VALUE: Light and Dark Rhythms cont.

Jay Odenthal

Lauren Tokunaga

Last night was a continuation of Monday night's project. The objectives were to 1. Employ the Distal Cues 2. Try to engage with at least 3 edges of the paper and 3. To establish similarity through value patterns.
In Jay's drawing (top) the bold, black verticals move in up and down across the page. He has pushed the materials around on the paper, adding and reducing, much as an expressive painter might do. The right side of the composition is particularly effective in bringing together elements in focus and out.
Lauren (bottom) has established a triangulation between the hole in the upper left (water can), down to the block and up to the hole (ceramic bowl) on the right. Again the right side of the composition is particularly well drawn in the area around the white bottle, block and ceramic bowl. The values are rich and contrasting and the line quality strengthens the contours and structure.

VALUE PATTERNS

Angelica Cortez

Yesterday students of the Friday 7A class made drawings addressing the value patterns observed in a still life of black, gray and white objects. Angelica's drawing above is composed well and exhibits balance among similar objects as well as in the negative areas. Notice how the long cast shadows balance the darks of the upper left hand corner. She has very effectively used value for dramatic effect evoking a moonlit scenario. In addition, Angelica illustrates a more expressive or "painterly" application and manipulation of the materials.

VALUE PATTERNS continued

Daniela Abed

Last night students continued with studying value patterns. Upon entering Daniela's drawing at the funnel in the foreground, you are immediately pushed to the stacked funnels on the left, mostly by association and likeness but also by the direction of the funnel spout in the foreground. The white areas and forms then direct your eye diagonally to the right. The subtleties in tone and the attention to shadow are beautifully rendered but it's the attention to the negative areas that really sets the space for this drawing. Notice how the negative areas around the still life "loosely" follow the edges as if the objects were laying on a pillow. The dark areas between the objects and under the inside of the tilted funnel are skillfully balanced against the black funnel and pipe in the background.

VALUE PATTERNS

Last night students made drawings addressing value patterns observed across a still life. The objective was to establish a rhythm with the placement of similar values throughout the composition.

Sarena Dunn

Sarena's drawing above exhibits a well balanced composition rich with value and textural variation. The combination of additive and reductive techniques addresses the light and weight of objects while providing dark and moody atmospheric conditions. The real strength in the drawing is the attention she has given to the negative areas. The spaces between the objects are like little cave openings allowing the "eye" to travel through the space. The tonal variations in the background are atmospheric in quality and envelop the objects holding them in the space.

Patty Camara

Patty's combination of man-made, geometric forms accented with organic reed-like marks suggests a surrealist still-life arrangement. The alternating light and dark forms tumble the "eye" across the composition while the two black areas pull the "eye" up and down. The reed-like marks create a whimsical and fantastic sense of light giving the objects a more powerful, almost magical, character. Both of these drawings have effectively used value for dramatic effect as well as to create volume and depth.

VALUE: Rendering Light

Brandon O'rourke

Artist's may make work that emphasizes light patterns or volume. When working with a technique that is uncomplementary to the planar structure of an object (ex. straight cross-contours on a round form), the light is emphasized over volume. Placement of tonalities is determined by the planes of an object so you can't have light without volume but you can place emphasis on one over the other.
Last night students made drawing emphasizing Light. Brandon's drawing above illustrates a single, parallel hatch technique. Notice how he has juxtaposed a dark, receding background against lighter, advancing objects. The dark background also balances the darks of the cast shadows. Although the objects reveal subtle volumes, the single hatch technique is more complementary to the light patterns than it is to volume because of the straightness of the line against a curvilinear form.

TUES. 2/21 VALUE PATTERNS

Frank Vallin

Here's a study in value patterns from Tuesday night. The drawing above exhibits good proportions in relation to the page (this includes the cast shadow) as well as rich, full and balanced values. Notice how the strong contrasting black background enhances and complements the lighter value of the "paper wall." Dark shadows within the "wall" help draw the "eye" inward and balance the background with the cast shadow in the foreground; in a sense creating a bridge between the two spaces. A particularly nice touch is the way Frank exaggerated the depth of the paper by highlighting and creating a slight cast shadow along the top edge of the paper.

WED. 2/16 VALUE PATTERNS

Mattie Kent

In contrast to the "subjectivity" of Monday's project, Wed. night students approached their drawings with a more "objective" eye. Students rendered the Value Patterns observed on folded sheets of paper with circles cut away. In the drawing above there are two zig-zagging movements. The first is visible in the top and bottom edges of the folded paper.  The second is implied in the placement of the large circles cut away in the paper. Mattie's drawing exhibits a full range of values with a strong contrasting light.

THURS. 10/20 MIDTERM DRAWING EXAM

Cullen Houser

Abigail Sanchez

Oscar Mendoza

For the midterm drawing, students had to address the concepts covered to date: composition, line quality, value and proportions. Here are three examples of the many excellent drawings.
With his use of line and tone, Cullen has beautifully captured the light and shadow patterns as well as the fragility of the broken ceramics. Also take note of the balance between positive and negative areas.
Abigail has taken a beautifully minimal approach to the still life.  Note her use of value patterns in the shadows to establish rhythm. The key to the success of her vignetted composition lies within the centered placement with plenty of negative area allowing the eye to breath and encircle the still life.
Oscar's drawing also has a strong sense of design and rhythm.  Note the similarity in the wavy pattern on the mug (left) and the reflections in the lid (right). The criss-crossing triangles on the paper perfectly contrast the curvilinear nature of the ceramic forms.

HOMEWORK #4: Under Your Sink

For this assignment your subject is to be the area "under your sink." Any sink area will do.  Pay close attention to the forms (size, placement), lighting conditions and value patterns. Before you begin, hand - tone your paper with vine charcoal and a paper towel (you may use compressed for a darker base tone but don't over do it). Follow the instructions from the in-class drawings: 1. start with a single value: white, light gray (paper tone), dark gray or black.  Place that value throughout composition. 2. Then apply the remaining values one at a time. 3. Check balance and rhythm. 4. Render the forms three dimensionally by employing the categories of light.  You may use value subjectively for greater design and dramatic effect. The drawing above illustrates this project beautifully.  One of its many strengths is the placement of the subject within the image area.  Notice that it is at a slight angle creating diagonals and triangles rather than straight on matching the shape of the paper. 18 x 24 in. drawing paper with charcoal and erasers.

Mar. 3 VALUE: Four Divisions of Value cont.

Thursday night students made another series of drawings on hand-toned paper addressing value patterns. Giselle Chavez's drawing (top) beautifully illustrates the rhythms established by paying close attention to the placement of like values throughout the composition. Notice how your "eye" travels from one white shape to the next. In addition, your "eye" is drawn to the patterned areas and finally up to the chipped shape in the upper right hand corner -- very inventive use of negative areas.
Russell Wallace's drawing (bottom) exhibits a tight arrangement of positive and negative shapes and forms. Note the balance between the clustering of small shapes on the left against the larger shapes on the right. Furthermore, he has added to the balance of the small shapes a dark negative area whereas as the right side has the large white area.

Wed. Mar. 2 VALUE : Miniatures

Students continued drawing in sketchbooks exploring value patterns and graphic positioning. Danielle Tait's drawing (top) exhibits a strong balance with the dark areas and cast shadows.  The circular compositions create some very interesting negative shapes when juxtaposed against the puzzle shape.
Katie Bart's drawing (bottom) exhibits strong fluid like qualities.  First, note the stacking of the values and textures beginning with the ground and moving up the composition to the hills and then the sky.  Secondly, the textural qualities in the dinosaur push the "eye" vertically while the contours of the dinosaur and the hills move the "eye" horizontally. In addition, the cropping of the head has allowed the negative areas to play a stronger role in the composition by enclosing the shapes.

Mar. 1 VALUE: Four Divisions of Value

Students made charcoal drawings from a complex still life arrangement.  The objective was to create a rhythm/ movement by addressing the value patterns. Notice in Jennifer Green's drawing (top) how the black shapes in the composition establish a diagonal rhythm/ movement leading the "eye" from top left to lower right.  This is complemented by the diagonal line implied by the height of the objects as well as the diagonal shape and the black triangle in the upper right corner. Avi Scheuenstuhl's drawing (bottom) has a subtler range of values yet is very well composed. His drawing exhibits a bottom left to top right movement.  This is initiated by the tea pot and carries up to the dark oval shapes on either side of the composition.

Mon. Feb. 14 VALUE PATTERNS: Cheesy Drawings

M/W class made drawings from the paper cut-outs exploring value patterns. Same idea as addressed in the previous T/Th class although M/W's class used graphite instead of charcoal.  Kristen Rimal has done a great job of capturing the subtleties of the value patterns as they rake across the paper form.  Furthermore, the cast shadow and the horizon in the back emphasize the lighting conditions while suggesting a sense of place.

Thurs. Feb. 10 VALUE PATTERNS: Cheesy Paper

Thursday night we made drawings of value patterns created from raking light across folded paper with circular cutouts. Avi Scheuenstuhl's drawing (above) exhibits very scrupulous observations of the various tonalities as they move across the form.  His approach is one based on subtlety and realism. Note the absence of hard contours.  Edges are created by juxtaposing dark values against light.  Michelle Phillips has taken a more subjective and exaggerated approach to her interpretation of the subject. She has pushed the value range increasing the intensity of the values and the contrast between them creating a very bold and striking image.

HOMEWORK #5: UNDER THE SINK

On 18 x 24 in. drawing paper that has been hand-toned and using your charcoal materials and erasers make a drawing of the area around and under your sink. Use value subjectively to emphasize and exaggerate the lighting conditions and the character of the space.  Note the drawing above is slightly angled rather than a straight-on view.  Furthermore, the background has been pushed back into a dark mass by exaggerating the shadows while lighter values are reserved for the foreground.

10/1 Value Patterns: Four Divisions of Value (Friday)

Friday's class caught up with value patterns today.  For a full description see the posts from 9/27 and 29.  The drawing above is by Stazi Borissenko. Note the contrasting values of background and foreground and the strong directional relationships between similar values. In other words, the rhythm that is established between white areas, gray areas and black areas. Furthermore, Stazi's accented highlights are very complementary to the  fluid and curvy nature of the objects.

9/29 Value Patterns: Four Divisions of Value (cont.)

Wednesday night was a repeat of Monday's project. Similar still life arrangement and same directions.  Travis Gilbert's drawing above exhibits a textural approach to using the eraser while addressing cross-contours and the categories of light.

Alex Andrade's drawing illustrates a broad composition with lots of repeating shapes, specifically the triangular or cone-like, funnel forms. Although there could be more distinction between the local values on the objects, the textural rendering and use of the eraser is very well done.

9/27 Value Patterns: Four Divisions of Value

On Monday, students made drawings from a still life on paper they hand-toned to a midpoint value.  The objective was to create a rhythm and movement by observing and separating the values within the design.  Once this was established students rendered the objects more dimensionally by employing gradations.

This drawing by Phillip Boutz exhibits a clarity and a strong sense of light.  This is due to the sparing use of contrasting white forms and black shadows with most of the values falling within the gray tones.

Autumn La Rue has created a striking and dynamic composition by cropping the forms and engaging with all four sides of the picture plane. The tilted and arcing shapes coupled with repeating values maintains an energy that pushes the "eye" from one location to another.

Like Autumn's drawing above, Tyler Martinez has also cropped his composition while adding a very weathered and atmospheric quality to the image.  This is achieved by his textural use with the eraser.   The swooping, angled and arcing forms drop and push the "eye" along the composition similar to the rolling action of a ball inside a pachinko machine.

9/24 Value Patterns and Rendering Light

In the morning the class made value studies exploring the value patterns displayed across folded sheets of paper with holes cut out.  In the afternoon we continued with value studies this time making drawings from a still life of white objects.  The directions were to employ a single directional hatch or scribble technique. Drawings by Adam Harris, Jasmine Gonzales and Nick LaVasser.

9/20 Value Patterns

Monday night the class made drawings addressing the value patterns created from light projected onto folded paper with holes cut out.  First everyone made a six value gray scale; 1 being white, 6 black.  They then tried to locate and develop these values within the still life. These drawings were rendered in graphite pencil. The drawing above is by La Lovan.  Note the juxtaposition of light and dark values  establishes the edges in this drawing rather than using line.