Tonal Studies and Composition Challenge

[Gordan Knezic]

Day 74, charcoal on 9×12 paper

 

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Gordan Knezic.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Gordan Knezic.

[Myriam]

I love your challenge! What a beautiful drawing this last one, I think it is my favorite. I also love Bill Perkins course and his way of teaching.

[Gordan Knezic]

Thank you Myriam for your encouragement, that is very nice of you!

Day 75, 9×12 block, 4B charcoal pencil

[Gordan Knezic]

Day 76, forest scene.

I am trying hard to separate clearly low, mid and high value zones as Bill Perkins constantly keeps pointing out in his composition course. I start with clear idea, tonal plan, answer what, why and how questions. In despite to all of  that the final work ends up often with close values and somewhat muddied.

It sounds easier than it is that, is all I got to say. But as Bill said in one of his videos-..” go ahead draw and make all the mistakes”.

Well I am  well on my way to do just that :), but I am learning and having fun along the way.

[Gordan Knezic]

Day 77, charcoal on 9×12 block.

[Iliya Mirochnik]

Hi Gordon,

So I was a little bothered by the composition and perspective discrepancies on the right wall of the house so I did a draw-over using a grid to make a couple of corrections.

I feel like you didn’t need to crop the tree on the left hand side. You could also use some more perspective “hints” by adding some shadows on the ground in the foreground and allowing the trees behind the house to recede into perspective more obviously.

Other than that, it’s a lovely sketch.

Iliya

[Iliya Mirochnik]

Hi Gordan,

It’s me again! I started doing the perspective draw – over but felt I needed to try to pull the sketch from the previous post together. I agree with you that it’s particularly difficult to keep the tonal structure of a landscape sketch that’s so overburdened with trees, shadows, foreground, background, all of that. And the hard part is having to hit that perfect equilibrium between making sure the values read clearly, while expressing that kind of difficult, convoluted tonal structure present in such scenes. I did a draw-over where I grouped things a bit more, made sure that the foreground read a little darker, but also grouped sections of the background as well. The middle ground I left pretty much as is, with a little darkening of the ground plane.  It’s easier for me, for sure, because I just adjusted them as I felt like it, since I don’t see the reference. But, that’s something you might want to try to do. Draw from life, but then finish from memory.

Hope this helps!

Best,

Iliya

[Gordan Knezic]

Thank you Iliya! I appreciate your valuable analysis and insightful guidance!

Day 78, charcoal on 9×12 block.

Again I went through all the proper steps from 2 and 3 value matrix design thumbnails to planing distinct and separate value groups. This is the result of today’s effort.

 

 

 

[Gordan Knezic]

Day 79, charcoal on 9×12 block.

I had a hard time to find what to draw and at the end picked this forest motif. I don’t like the way it turned out, but it is what it is. On the bright side my wife likes it 🙂

[Gordan Knezic]

Day 80, 9×12 block, charcoal pencil.

[Gordan Knezic]

Day 81.

I simplified the background by creating a pattern of sunlight evergreen branches. That is what flattened the background and made the cottage with all its intricacies stand out more.  It was quite interesting exercise. In the past I would have fallen for drawing every single branch and in this subject that would have looked very chaotic with cottage merging and getting lost in the details of the background trees.

[Gordan Knezic]

Day 82.

I am not too happy with this one, but this is best I could do with charcoal pencil. Maybe I should have drawn it bigger than 9×12 paper to more clearly model small shapes. I really liked the subject.

[Gordan Knezic]

Day 83, charcoal pencil on 9×12 block.

[Gordan Knezic]

Day 84, graphite on 9×12 block paper.

I tried different subject, cityscape.

[Christopher]

Hi Gordan,

since most of your recent pictures have a strong and dark shadow I kind of like the newest one. It has a different feel to it I think because it leans more towards the mid values.

While doing these are you trying to stay true to the references values or are you “designing” the values via Bill Perkins key system? Have you ever considered drawing a certain reference multiple times but with different key’s? I think this could be a good way for you to further experiment with mood and values in general. 👍👋

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