Saturday, March 13, 2010
Value Sketches
Value Sketches
The following value sketches illustrate the visual thinking process described in the previous blog on value patterns. The process is one of discovery and experimentation. Keep a sketch book and experiment with various compositions in conjunction with value patterns. If the value pattern is troublesome, change the composition.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Value Painting
It is almost spring time and I begin teaching watercolor for the design and art students at the University of Washington once again. I always look forward to this quarter because the watercolor course is fun and challenging and it gets me revved up again to paint. I have been busy working on a new book for Routledge Press out of the UK and the manuscript is due in June. OUch! But it is a fun challenge. the book is entitled: "Urban Design: The Composition of Complexity". which brings me to our lesson of this week: value painting and its relationship to composition.
Value painting as i have discussed involves designing a value pattern within your composition that dramatizes the light and dark relationship between and among shapes. The value pattern helps structure or assemble the composition into a coherent whole. Then and only then do you want to begin adding color.
My Process of Value Sketching
Either from field sketches or photographs or both, I begin doing small 3x5 inch Pentel Sign Pen sketches in my sketch book. I try a number of compositional configurations, sometimes zooming in on a subject for more drama and sometimes highlighting a certain feature of the subject. I then begin playing with various value patterns around a selected center of interest to see how the mood of the value pattern is emerging. For example, if i am using middle and dark values at the center, the mood may be subdued or diffused in the lighting, much like my sky today looking out of the studio on Whidbey Island--rainy and cool. i might want to go with more contrast in the light and use a light value with a dark value, essentially using strong dark shadowing around the center of interest.
One important aspect of this sketching process or process of visual thinking: it is a process of discovery. Meaning that by exploring and sketching various combinations of value patterns i discover other directions and approaches. There are times when i begin painting with a value pattern and have a really tough time making the painting work. I then go back and change the composition to provide a different and more dramatic value pattern. It is really a cyclical process of discover like design. Do not try to intellectualize the painting in your mind before you begin. Dance with it as it evolves through your hands and eyes and mind. I will add some sketch examples soon if i can figure how to import them. More later, gang. Keep painting and think VAUES.
It is almost spring time and I begin teaching watercolor for the design and art students at the University of Washington once again. I always look forward to this quarter because the watercolor course is fun and challenging and it gets me revved up again to paint. I have been busy working on a new book for Routledge Press out of the UK and the manuscript is due in June. OUch! But it is a fun challenge. the book is entitled: "Urban Design: The Composition of Complexity". which brings me to our lesson of this week: value painting and its relationship to composition.
Value painting as i have discussed involves designing a value pattern within your composition that dramatizes the light and dark relationship between and among shapes. The value pattern helps structure or assemble the composition into a coherent whole. Then and only then do you want to begin adding color.
My Process of Value Sketching
Either from field sketches or photographs or both, I begin doing small 3x5 inch Pentel Sign Pen sketches in my sketch book. I try a number of compositional configurations, sometimes zooming in on a subject for more drama and sometimes highlighting a certain feature of the subject. I then begin playing with various value patterns around a selected center of interest to see how the mood of the value pattern is emerging. For example, if i am using middle and dark values at the center, the mood may be subdued or diffused in the lighting, much like my sky today looking out of the studio on Whidbey Island--rainy and cool. i might want to go with more contrast in the light and use a light value with a dark value, essentially using strong dark shadowing around the center of interest.
One important aspect of this sketching process or process of visual thinking: it is a process of discovery. Meaning that by exploring and sketching various combinations of value patterns i discover other directions and approaches. There are times when i begin painting with a value pattern and have a really tough time making the painting work. I then go back and change the composition to provide a different and more dramatic value pattern. It is really a cyclical process of discover like design. Do not try to intellectualize the painting in your mind before you begin. Dance with it as it evolves through your hands and eyes and mind. I will add some sketch examples soon if i can figure how to import them. More later, gang. Keep painting and think VAUES.
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