Value Portraits



1. Explain the process you went through to develop your drawing.

First I traced the darkest parts of the picture onto tracing paper. Then I heavily colored the back of the tracing paper and layed it down on my sketch book. Then I retraced the lines I had done earlier and it appeared on my sketch book. Then i filled in where i missed a couple of important details. Then I started to shade the picture using the mini value chart I had.

2. Explain how you found the different values in the portrait?

I held up my mini value chart to the photo and matched the shades of the picture to the shades of the value chart. I made sure to use all 9 values that I was given. This was very easy to do because there was so many shades in just the hair alone.

3.  Did you achieve a full range of the different values within your portrait?  How?

I thought that I did a pretty good job of using the full range of values. It was a little difficult to get a white value because nothing in the photo was truly white. But once I made the eyes darker then the cheek bones which were supposed to have a white value looked more realistic not like a 2-dimensional face.

4. Describe your craftsmanship.  Is the artwork executed and crafted neatly?

I think that I could have made the definitions of his mouth a little more clearly but in the end it turned out fine. There were also a lot of smudges because of the side of my hand. I dont know how to prevent this but i will try to not do it as much.

5. List any obstacles you had to overcome and how you dealt with them.

I did not like the project to begin with because I didnt get to draw myself so from the start I wasn't passionate about it. I have realized my art is better when I care for the project. Also I kept getting frustrated at how long it took and that there was no color. i do not like black and white art.

Guido Art Project

Describe your overall thoughts on the final piece.

         I thought that this project was very fun. I however thought that finding an animal that Guido hadn't created yet was the hardest part of the project. I really liked adapting 3 different peacock designs into one artwork. I found it difficult to keep track of all the colors I used but other than that this project was a success.

How successful do you feel this piece is and why?

         I thought this project was a huge success because I could work on it at my own pace. It actually looked like a peacock when i was finished.

What worked about this project? What didn’t work?

        The references really helped because I wasn't just using stored images in my head. I had to take 3 different designs and combine them in a way that didn't look chaotic. My thumb however in the picture was bigger than a peacock's mouth so his head is a little disproportional to his face.

If you were to do this project over again, what changes would you consider making?

        I would consider changing the thumb position. As I mentioned before it just wasn't the right proportions.

What was the most difficult part about completing this piece and why?

       The most difficult part of this project was deciding what colors would compliment each other. I tried many different combinations before I found the right palette.

What did you learn from this piece?

       I learned that if you study your references it is easier to get your own idea. If you study the small details you won't copy the big idea of the piece.