I am a free woman, having finished my class last Friday and had a meeting cancelled due to the storm out east. So I am starting to work on assignment 2, which is to translate one of the black and white pictures to a value-based abstraction.
The first issue is how to outline the shapes of different darkness or value levels. The idea is to get away from the content and into the balance conveyed by light and dark. I thought I would try tracing paper, which obscures the detail somewhat. In the picture below, the Grant Wood picture is covered by tracing paper. You can see how the tracing paper fuzzes up the detail.
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| Overlaying tracing paper and adding some outlines |
The picture also shows my first stab at outlining the whitest and the blackest areas in the Grant Wood image. As I started working on the outlines, I noticed that some of the value in this picture was quite similar. Upon closer inspection, I could see that the value distinctions were indicated by pattern, which I found to be a bit confusing. To sort that out, I remembered another handy tip is to obscure detail: squint your eyes, and the image will get coarser. Alternatively, if you have binoculars or a view finder, look at the picture by using binos (or view finder) backwards. In other words, point the end that you would normally put close to your eyes towards the picture.
The main thing is not to get too mired in the details of the shapes and shades of gray (no pun intended!). As I drew, I really wanted to get the outlines true to the contour details, but that's an urge I should probably suppress.
Good luck in your odysseys!
