Value Project

Final Blog Post

-How has your persistence and engagement in these habits pushed you to further resolve the questions, tools, methods, etc as discussed in your previous post?

•  I spent lots of time refining my drawing, using pencil to complement the texture and values of the charcoal. Instead of making radical, contour changes, I slowly developed the shadows and highlights to create a stronger piece. These small changes really emphasized the shapes and value that my part of the still-life had.

-How have these habits pushed you to further develop your artistic practice in general as well as your understanding of value (employing shadow and light to represent 3-D form)?

• This experimentation has really helped me grow as an artist, because now I can apply these new skills to artistic work in other disciplines. After finishing my charcoal drawings, i returned to the dark room with a better understanding of value. This helped me develop better negatives than before.

-Which medium felt more comfortable? Why?

• To me, the work in the dark room was much more comfortable. Because I had previous experience from the beginning of the year, I was able to concentrate more on adjustments than on learning the basics. I also enjoyed how you could make many prints, some with very different adjustments, until you selected one to print on the large photo paper.

-Which medium allowed you more opportunity for "expression"? How?

• The charcoal allowed me more opportunity for expression. I was able to evoke more textures and shadows creatively, where in the photographs all of the creativity came in the photo taking.

-How might you better improve your experience and/or results with each of the mediums in the future?

• To improve my results in the charcoal drawings, I think that i could use more pencil. It made it much easier to add to certain areas in order to create better shadows and highlights. To improve my work in the photography portion, I need to take better picture. Some of my picture were decent, but others were not worth developing. This is important, because I only had 12 pictures.

Interim Check-in and Reflect

• What are you trying to evoke in your work through the use of value?
• I am trying to evoke detail as well as contrast through my use of value. By using total blacks and varied values of grey and white, I was able to evoke details and intense contrasts

• How are you currently using value to influence your viewer's experience of the drawing and  photographs?
• I am using value to ensure that i cover every shade of the value spectrum, even when working in color. This is helpful when i am painting or even sculpting to create a good value scale in my evocative artwork.

• What specific techniques and habits do you need to focus on?
• I need to focus more on using darks. I am very good at incorporating light shade in my artwork, but i struggle to successfully express dark tones.

What is Value? How have/will I use value in my drawings and photography?
          Value is the representation of lights and darks across a spectrum that objects without different colors. Currently, we have been practicing adding lights to darks, using two methods. First, we  erased charcoal from a completely black piece of paper. Next, we used a white pencil to add white and lighter values to other parts of the picture. These two method both involved increasing whites, different from what we normally do in contour drawings.

I find this photograph to be the most evocative. To me, an evocative image includes many focuses as well as several varied values.

The photo above most clearly exemplifies the value scale. It encompasses the darkest of darks as while as very white values.

In my black and white image, I hope to capture as many values as i can along with varied ranges of focus to produce an image of exceptional photographic quality.