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Don’t be afraid to change your values

May 9th, 2007 at 12:36pm cicada

Ocellated Antbirds value study
from Drawing the Motmot

I’m a naughty watercolorist: I don’t do value studies before I paint. I know they’re important - especially in watercolor, because you can’t paint over your mistakes. But I’m just too lazy to do a full-sized piece twice over, and it’s frustrating experimenting with values in a dinky little thumbnail sketch. With pencil, the value gamut is too narrow to represent the values of paint, and I get graphite all over my hand in the process (I’m a lefty). I quit bothering with studies long ago, and I know my work has suffered for it.

Drawing The Motmot has convinced me with this post to try value studies again - in Photoshop, where it’s trivial to create and compare several different studies, and you never have to struggle to get back to a pure, clean white, or to render a true black. This post is a great back-to-basics reminder of the importance of value studies, even if you’re lazy and self-trained, like I am.

PS. speaking of value studies, Today’s Inspiration just posted this brief tribute to Andrew Loomis, an early 20th century illustrator who worked largely in black and white. His works are goldmines for anyone interested in learning anatomy or value-based composition. Unfortunately, Loomis’ books are out of print and increasingly scarce, but you can find pdfs online, and this post links to some sources.

Entry Filed under: Education, Artists & Art

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