For this assignment, I was to create a value scale drawing that paid particularly close attention to value shifts and zones of shadow, middle-tone, and highlight. The objective was to learn to see and recognize the precise shapes of shadows, middle-tones, and highlights and then learn to “map” these shapes accurately within my drawings.
I did a value scale drawing of the curtains in my bedroom. Here is the reference picture, so you can see how my drawing compares to the original.
I learned a lot from this drawing! I followed a lot of the suggestions from our textbook–turning the reference photo upside down so that it’s abstracted, starting with the lighter pencils and moving to the darker ones, and so on. I think it worked! The best thing I learned is to think in terms of shapes of lights and shapes of shadow, instead of lines. For example, on the window, I did not draw a line along the edge of the sliding panel, because the sun was so bright that you really couldn’t see a line. But even without a line there, the mind can still recognize that there is a panel there, because of how the light and shadow are interacting. So cool!
Sarah E. Brown 