Here is my level 1 assignment. And it sure was a challenge. Using the markers in this excercis was alot Harper than i first thought. It was also a bit different to use them on sketchpaper also when the paper can not handel so much ink. I wash ended it up with a bit too dark light side and a a large middle that would be the same gray. iI used a black Brushpen to push the black darker. First value scale with markers was with my cold Gray markers and the second with my ice grey markers. On the last one i also used a white colored pencil to push the light side brighter. I will test level 2 for this later. But this was allready challenging how will it be to not see the other shades . Super difficult. Edit. I see it was some difficulty to take photo of the pencil row due to its shinyness that reflexs the light and effects the values. I will try tomorrow in daylight.

I took my turn at playing around with drawing—just making things up and taking some time to mess around in a childlike way. I hope it’s okay to post it here!

I combined several warm-up exercises and found that setting a clear goal alongside a brief definition of the skill I want to learn helps provide self-feedback and a clear target to aim for.thanks Stan

I tried to create a scale now that I have two extra pencils and I have some new learnings! I created two scales. Top one with 3 pencils (4B, 2B and HB) and a bottom scale with 5 pencils (4B, 2B, HB, 2H and 4H) It's really hard to get the value gradient smooth for 9 values. The pencils are different in hardness, but they have huge value overlaps. Meaning the lightest tone of 4B can still be lighter than normal pressure 2B. So to create the scale I had to apply a lot more pressure on the pencils in the darker end of the scale to push them further out. And at the same time use minimal pressure on the pencils in the lighter side of the scale to push them away in that direction. Only then was there enough "breathing room" in the center of the scale for the middle tone pencils. My previous presumption was that light pressure on 4B would still be darker than normal pressure 2B, but this is not the case. A lot of overlap in value ranges. What does it mean for me? I can't rely on my muscle memory of pressure and switching pencils if I am going to use 10 values. I will have to judge this by vision. Or I will have to just get more pencils and broaden the range of values I have available.

Wohoo I’ve been longing for the values lessons

After completing the official assignment, I decided to tackle another portrait because I really wanted to understand this concept of shape simplification way more. I did not do this in 1 sitting. It took me a couple of days because I tried to do it digitally first, but I wasn’t happy with the progress. I decided to do it traditionally because the feeling of pencil on paper is just unbeatable. There a lot of things I would change and I still wanted to do to this, but I’m training myself to stop working on a drawing endlessly. I feel I could’ve pushed the values even more. There is a ton I still need to learn, and this assignment is really challenging! But I kinda feel I can move on to the next lesson…. (?) I doubt myself a lot so I’m working on that as well…. So, jumping to the next lesson isn’t easy 😮‍💨

I used some disney characters for the different proportions task. Reconstructing the twisted pose of N°18 from a different angle made my head hurt. It reminded me of the "double vision" assignments that Walt Stanchfield gave to his students, where he made them draw from life reference but draw the pose as some cartoon character. It is hard but a lot of fun. https://thinkinganimation.com/Handouts/WaltStanchfield/18ws_double_vision.pdf

Notifications works again 🥳

Information for Ipad users. You can move the light in the 3D models by using 3 fingers.

Haha I’ve just watched some seconds and it feels like Marshall- The musical 😄