Value+Drawing

=**//Value Drawing //**=

Value drawing is a technic that uses lead pencils. The technic consists of laying down lead and then blending the lead together so it looks as one instead of a bunch of streaks. Part of this technic is learning how much pressure to apply when you are putting lead to the page. The following images are my attempts of this technic.

 The best place to start when practicing this technic is to make a value grid. Making grids teaches you how to apply pressure. When making a grid it's easiest to start with a black square and work toward the whitest square. As you can see I didn't blend the lead I put down because that wasn't the purpose of this exercise, it was only to learn how to control the pressure of my pencil.

 This is my first attempt at a think and thin technic piece. Again it was learning how to apply pressure to the page. However, I had a problem with trying to keep the stand centered.

 This was my second attempt at thick and thin technic piece and I feel it turned out much better. I found it easier to draw the tools because I could place them next to the page, whereas the lamp was just sitting on my desk. I also had a better use of white space with this piece compared to the lamp.

 This value grid is blended as are the spheres. The point of this exercise was to learn how to work the lead once you had put it down. When I was making the lighter squares I found that I didn't need to put down any lead, I just had to "borrow" it from the squares above the one I was working on. The spheres taught me how hard to press the blending stick to the page and how to really blend the lead together and how to move it around the page.

 I decided to make another grid and sphere so I could practice a little more before I moved on to my next project.



Here is a drawing taking all of the practices of the value technic and applying it to an actual piece. These are Columbine flowers, which I had taken a picture of when I was in Wyoming in the summer of 2011.

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