Proko - Need help and guidance about Marshall's composition exercise (mentionned in Draftsmen S2 ep15)

Need help and guidance about Marshall's composition exercise (mentionned in Draftsmen S2 ep15)

Hello!   I have been doing the Marshall's composition exercise (mentioned in Draftsmen S2 ep15) which is about making small thumbnail studies of masters.  These two pages are in A4 format, so I think I’m working with the good size, though I still have some questions that could change a lot how I think when I’m doing these studies: First, is my level of detail ok? I don’t really know if I’m simplifying too much or not enough?   Second, (and this is illustrated with the Mucha work), I don’t know how much I can modify value.  Is the purpose of the exercise to divide the picture into full black and full white (and maybe ignoring the « luminosity » aspect to better separate the different parts (exemple 1 of Mucha) where the face is shown in white and the circle black when the background is in reality lighter) Or is the purpose to strictly divide into two values, respecting the way values are organized (exemple 2 of Mucha) (I want to mainly show the face, therefore the circle in the background is white, the face is black and so on.)   Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, I hope what I said is understandable!  I would be glad to read any other comments/advice about this exercise, thank you for taking the time to read this. Have a great day!

Patrick Bosworth

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17h

These are lookin really good! The whole point of a thumbnail is for you to work through compositional iterations quickly. There's no right or wrong way, or too much or not enough detail if it helps you develop your image. These have a good balance of readability, and simplification, so I think these are great examples of thumbnails! A great way to play around with this idea is to use the value tool here on Proko. You can set the values to 2 steps, and drop the simplicity to get a quick glance at the major shape relationships. Give it a shot! Here are a few free episodes from Basics that cover thumbnails and value comps. https://www.proko.com/values https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/how-to-see-values-correctly https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/project-notan-master-thumbnails https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/gradient-map-trick-to-improve-your-values https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/how-to-organize-values-composition https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/project-value-composition-thumbnails

@sansame

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Thank you very much for your thorough answer and recommandations! I'm gonna watch the videos and use the value tool to check my value studies! Thanks again!