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About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
DOWNLOADS
project-notan-master-thumbnails.mp4
250 MB
project-notan-master-thumbnails-transcript-english.txt
7 kB
project-notan-master-thumbnails-transcript-spanish.txt
7 kB
project-notan-master-thumbnails-captions-english.srt
11 kB
project-notan-master-thumbnails-captions-spanish.srt
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ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![@hampop]()
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![Wesley]()
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![Rachel Dawn Owens]()
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![Mal]()
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![Quinton Larrimore]()
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![David D]()
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![Daniel Cabot]()
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![Paolo]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![@androida]()
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![@aakerhus]()
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![@aakerhus]()
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![@aakerhus]()
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![@aakerhus]()
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![Rachel Dawn Owens]()
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![Youssef Ateya]()
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![Otis]()
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![Wenhan Lee]()
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![@aakerhus]()
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![@aakerhus]()
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![Eiko Fazio]()
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![@justjen]()
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![@aakerhus]()
Level 1: Two to Three Value Studies
In this project, you'll do Value Thumbnails to help you see value relationships and organize them into groups. You'll simplify the drawings into just 2 or 3 values. This practice will improve your ability to observe and interpret values in your drawings.
Thumbnails are small sketches. They are intentionally small to help you avoid drawing details. Don't draw the details! Focus on designing the large shapes and assigning them a value.
Reference
In the downloads, you’ll find several images of master paintings. Use the images I provided, and if there's another master painting you're excited about, feel free to study it as well.
Two-Value Studies
Two-value drawings (Notan) use just lights and darks. You'll choose a threshold: anything lighter goes into lights, anything darker into darks. This threshold is up to you, based on your interpretation of the image.
- Lights
- Darks
Three-Value Studies
Optionally, incorporate a mid value into your thumbnails. The mid value is useful for areas that aren't clearly light or dark and could belong to either group. Including this value helps to categorize those ambiguous areas.
- Lights
- Mids
- Darks
Level 2: Still Life Photos
For more challenge, set up your own still life, compose, light, and photograph it. Use a direct and clear light source to create distinct light and dark areas. Choose a subject that interests you.
Then, do value thumbnail studies from your photo. This is harder since you're working from a photo, not a master paintings, which have a lot of the composing, designing, and simplifying already done. Photos present raw details and noise. You'll need to filter out unnecessary information, focusing on big shapes and value groups. Fight the urge to include all the details.
Remember, this project isn't about beautiful drawings. It's about improving specific skills to help you make beautiful drawings later.
Deadline - submit by Nov 15, 2024 for a chance to be in the critique video!
Looking for feedback 👋
This took way longer than I thought it would. And I still feel like I rushed the processor and missed a lot of details along the way.
I decided to use only a single direction for shading lines, but maybe I should have experienced with that more 🤔
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6d
Great job keeping things simple here. Try more iterations. There’s a ton you could play with here.
What would happen if you made his shirt dark and blended it with the background for instance?
Here are two studies I did. For the Native and horse 3 value study, I feel that I may have unintentionally created more than three values because I ended up getting so lost in the process. I tried to create smooth edges when that was not what this activity is about. I enjoyed creating these and will most certainly be adding them to my personal practice!
2 value study. Looking for critique. Do you think I should try to go even simpler or perhaps add more detail?
My threshold was right in between black and white. After I finished my first attempt, I went over the original image with the eyedropper tool to check its values. I tried to look for the average in an area and then I marked what I think I got right in blue, what I think I got wrong in red, and then what I think could go either way in yellow. I think the biggest mistake I made was with the newspaper in the foreground. On my second attempt, I tried to correct those areas.
I have a couple questions as well.
1.) Are we strictly using hard edges for this section?
2.) The project says we should focus on large shapes, but I have a hard time with smaller shapes. How do draw your smaller shapes? Or, is it too early to worry about that?
For my first go at Notan studies, I went with a 2 value study. By the end I felt like I was more clearly seeing the values of the paintings instead of the subject, form, or shapes. Particularly like the two Sorolla paintings!
I should probably revisit with a 3 value study, but I’ll do that after I watch some critiques and demos. I’m not 100% sure I’m doing this right, but it seems like there’s room for interpretation.
Was fun tough to maintain idea of what was happening in paintings with 3 values some especially the last one, fun practice
I've been studying three of my favorite masters: Zandomenighi from the Macchiaioli movement, Monet, and the Hildebrandt Brothers. I found it challenging to avoid getting caught up in details, and limiting myself to just two values was particularly difficult—I often struggled to decide where to place darks and lights. Still, it was an enjoyable and rewarding exercise that deepened my appreciation for these artists.
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27d
Nice notans, from some great references, good work! Deciding where to place darks and lights is always the struggle, and the benefit of doing many of these studies! The limitation of two values can be intense, but when you get it to work, it's very rewarding. Keep it up!
Some of them got undeniably messy - but I loved doing these. Mostly done with jumbo size 2B and 4B pencils and then one office-grade pencil that is either B or HB. I picked up the jumbo pencils to try and avoid details but it wasn't the best decision because I lost a bit too much on defining the edges.
I haven't watched any of the critiques nor demos yet and I didn't do the digital editor threshold check on which areas should go to lights and which to darks,wanted to see how badly those'll go wrong with eyeballs only.
Finally finished. Here is Notan study 9 - 13 of 13 references using three values.
The one by Sorolla and N C Wyeth were tricky in this instance, when there is a lot of gradiations, notan studies become much harder. But I got through!
Update; I wanted to make some tiny updates for the man on the table in the Cornwell reference.
Partial submission: Notan study, 8 out of 13 references using three values.
The first one, by Zorn, made sense to relatively easily.
The second one, by Sorolla, was one of those references where it was hard to set a border for how much I should simplify the shapes. There is so much going on.
In the first version, I gave the darker parts in the water the mid value, and in the second version I gave the water and the sky only the lightest value. I am most happy with how the latter turned out.
These are such great exercises on the simplifying of forms, I am getting more and more used to rely on squinting to reveal the simple forms.
Partial submission: Notan study 6 out of 13 references using three values.
It was tricky to avoid getting too much into the details with this one. But I remembered to squint alot and tried to simplify the shapes as much as possible.
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1mo
This is a very good notan value study!
Only an extremely cultured individual would add a Kung Fu Panda's Po reference in between the master studies. Love it! Great work!
Level 1 attempts, both digital and traditional. I only have No. 2 pencils (I draw digitally most of the time so I don't have that much equipment for traditional art). I started out with using 4 values, but then moved on to using 3 values. Feedback is welcome
Notan study 4 out of 13 references using three values.
Rockwell was a tough one to start with, but I am satisfied with where I landed.
Very happy with number two, I liked how the trees affected by the atmospheric perspective got the same value as the ground plane. I don't know how else I would have done it, the distance from the trees in the foreground to the trees in the background is a big part of the composition, so I wanted to give them separate values to emphasize this.
Number three was a pickle, and now, in hindsight, I'll make som adjustments and attach a newer version to this post.
Number four is the one I have struggled the most with this far. When I started it I gave the water the lighest value all over the composition, regardless of whether or not it was in direct sunlight, But things finally made more sense for me when I surrounded the waterfall with the darkest value (inspired from the local value around it) and gave the water from there on and down the mid-value, since the water is in shadow there. But since the rocks in shadow have a darker local color, I gave them a darker value. Hope my decisions make sense to whomever reads this. This is the picture where I finally remembered to squint as well, it helps tremendously.
After squinting I think it makes more sense to group the two boats to the right with the darkest value. It's still a pickle, I think I am more satisfied with this one than the one in my initial post.
I started working on 5 references before watching the demo. I tried both 2 values and 3 values for each image to get better ideas. Both are challenging but trying to draw with just 2 values are especially tough. For example, there is no clear separation between ocean and the light color cow... how do I express 2 separate items in using the same value? Hopefully I will get some clarify after watching the demo. Another challenge was that I tend to draw way too much details and because of that, subjects were getting too messy.
While I enjoyed this, it was challenging on a few levels. First, to draw this in a 3" x 4" box while keeping it pretty faithful to original plus figuring out proportions was the most difficult for me. Because I was so focused on that, I did not always sketch with values in mind. I had trouble figuring out how to limit the values while also making the images clear enough to see what the painting had originally shown. After finishing the Payne (trees) pic, I went back to make it just 2 values, but messed it up by accidentally filling in some spaces that should have remained white.
I'm going to watch some demos and critiques now, so I can try to improve.
Notan study 13 out of 13 references using two values.
Note to self: squint more, avoid detals. Since these are only done using two values, it mainly goes like this: Anything in clear light and with a bright local color goes into the light value. The rest goes with the dark value.
In hindsight with this particular reference I think the horses nose and the upper part of the man riding it would have gone with the lighter value since it's so close in value with the background, but I only registered that when I squintet when I was finished with the study.
Looking forward to try these with tith three values to choose from. Especially the references with gradients can be tricky to group into only two values.
