How to See Values Correctly

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Course In Progress

How to See Values Correctly

63K
Mark as Completed
Course In Progress
Stan Prokopenko
You can't always trust your eyes when drawing values. I'll show you techniques to see accurate value relationships when shading light and shadow.
Newest
Josh Fiddler
I'm super myopic and take my glasses off when squinting gets annoying. For TAKING reference that has the same effect of reducing details, using a smartphone camera, set the focus lock on something close by. First take a few shots of the subject or scene normally. Then, I put my hand in front of the lens and set the lock. Then I take a few shots of the subject with the lock on, trying to keep the same POV. You end up with a set of references that include both the full detail and the simplified shapes and values. You do loose edges if the subject is really far away.
Patrick Hynes
Here’s a glasses trick that works for me: if you use bifocals, stand about 2-3 feet from the reference and look at it through the bottom (near vision) part of the lens. That gives me a nice blur effect. It helps to reduce the image size a bit if you’re using a screen.
ANX804U
28d
nooooooo..... another week wait for next video... sad life.... Wanted to ask like a major question, how do you see primary values or primary shapes when the subject is too complex, like nature and scenaries. like in a forest of 1000 trees and million leaves, where every tree is overlapping each other, every leaf is overlapping each other, every leaf has its own cast shadow on next leaf, how to even start putting any lines or shapes at that point. When you are drawing from reality that far tree really looks far and have a detail like its next close to you, if you dont measure, your lines start curving and if you measure it takes you 5 hours minimum just to lay in lines. Any help would be appreciated. BTW, i have learned so much again from this video, thanks.
Stan Prokopenko
When drawing trees with millions of leaves, you draw the form that they create together, not individual leaves. It's like drawing hair. You don't draw individual strands, you draw the major form and then indicate a few key areas of texture and it looks like hair. How to remove the distraction of individual leaves and see the major masses? SQUINT!
@chickenbutter79
Mind blowing to me lol.
Juice
28d
It is hard to squint and get a good blur. But someone here said that if you use glasses, take them off for blur. And that works very good! 👍
Dennis Yeary
can I do the same thing in procreate program?
Zeev
28d
Hi Dennis, are you asking about the Digital Squint part of the video? Kinda, Stan advice is to use the "median filter" on photoshop because is better than Blur tools, but in Procreate you just have the blur tools. You still can use gaussian blur on Procreate, just median filter is better. But that said, maybe there is some program for iPad where you can apply something more similar to median to a picture. If you are questioning about the aspect of the values relationship/Illusion it's more about the way we perceive values, so will happen on any media.
Larry
29d
This very subject of relating values never stops amazing me. Will have to keep my eyes open...and occasionally squinted. 🙂 Nicely explained Stan.
Stan Prokopenko
André Machado
This course has been so great and made me realise how lacking I was in the most simple aspects of drawing. I can usually distinguish values when it's a black and white photo reference but colors make it also a bit more hard for me. Hope you will make another course on color some day...
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About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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