And now for the flip side of last time’s color-centric post.
©2023 Elizabeth Fram
The learning continues, thanks to Summer’s slower pace. This month I’ve found myself taking a bit of a detour to focus on composition and value.
My impetus was a Substack entry from Urban Sketcher Suhita Shirodkar, linking to an Ian Roberts’ video about working outside your comfort zone. Watching it reminded me that I have a terrific book Roberts wrote called Mastering Composition. I pulled it out to flip through again and decided to take a stab at his “composition a day” exercise. Refreshers never hurt.
My sole tool has been an HB graphite pencil, making value an integral part of each composition. Repetitively sketching this way for a couple of weeks has made it glaringly obvious the degree to which I gravitate toward, and get caught within, a middle range of values. It’s clear I need to concentrate on pushing for darker darks and blacker blacks.
©2023 Elizabeth Fram Anyone who has stood at the Red Hen’s take-out window waiting for a maple creemee will recognize this view.
As an experiment, I converted images of my latest life paintings to black & white in Photoshop. It confirmed, as you can see below, that I need to pay closer attention to my values.
©2023 Elizabeth Fram
On the bright side, even if this is the only thing I learn this summer, I will consider the season a success.
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My latest art-related treat has been watching videos by artists Sandi Hester and Frances Ives who cover various aspects of their practices on YouTube and Patreon. One of the aspects I most enjoy is they each spend a fair amount of time talking about, experimenting with and swatching new materials, taking a deep dive into the differences between brands and applications.
A screenshot of Sandi Hester’s video “Favorite Color Pencils & Markers”
Regular hauls from Blick and Jackson’s (the UK equivalent to Blick) include all sorts of goodies. I fully acknowledge that for most, watching someone swatch a couple of fistfuls of colored pencils while elaborating on their minute differences might feel akin to joining Edmond Dantès at Chateau d’If (can you tell I’m reading The Count of Monte Cristo this summer?). But for this art nerd, it’s indescribably entertaining. I’m all for learning about the specific details and layering possibilities of unfamiliar materials before buying.
Needless to say, I just placed an order with Blick last weekend.
Thanks, as always, for your thoughts! You say “As an experiment, I converted images of my latest life paintings to black & white in Photoshop. It confirmed, as you can see below, that I need to pay closer attention to my values.” First, I am not an expert on tonalities. What I do know as a photographer, mainly color, is that digitally converting to B&W is not necessarily a 1:1 thing. What can be an exceptional color photo can look like washed out crap in B&W and, of course, going the other way is usually just laughable. That you have seen the need to extend the value range is the important thing, however.
I did not know that! Of course I assumed it was 1:1. I guess one of those red plastic squares would be a more reliable tool. Thanks, as always John, for weighing in.
You’re on it! Bravo – darker shading, blacker – brings sharper, more defined contrasts and depth.
Summer is a riot of that!
Cheers for pushing!
It’s so awesome when a “little” thing gives back huge returns. Never a dull moment!