Hi Guys
Welcome to those of you just dropping in here and hello to those Monday evening students. Just recapping today about simplifying visual information into simple shapes to use as structure to build up and control your picture plane. I feel if you are able to crack editing what you are looking at you make drawing it so straight forward, but this does require us not to leap straight for the detail.
So if you want to have a try at what we have been doing this week you will need a selection of soft pencils and you ll be good to go.
Using the noir setting on your phones will help train your eye to see the tone. Remember we are only looking to split the tone into a manageable 5 stages. Make yourself a 5 tone scale to remind yourself, it will come in useful, keep refering to it and these sketches are only 2 inches in size. Also practice using different marks with your pencil using the tip but also the side of the lead.
Below I have showed you the progression of starting with a simplified shape for the group of objects
I have mapped the height,width and lowest mark and the orientation of the basic shape of the objects. Below I have chosen simple shapes to represent single objects and their shadow shapes, notice how these often link objects together or provide you with a gap or negative space which creates tension in the picture plane. Ive also mapped the orientation of the objects by using a line directly through the shape.
Below I have mapped out my 5 areas of tone starting with the darkest.
Here I have labelled areas for you. I suggest you do this in your own practice, as these are working sketches.
So building up to more objects and with this image there is the edge of the table to consider.
Take time to look at both colour and black and white image and try to isolate the 5 values of tone.
So again, below the basic shape of the group has been mapped out using several simple shapes to help make sense of the picture plane and ensure that all objects fit well into the sketch.
Below more basic shapes are added to further represent the space.
The darkest tones are added.Look for where the light is falling.
Adding more tones, mainly tone 3 here added around the picture plane.
Value 2 and one complete the sketch. Below I have split and numbered the 5 values for you and again I urge you to do the same. Do let me know how you get on I would love to hear from you. Remember these are small test sketches in your sketch book.
Enjoy. Next post will be for Fridays Landscape class.
Much love.
