Joaquin Sorrola Jack Russel value study

 

Hi! This week I decided that it was time, time to tackle my values.. as last time I worked in 20 minute intervals. I first put the reference into greyscale and looked at the values. I then chose 4 to get a range idea. I then played with the levels so I could see how the read would look with only two values to see exactly where the light and shadow would fall. 

After that i made the original image the only one on the page and got to work, I wanted to train myself to see the values from the fully coloured image. The bottom two images are the first two I worked on. The first I tried to use different values but realised that it only confused me and after 20 minutes i found the read wasn't effective. So then I did another 20 minute piece where I went in with 2 values without even thinking about anything apart from 2 values and trying to capture light and shadow. I got feedback and was told to consider the internal shapes and to make them more appealing. 

So off I went, one final 20 minutes of studying. I wanted to make the internal silhouette simple and not as many shapes that make the whole thing read a lot better. After I did two value study. I then went back in and put in a third value. 

Now. After this was something I had never practiced before.. Brush economy! I never really use the blend tool but I have been told its actually good and saves a lot of unnecessary brush strokes and makes it a lot more smooth. So armed with my blend tool and hard round pen I started to blend the values together , adding and taking away but still trying to keep the feeling and structure of the basic value structure. When I had finished I played with the values to make the values stronger just so it could be read easier. I really really enjoyed this new painting process and I think doing this 2/3 value build up really helped. I will try and do more.