Friday, July 1, 2016

The Value of Value


For this project, our goal was to learn more about value and saturation (which I will refer to as intensity.) Using some sort of tribal mask or a very strong geometric design, we set out to do two renditions.  One using a triadic color harmony (3 colors equally spaced on the colorwheel) and the second using one of those colors gradually mixed with a gray of equal value.
I used a photo editing app on my phone to verify my values were equal by desaturating a photo of both my yellow-orange and gray and comparing the two. I made sure I had plenty mixed of each so I wouldn't run out while painting my scale and mask design. 
Now, normally, I start with the lightest value and work my way to the darkest, but since my entire palette was the same value, things were a bit tricky. This is where I decided to look at the colors in terms of intensity when determining where to put what colors. The more intense colors (or true to the original yellow-orange mixture) stood out to the eye more, so I put it on focal points, like the lips, and the midrange colors seemed to recede more, so I put those around the eyes and other such places to still give the design that carved quality.  While I would have liked to blend in shadows and add depth, this class did not allow it. It is what it is. Sometimes by limiting yourself, however, you still gain a better understanding of the basics you are working with.









Modern technology is awesome, and I used a photo editing app on my phone to mirror and convert the original to grayscale to check my values.
As usual, the drawings were laid out on bristol board.

While the value wasn't truly consistent, the project still worked. The higher contrast of the top piece made for a much more appealing and dynamic painting.