Diving Into Values, Fast and Loose Experimentation
Added 2024-08-01 03:06:59 +0000 UTCSome REALLY rough and loose attempts at figuring out values more concretely, with two approaches.
The first is the gold ring. I wanted to try a more reflective material for this experiment, as that would be interesting to try and get right. I did it all in grayscale first then applied a gradient map to add the colors, gradient mapping being a thing I also wanted to try out here. It turned out surprisingly well if I do say so myself, the values that I figured out in the grayscale stage translated into color perfectly. I do want to try gradient mapping more, but it's really tricky to get things in the right place with that tool.
The second one here is an attempt at figuring out values first before colors WITHOUT using gradient mapping, as well as using a more "cartoony/anime" form of rendering. Unlike the gold ring, I used the grayscale as a map for what color tones to use in the drawing and applied said colors manually, which is closer to how I usually do things. This way of doing it was a bit less frustrating and I think it turned out alright, even if it is a bit goofy looking being a "fast and loose" sketch and all.
All-in-all, I need to do this more. Like, a LOT more. There's a ton to learn about understanding and applying values in a drawing for all sorts of things, and I'm only scratching the surface here. Hopefully I can get a handle on it, as it's already showing that it is INCREDIBLY... valuable... to pay attention to.
