Value Drawing and Photography

Final Blog Post: Create a final "Value" post including an image of your completed drawing and at least one example of your photographic prints. a. Refer to your interim Blog post, consider the Habits of "stretch and explore" and "engage and persist" (See home course page or pdf download). -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?By engaging and persisting, I was able to grasp a better sense of value of the objects I was drawing and photographing. One key way I was able to do this was by using shading and thickness of my lines to create a greater sense of value, distance, and lighting for my drawing.  For the photography, I focused on choosing a photo that featured multiple shades of black, grey, and white.

-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)? These habits have allowed me to have a more direct approach to the piece I am working on and have enabled me to know exactly what I have to do to make the piece have a greater sense of value by focusing on line quality, contrasting shades, and distance between the objects.  These habits have also allowed me to employ shading and lighting to create a more 'real' piece of art that makes it more 3-D instead of 2-D.

b. Compare and Contrast your work in the darkroom and your work on the drawing. -Which medium felt more comfortable? Why? I felt more comfortable while drawing my objects because in that medium, I felt a greater connection with my piece than I did in the Dark Room.  I felt like I was adding my own sense of character to the drawing, not just drawing a random collection of shoes.  Because of this, I felt more comfortable and inspired while drawing.  While in the Dark Room, for some reason I felt like I was just doing the same process over and over again.  Not that that wasn't fun and interesting, it's just I felt like I wasn't able to add my own sense of expression and opinion into the photography. -Which medium allowed you more opportunity for "expression"? How? I think the value drawing allowed for more opportunity for expression because a person could take the same collection of objects and draw it in many different ways depending on their use of lines, shading, and lighting.  By allowing someone to implement their own use of feeling and opinion into a piece of art, it enables them to establish a stronger connection to the work of art. -How might you better improve your experience and/or results with each of the mediums in the future?  I could improve my experience and work by cutting out the steps that caused me to go back a step and focusing on always making improvements in the piece I am working on day after day.  I felt like in some areas, I made mistakes that made me have to erase or restart what I had done to make the drawing or photo have a greater sense of lighting and value.  By focusing on always making positive steps in my art, I will have a better experience and therefore a better result of my art in the future.