Articles

Value Study

Select 2 photographs of your choice to draw.  Select something simple and sketch them about the size of an iPhone.  The emphasis of this exercise is to draw the shadow and light areas resulting in 3 values:  white, mid-value gray, and black.  Do not focus on any details, just the variation of light. 

1. SQUINT – when you squint, colors and details are minimized so that all you see are the values that stand out as white, gray, and black. 
2. SKETCH PICTURE – using a pencil, lightly sketch the picture you selected.  Occasionally squint while sketching so that you focus on the light and dark areas.  Do not get caught up the details
3. SKETCH GRAY TONES – lay in a mid-value gray over the shadow areas as seen in the following example (remember to squint, do not focus on detail).
4. SKETCH DARK TONES – add in the dark values, example below (remember to squint).

                         GRAY TONES                                                                     DARK TONES

Artist Spotlight:  Mitchell Albala

1. Go to his web page:  https://mitchalbala.com/
2. Select “BLOG”; scroll down till you see “CATEGORIES” on right side; select “NOTAN”
3. Scroll down to the last article, select and read “Painting Exercises: Limited Focus, Shape, Color and Notan in Studio Landscape”. 

Extra Instruction

1. Massing:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3spS68yB_A
2. Values:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPu1Up3xy9M