Week 3 (Tone and Value)

 

For week three we were to focus on tone and value and apply this to six thumbnails for our ‘design a world’ project.  The first section of the lecture was with Alec Parkin who explained the meaning of tone and value, and how we can use this when shading to depict a change in the form of our design.  Our eyes are tricked into seeing a change in form when there is a change in value.  For instance, I shaded a sphere to better show and understand this.

 

 

Without the change in values shown in this, the sketch would just look like a circle.  The tone change tricks our mind into viewing this circle as being a 3D object with the light hitting one side of it and casting a shadow onto the floor.

 

Aodhan McNicholl then took the next part of the lecture, showing us a technique called cross hatching.  This allows you to add in value through lines – the more lines built up on top of each other, the darker the area.  I was very excited to try this out as I already had some experience with this and really enjoyed it.

After looking through many examples of cross hatching, I was inspired by the artist Vince Low – his linework and shading is phenomenal.  Here is some of his work:

 

 

One of the artists we were advised to research was Raphael Lacoste who does amazing cross hatching work.  Here are some examples of his work.

 

 

 

His work is very detailed, using a build-up of intricate pen lines to create the landscapes.  This video was also very handy when it came to doing my two-tone thumbnail study, which I found very difficult.

 

 

 

Here are my experimental thumbnails I created for this week after learning more about tone and value.

 

 

I am very pleased with this work; however, I think the first cross hatching thumbnail was messy and I could have improved this by having more control over my lines.  I think I was too loose with them, which in this case meant that the landscape looked untidy and confusing.  In the second cross hatching thumbnail I tried to keep my lines simpler and tidier.

I also feel that I could have improved the third one by adding more tone variation.  The tree trunks at the front should be darker to allow more variation in the leading ones behind.  However, I really like how each of them turned out and it was good practice trying to work using different techniques.

I set up a perspective grid for each of them which really helped with making the scenes look more believable and interesting.  The hardest thumbnail was definitely the two tone as I found it very hard to get in enough detail to allow you to see what it was I was trying to show – a prison or jail.  This would be where the hybrid animals are being kept in between experiments.  I wanted to add details such as cracks in the floor to make it look more run down and unkept.  In the 5th thumbnail, I showed one of the characters I created chained in the middle of a street.  I had hoped to show that it is trapped and being used to human’s advantage instead of being free with others of its kind in the forest.

I made mood boards which helped me to get an idea of how I wanted the world to look.

 

 

 

 

 

I choose my favourite of my previously created thumbnails and did a larger scale tonal study of it.

 

 

For the most part, I am satisfied with this study, however I can see there is definitely room for improvement.  Therefore, I plan to continue studying tone and value in order to feel more confident going forward.

While creating this I was looking at references to help me.  These are the ones that were most helpful, especially the first one which is what I used as references for the bushes and trees in my study.  While I wasn’t using colour, it was helpful to see other people using different hues to show lighting.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XW5gD

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3w53Y

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/NvVwJ

 

 

 

I thought it would be good to have another character so that we can pick and choose from what we have.  I wanted this character to be able to fly as none of the other hybrids have that ability.

Here is the mood board I set up with the reference pictures I used to create this character.

 

 

 

This hybrid is a mix between an owl, lynx and an otter.  I think this is very unique and will add some more variation to the animals in the laboratory.

Owl – Body, head, wings

Lynx – Ears

Otter – Tail