Week Four, Values, Lights and Darks

Using a lowly roll of TP, against a white wall, this week we are looking at values


Light and Shadows, and Edges Week 4
Let's review what's we've covered so far, and what skills we will be developing.

Basic Review of Drawing:
1.Observe, slow down your looking, determine light source.
2.What is the basic shape, what are the shapes? What form are you looking at. Do a thumbnail
3.Start with an envelope, block in lines, note correct angles, avoid details, look for big shapes.
4.Begin to map out relationships, scale and measure the whole picture. Take your time to set up correct proportions and work on the block-in seeing contours, negative shapes. Start to block in within the form. Working with line up to this point.
5.Look at values with “a soft eye”slightly unfocused, where are the lights and the darks?
Add cast shadows early. Think in the full range of 1 to 10 values.
6.Cover the whole page. Build up your drawing all over, don't just work on one isolated area at a time. Hold off on those details.
7. Block in dark shapes, just like contour lines. Look for light shapes and dark shapes, Where is the path of light? Keep edges soft, keep shadows even at this point. You will strive for only 2 things at this point, lights and darks. Make adjustments to proportions now, don't proceed until you feel your shapes are correct. Check with your mirror.
8.Look within shadows, Where is the light coming from? Where is light hitting, where do shadows fall?
9.Look for core shadows, reflected light. Where are the cast shadows, where are the form shadows?
10. Look at edges, refine them for accuracy. Note subtle transitions.
11.Stand back from your drawing, and make corrections or addition. Do you need to push your values? Where do you want the viewer to look?

Here is a step by step of the envelope, the block in, refined block in, flat lights/darks, finally developing
shadow shapes, refining edges.











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VALUES.....lights and darks, value scale
Project make a 1 to 10 value scale as a way to talk about values.
I like to do this from time to time or if I get a new tool. Different tools have different value ranges.
An H pencil can not go as dark as a 6B. Let's make a value scale by making 10 boxes side by side and go in steps from white to black. Try one right now. number it 1 to 10, one is white, 10 is black.
This concept of 1 to 10 Values gives us a language to talk about lights and darks. We know a number four value is quite a bit lighter than a number 7 value.




We are now going deeper into observation and drawing by looking at tones or values.
It's easy to mix up color and value. We are going to look at the world as if everything is a black and white photograph, ignoring color.



A lot of looking at value is, how does this compare to that.



In the color photo, I didn't even notice the knife tip, but as a black and white value image, I see it's the lightest value. Our eyes are attracted to color, for value studies, we going to ignore color.

Shadows, 2 kinds: Cast Shadow and Form Shadow

What is a cast shadow? It falls directly 180 degrees away from the light source.
Where is your light source, arrow it on your paper until you do it automatically in your head.
What happens within a cast shadow? Sharp edge and more intense value contrast closer to subject, softer edge as it progresses outward. Values lighten in the outer part of a cast shadow value due to ambient light. Make your own observations, a cast shadow does not stay static.

Where do we see cast shadows? Everywhere there is light. The cast shadow is on the side away from light. Stick with a primary light source. Interior lighting can be confusing with several light sources.
A great place to see a cast shadow is under someone's nose
A cast shadow will follow the bumps and valley of a surface. Notice how the cast shadow of a nose goes over the shape of the upper lip. In fact, it will define the shape of the upper lip. Notice how a tree cast shadow will run flat on a road, defining that the road is flat.




Let look at the orange slices again in terms of shadows



Well, this is a little more complicated that we thought! Lets just look at cast shadows.
The closer a cast shadow is to it's orange slice, the sharper it's edge, and darker too.
As the cast shadow gets farther away from it's orange slice, the edge gets soft and fuzzy.
The cast shadow of the upper orange is moving up and over the knife handle, it's a different surface.

Project, let's set up a simple still life and include the cast shadows. Here are a few examples from this weeks class, white on white, looking at values.

















Now we are going to think about another kind of shadow, the shadow on the object, or on the form, known as the form shadow. We can see the form shadow on our hand drawing up above. Start looking at faces to see how the light is falling on faces. Look for both kinds of shadows.Here's a strongly lit mannakin face with cast and form shadows, also a bit of reflected light under the chin.







Form Shadows
A Form shadow is made as a surface moves away from light source. Form shadows always start with a soft edge.
Classic example of a form shadow is a cheek tuning away from light. Classic example of a cast shadow is the shadow under the nose. A face will have both form and cast shadows, therefore soft and hard edges. Classic confusing area: the neck! Cast shadow at a distance from jaw to neck, therefore soft edged cast shadow.

Light on Basic shapes, What happens as light falls on a sphere? We'll work on this next week......
1.light source.
2.lit area and shadow areas, form shadow and cast shadow.
3.lit area will be color or value of the sphere, highlights will vary depending on how reflective the sphere is. Highlight will be leaning toward color of light, slightly yellow white in artificial light. Not all surfaces have highlights. Shiny surfaces like glass metal and wet eyes will have strong highlights.
4.Form shadow starts with soft edge moves into darkest part of the shadow known as the core shadow. This will be the darkest value on the sphere. As you look to the outer edge of the sphere, the value will get lighter than the core shadow , into the area of reflected light.
5.Reflected light is always lighter than the core, but remember it is still in shadow.




Here is a contemporary artist Jim Dine, Check out his beautifully rendered tool drawings. The business end of each tool is very accurately rendered, with attention to shape, light and shadows. As he proceeds down the handle, the drawing become very expressive, full of movement and energy. It's a wonderful contrast between exquisitely rendered form and expressive drawing. For this weeks at home project, Try a "Jim Dine Tool drawing" of something you like to use. it doesn't have to be a tool but something you commonly use. Make it much bigger in scale than it's regular scale, make it monumental.

Week Three Mapping, Marking Points, halves & quarters, Negative Space!

Lesson Three

Last week we started digging in how to see as an artist, looking at angles. This week, we'll look at some additional skills to make that easier. We will figure out how to map around a drawing, how to oriente.
Let's go back to our simple viewfinder
Let's make an easy division of the space, something we can do in our heads, find the halfway points,
across the top and down the sides.


Some people like to mark these point right on their viewfinder to help them see the half way points. You can use this just like a map to find your line locations, go from your viewfinder, to your paper. Make little marks on your paper to make judging positions easier. It's helpful to mark in the quarter marks too, especially on bigger drawings. Now your viewfinder space has just been divided into a simple grid, a grid you can do on the fly. Most of the scissor is in the right side, but a part of the handle moves across the mid-line and exits out the top of the page just left of center. We have a way to map that now, instead of guessing. It exits half way between the center line and the quarter mark. We know the co-ordinates.

Project:Draw this little view finder of the scissor handle. Square off your page into a rectangle, do the half way marks to help orient positions of the rectangle. Mark the quarter marks, just because it's a good habit. Use an envelope approach if you'd like to come into the shape of the scissor handle. Make the block in and then smooth out your lines. Voila!
Project Now, Draw from your own viewfinder, find a very simple subject, help orient yourself with the halfway and quarter points.Try it with all the weird computer cords around your computer.....


They used to do this technique in the Renaissance era. Here's a woodcut of an artist using a grid to help see the foreshortening of the model. It's kind of elaborate....drawing from real life observations was a new concept back then.
You can actually buy a free standing tool that is a giant grid. However, it is fairly easy to do in your head with a little practice. We can imagine a grid laid over our subject. In an even simpler method, We can learn to see half and quarter marks on our subject. Here's a grid laid over a subject, we can start to imagine and think like this, to help orient ourselves around the drawing:



Where are the half way points? Is the bowl in the middle? Creating an imaginary grid mentally helps us measure up and down and side to side. The bowl is appox. 5 squares wide and 4 squares tall top to bottom. We're good on making an ellipse, and we can see the angles of the bottom part of the bowl. Try drawing this little bowl. Block in the general shape of the marbles, then go in for more definition.

As a side benefit of this concept, let's say you wanted to blow up a drawing into a big drawing or painting, like Chuck Close or Franz Kline or do a fresco on the Sistine Chapel. Artist use this exact technique for scaling up. How? Grid the drawing, grid the big paper, wall or canvas,and scale up. The proportions will be the same, no matter what size.
Project Take one of your own drawings or photographs and scale it up using this method. try it once so you understand how to do it.


Here's an actual working photo and drawing from turn of the century Art Nouveau Artist, Alphonse Mucha. His photo & finished magazine cover. Note his complex grid lines marked out over the photo.

By thinking about a grid system, it helps you think about measuring across the form, How wide is something compared to something else. Where is one side in relation to the other side, higher or lower? Bounce around your drawing with your eyes, compare this to that.
Artists like to pick something convenient to measure with. For example a marble in the bowl becomes a unit of measure for the rest of the drawing process.
How many marbles wide is the bowl? It's about 5 marbles wide.
The bowl become proportionally correct compared to the marble.

Project Pick a smaller unit within your view, and measure the bigger picture based on that unit.
Classic example would be the head compared to the rest of the body, typically 7 to 1 ratio on adults.
Just look and try this several times both horizontally and vertically until it seems easy to do.

The process of measuring with the Block-in stage.
The first thing is to look for some feature on the subject that can be used as a reference for all other measurements, a unit of measure.
Next, holding the pencil with the thumb and index finger and turning it both horizontally and vertically, or even a diagonal, line up the pencil tip with an edge and compare the distances.
How many units of measure is one thing compared to the next. This will work all around the drawing.

It is important to learn to draw correct proportions right from the start. A lot of drawing mistakes are made because people rush this process. You can always go back and double check your measurements. This is especially true in oil painting where shapes are constantly expanding. It is usually necessary to go back in and re-draw a painting at some point in the painting process.

To sum up the process:
Look for an obvious unit measure—a length or width of something obvious in the subject, in figure drawing, artists use the length of the subject's head, or a nose, or whatever seems convenient.
Begin by measuring the ratio of big masses and then break them down to smaller sections.
Keep the perspective constant by holding your arm straight out, closing one eye as you measure, and stand at the same spot. If you shift around, the distance or perspective, or the ratios will be off...... That's exactly what cubist did!!!!! They looked at things from different sides and distances. They shifted around, changing the point of view.

Note all the important “landmarks” that indicate the width, length, and end points of edges before starting to block-in the contour.
Measure twice; mark once like the carpenters' motto. Often, if shapes aren't measured correctly the first time, and you get the feeling that some proportions are off , just measure again at any point in the drawing process, this goes for painting too.
TIP: look at your drawing (or painting) with a mirror to see the image backwards, you will then know EXACTLY what is wrong with your drawing.
Project, Set up a simple still life and draw it two ways. Draw it straight ahead with correct measurement. Then draw it like Picasso, by changing your perspective, walking around to another view point, high or low, do a cubist drawing of your still life.
Here's a fun kids' project of a self portrait from the side and from a frontal view. Try it!

These drawings were done at home with this concept in mind, drawing from different points of view.
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Below are some example of figure drawings from the Arts Student League with construction lines in place. Take some time to study the drawings. You can see exactly how the artists were thinking, how they measured across the form, comparing side to side, big construction lines still in place. Note a vertical to measure angles from. Shadow shapes are starting to be indicated, once the main contour lines are established. The second drawing shows a complex shape simplified using our block-in method.



A heads up on shadows, they are thought of as shapes, just the same as contour shapes..... big flat shapes to begin with, one value.


Notice the nice squared off page.
Both these drawing have great line quality, you can see how the artists are constructing their drawings by establishing their envelopes, blocking in one side then the next, going in with confident lines once they know where everything is, mapped out and correct relative to the rest of the figure.

Negative Space. Sometimes it's useful not to draw your subject, instead draw the space around the subject. The blank part outside is called the negative space.
Art term figure/ground relationship....it means the subject and the space the subject is sitting in.
How would you begin to draw this plant? Looks complicated, but it's not......

If we draw the in between shapes, we can actually draw the plant. I've drawn in the negative space with photoshop lines in black.
Drawing negative space is fun! It's like a puzzle.


Take Home Project, Do a Negative Space drawing. Plants or Chairs are perfect subjects. Can you create an interesting texture in your negative spaces? To draw this stool, I would draw the inbetween spaces, the negative space.

This is the end of week, three, we have covered a lot of concepts for drawing. Next lesson we will talk about light and shadows. Be on the look out this week for shadows, start noticing them!

Lesson Two, What time is that angle? and the Envelope Please...

Working in class with shells and ellipses






Can you find a line that might be 12 o'clock on the face of a clock? 3 o clock, 4 o'clock?
Can you find any diagonal line around you and determine what time it would be if it were a hand on a clock?
This is the process of opening up to how an artist sees. A trick some Artists do is to overlay an imaginary clock over their subject to determine an angle. Look up at the ceiling where it meets the wall, can you find that angle?
Draw the hand of a clock at 12, 3, 6, 9, OK that was easy
Try 1, 2, 4, 5 O'clock what about 5:30? what about 11, or 11:30?
We can help out our poor confused verbal side of our brain by giving it something to do.....what time is that angle? Assign a specific time to a specific angle, this is an occasion where it might help to name something.
Project look around the room and see if you can determine what each angle is if it resided on a clock face. Determine dead vertical... 12 o'clock and dead horizontal, 3 o'clock, and see how your angle compares with those absolutes.


Hold your pencil out in front of you and practice determining what angle you are looking at. This simple act will serve you well as an artist, keep practicing this until you feel comfortable.
Translate the angle you are looking at onto your page.
“I'm seeing an angle that is 4 o'clock, I am going to draw 4 o'clock on my paper.”
Taking the time to properly see angles is a key to drawing

Term, Vanishing Point means lines that converge.


A Vanishing Point can be on the page or in a lot of cases, off of the page.
Project, draw a corner of your room, including the angles of the ceiling. Do another corner.
Try this with your view finder.


See how the angles define the space of the room, what are the angles? Can you follow them to where the vanishing points are? One on each side? Start at the fireplace and move left and slightly up to make your first line towards the vanishing point on the left side. The ceiling above the fireplace is also part of this vanishing point of this wall. Here is a case where both vanishing points, to the left and to the right, are off the page.

Now try a corner from where you are sitting. Start by squaring off your page and then determine angles.


Classic Single Vanishing Point on the ferry...Lines converge to just above man's head.
Look for vanishing points this week, especially around and inside buildings.



Create an envelope, we are going to mark the basic shape around our subject, using 3 or 4 lines only. This is what is known as the envelope. This is a major but SIMPLE foundation of drawing. Start by squaring off your page, set up a rectangle to set your subject in. Pick something, and draw the major big lines surrounding your subject. Use your new found ability to see angles to see the big construction lines around your subject.

I'm going to concentrate on making an envelope around the two people in front with black umbrellas. Here's how to draw with an envelope. Big loose lines, in red, nothing fancy.....


Come in with general lines, straight or curved depending on what you need to better defining the shape. The second time going over the contour edges of the subject is in blue. You are squeezing in on your contour shape. Do one side at a time, all the way around.

Now I'm ready to continue with the second figure defining edges and even going inside the form to define shapes, umbrellas in this case.
By the time I get to the third time around my subject, in yellow, I'm getting more familiar with the specifics of each little nuance shape that defines it. I probably wouldn't have seen all those little things the first time around.


Project, pick a simple subject.
Square off your page,
Draw the big simple lines around your subject, 3 or 4 max.
Come in with loose lines picking one side at a time to squeeze into your subject.
Third time, slowly work your way around your subject making a nice contour.
Go inside your subject with lines if you feel like it. No need to erase, it's interesting to see your construction lines in place.

BIG TIP
Check back and forth across the form. Where does one elbow sit compared to the other elbow? Is one foot higher than the other foot? Move your eyes back and forth comparing one side to the other. This is another key technique to seeing as an artist sees.


Project, set out something very simple, like fruit or a cup, some pencils, junk in your purse, or car....and use our new technique of drawing the envelope, Slowly work your way into a nice contour drawing, by coming into the subject one side at a time.
If you would like to see the master of the envelope, click here, to Tony Ryder

Last part of this lesson, artist use tricks....
It is nearly impossible to draw an ellipse free hand. If you drawing anything around your house, you will run into an ellipse, ellipses are everywhere.
To draw an ellipse, mark a horizontal line and 90 degree to that, vertical line. Mark the width of the ellipse( of the coffee cup) along the horizontal and the depth along the vertical.
Now draw in one quarter of the ellipse with a nice curve, turn your paper and repeat the shape, turn your paper and repeat so the 4 quarters are even and equal. Erase your construction guidelines, Voila an ellipse that looks right!

Project, Find some ellipses, like your coffee cup, and use our new trick to draw them.

You may run into this situation, an ellipse with vanishing point. If you do, this is what is happening
Try drawing this geometry just so you understand it.
This is the end of lesson two.
Here are some great drawing from our group working with shells. See the envelope and the block in lines, also marking points to orient highs and lows, left and right on a shell shape.