiple different solutions in a short amount of time. Work large enough where you aren't struggling to design your shapes :) Nicely done with these!
@collinp
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5d
Made 3 attempts and wanted to share with the community. I’m a tattoo artist in training that specializes in black and gray realism so, values are extremely important to my craft.
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5d
Imagining the pear as a low-poly 3D model with a wireframe really helps me visualize the planes. The value is determined by the degree of the angle that each plane is facing the light source. Some the planes in that lighter value area are turned a bit more away from the light source so they could be represented by a different value to break up the large shape in the 2nd and 3rd drawings.
Keeping similar values grouped can help you describe the form clearly as well. Try to limit the lighter values in the darker value side to keep your values organized.
Asked for help
It is so much harder without exact references.
@ason
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5d
Asked for help
The one on the left is the drawing I did before the demo, and the one on the right is one I did after the demo, my wrist is hurting after doing them both. :)
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5d
Nice, your shapes are more thoughtfully designed in the second drawing. Great improvement!
Try to put less emphasis on your wrist when you're drawing and move the articulation up to your elbow. It might take some practice but it'll save your wrists and keep you loose and gestural with your drawing.
Styrbjörn Andersson
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5d
Asked for help
I was browsing the web in preparation for the master study assignment, and came across the awesome Toh-Yasu. In restrospect I might have been better off picking something that required less measuring, to allow more time for rendering. I tried to limit the time spent, but ended up around the 2-3 hour mark still. Also, I took this opportunity to do an experiment with shading a paper using coffee, which was surprisingly fun to do. Hence the darker paper. Oh, and another think I might do differently next time trying something like this is to draw larger. Failing to utilize the entire page made it hard to measure and get the details right.
Tofu
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7d
Asked for help
I'm really struggling with this assignment because I'm not sure if i'm understanding this right.
I don't understand if i'm to look at the light source and based on that, determine which parts are lighter? I don't know how to look at which values are lighter when there are so many different colours...how do i compare and see the values then?
Would really appreciate any help or advice!
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6d
If you haven’t checked out the value tool yet give it a shot! It acts like the posterize tool in photoshop and flattens the values based on the threshold you define. You can find it here: https://www.proko.com/values
It might also help to run a black and white filter on the image. You don’t need to worry about the hue or chroma of the colors; just focus on the value. It will take some exploration to develop your eye to see this way. You can color pick different areas of the painting with the black and white filter applied and compare them to each other to see how they relate. That’s what you’re looking for in this assignment: how can you group similar values into shapes in interesting and aesthetic ways that support the narrative.
It looks like you’re on the right track. My critique would be that there’s too many shapes with the lightest value outside of the big shape of the window. To reduce those shapes you would need to darken the value of some of the surrounding shapes as well.