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Sharon Knettell · 10-13-2002, 01:35 PM

Jennifer, in one ff my previous lives, I did pencil fashion illustration that ran in newspapers. I had to learn to make my values very strong and readable. The following tips, I hope will help you, and relate to your style.

A. Use Arches hot press 300 lb. paper with 4b and 6b Turguoise pencils. It is like drawing on velvet, you get the most beautiful,deep blacks. The paper is very sensitive,you can get great detail and clean greys.

B. Study your photo reference. Notice the head has a light source coming from your upper left. That side is light, the other side is darker. Squint, notice how the tones go sequentially from light to dark on the photo. Place your drawing next to the photo and squint, notice the photos sequence of light to dark, look at where your drawing does not match. Also look at them through a mirror. The light tones in the hair and face on your right side are almost the same value as they are on the left hand side, thus weakening the form.

C. Strenghthen and design your tonal patterns. The hair could go darker and be your darkest grey or black and the chair could be a 50% grey. The skin tone would of course be a full range. Keep the tones flatter,darker and simpler in the hair and chair (sublimate hair and wood patterns) and model up the face in a more sensitive range. As Chris has pointed out clean up confusing areas like the ear. Keep, as you have, the shirt linear. Edit out what is unessesary to descibe the form. See Ingres and Kathe Kollwitz. I would like to see this redone, I think you would surprise yourself.

10-13-2002, 01:35 PM	#6
Sharon Knettell Approved Member Joined: Sep 2002 Posts: 1,730	Orchestrating your values. Jennifer, in one ff my previous lives, I did pencil fashion illustration that ran in newspapers. I had to learn to make my values very strong and readable. The following tips, I hope will help you, and relate to your style. A. Use Arches hot press 300 lb. paper with 4b and 6b Turguoise pencils. It is like drawing on velvet, you get the most beautiful,deep blacks. The paper is very sensitive,you can get great detail and clean greys. B. Study your photo reference. Notice the head has a light source coming from your upper left. That side is light, the other side is darker. Squint, notice how the tones go sequentially from light to dark on the photo. Place your drawing next to the photo and squint, notice the photos sequence of light to dark, look at where your drawing does not match. Also look at them through a mirror. The light tones in the hair and face on your right side are almost the same value as they are on the left hand side, thus weakening the form. C. Strenghthen and design your tonal patterns. The hair could go darker and be your darkest grey or black and the chair could be a 50% grey. The skin tone would of course be a full range. Keep the tones flatter,darker and simpler in the hair and chair (sublimate hair and wood patterns) and model up the face in a more sensitive range. As Chris has pointed out clean up confusing areas like the ear. Keep, as you have, the shirt linear. Edit out what is unessesary to descibe the form. See Ingres and Kathe Kollwitz. I would like to see this redone, I think you would surprise yourself.