Once I had completed my sixteen thumbnail sketches, I knew that it was time to move onto my value studies but I was struggling to understand what they actually consisted of. I knew they were design images which shows the lighting of a scene but I wasn't too sure how detailed they were meant to be. Were they simply supposed to be made up of block colours or something more detailed with a larger amount of shading? As I didn't want to start them and end up doing the wrong thing, I thought it would be best to ask my tutor Nigel about it as he was the one supervising all the 2D Art Tests.
I manages to chat to him during one of our most recent classes and showed him what I had been working on so far and that I was thinking about moving onto my value studies. He immediately explained to me why I have probably been struggling and this was because my thumbnail designs were just far too detailed. They are meant to be quick, rough and loosely drawn sketches which give a very brief example of what you are trying to portray in a scene. None of them are meant to be highly polished as they are only a starting concept and artists only add detailed when it comes to a final design or painting. For me, the thumbnails I did were very rough as they were each done in five minutes and drawn straight onto Photoshop using a tablet which to be honest, I really didn't enjoy doing as I am very used to doing hand draw designs and taking my time on pieces, making sure that they line art is correct. I had even decided to re do my thumbnails with neater line work so that they looked far more appealing and so I would feel more comfortable with creating the three final pieces a the end of the process (an example of the neater thumbnail sketch can been seen on the first panel of the second image below.) I has also been sketching out a house in Fables art style, which can be seen in the image below, so that I could improve my drawings and keep the style following through my designs.
Unfortunately Nigel told me to shoot down my preferred art style for this Art Test, which meant losing the time I spend on my work and the use of line art, so that I could focus on getting the thumbnails done quickly and roughly as they aren't supposed to be highly detailed designs that we spend a lot of time on. This proposition immediately made me feel worried as not only would I be working on environment art which I know isn't one of my strong points but now I would have to completely change my art style and technique to something that I am not to comfortable of knowledgeable about. Nigel gave me a gentle push and told me to start working on my value studies in class so that he would be able to see them and see if I was going down the right path. After drawing out a brief study which can seen in the second panel of the image below, I was soon told that it still wasn't what I was supposed to be producing and I should be far more lose and rough with my design work. He drew out a quick example of what my value studies should be looking like and that is what I needed to aim for. It was very rough and lacking in detail but he explained that it is like that so that you can pick out shapes that are very exaggerated and obviously there. This way you will get far more design ideas out of just one concept.
After I saw Nigel sketch and he showed me what brushes I could use after a little tweaking in Photoshop I began working on my value studies which are the six final images which can be seen in the image below. To be honest I only really like one of them which is the second one on the right hand side but apart from that one I think they look a little stodgy. Although Nigel said they are a lot better than what I had been doing before so it seems that this is the style I will have to continue to use when I move onto my colour studies. I will hopefully be able to use the advice my tutor gave me and make sure they remain quick and rough so that I don't spend too much time on each one.
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