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  • Welcome to Proko, my name is Stan Prokopenko. This episode is a really important one. I’m

  • going to introduce to you guys the basic elements that make up any picture.

  • We see everything around us in 3d. Then we try to draw a 3d world on a 2 dimensional

  • surface. Of course drawing an actual 3d world is impossible on paper, so we have to learn

  • to create the Illusion of depth. Any picture can be broken down into 4 elements to create

  • that illusion of form. It’s like the periodic table of elements for artists. And luckily

  • for us, it’s a much smaller table.

  • So, we can use these elements to show form and depth if we are realists or representational

  • artists, but it’s not limited to just showing form. Any picture, anything you can see can

  • be broken down into these elements. An abstract watercolor painting, a realistic portrait

  • drawing, a photograph of a sunset, anything that you can see can be described with Shape,

  • Edge, Value, and Color. I would even argue that there are only 3 major elements. Shape,

  • edge, and color. Because value is just a subelement of color. But value is so important that artists

  • have separated it as its own thing. Also, when were drawing, were usually drawing

  • in black and white. And so, in a black and white drawing value is the only visible part

  • of the color. So, we put aside the concept of color, and just say value. When we start

  • painting, we introduce the other two subelements of color - hue and chroma.

  • So, let’s go over these elements one by one, starting with Shape.

  • Shape Shape is a concept that’s familiar to most

  • of us. It’s the elements we use to draw as kids. It’s the area that something takes

  • up. It’s the outline, or the contour of all the pieces in the drawing. But it’s

  • not limited to just the outline of the big elements. The smaller parts also have specific

  • shapes.

  • For the early stages of a drawing you want to develop your ability to simplify a shape.

  • This is important so that you can focus on the composition and the breakdown of the big

  • picture. Getting distracted by the smaller details too early, can hurt you in the long

  • run. Working big to small is usually a good idea.

  • When simplifying, think about geometric shapes. circles, ovals,squares, rectangles, triangles,

  • diamonds, crescents and so on.. These are simple shapes as opposed to complex organic

  • shapes. For example this complex shape of a leaf can be simplified to this in the first

  • stage of the drawing and then the details can be found in the later stages.

  • Shape is the most important element to convey the identity of an object. These two shapes

  • are very different and symbolize two very different things. They are not 3 dimensional,

  • but its still very obvious what they represent, just by looking at the shape. That’s why

  • shape designis such an important skill to practice and develop. Simply put, shape

  • design is making your shapes look good. It’s a bit arbitrary, but you know it when you

  • see it. You could say that this shape is better than this one because it’s cleaner and more

  • interesting. It does a better job of getting the point across and doing so in a more interesting

  • way.

  • Color Now let’s move on to color. I’ll go into

  • more depth on color theory later, since it’s a very complex topic and deserves it’s own

  • episode or even a whole series of episodes. Right now, I’ll just go over the basics.

  • Color has 3 subcategories. The Hue, the chroma, and the value. For example, this color has

  • a purple hue, a number 3 value, and a medium chroma.

  • Hue is what we typically refer to when we say color. Yellow, orange, red, blue, green

  • - these are all hues. Your traditional color wheel is an arrangement of hues.. If you shine

  • a light through a prism, it will break up the light and reveal the color spectrum. The

  • same colors as the rainbow. And the same colors as the color wheel.

  • The terms warm and cool are used to describe the two sides of the color wheel if you cut

  • it in half. The warm family shares orange as a common color and the cool family shares

  • blue as a common color. Think of fire being warm and ice being cool.

  • Chroma refers to how grey or how pure the color is. On one end are the high chroma colors

  • that you'll see in the rainbow, and on the other end are the low chroma greys with a

  • gradual transition. In some color wheels you'll have the high chroma colors on the outside

  • with a gradation towards grey in the center. You'll often hear people using the term "neutralizing"

  • a color. This just means lowering the chroma and bringing it closer to grey. There's two

  • ways you can do that. The first is just adding grey to it. As you'd expect this will bring

  • it closer to grey. The other way is to add its complement, or the color across from it

  • on the color wheel. Mixing these two colors will result in the color in between them.

  • Half and half will theoretically make grey. Now, pigment isn't perfect, so you usually

  • won't get that exactly perfect grey. But you'll definitely bring it closer to grey. Depending

  • on the ratio you mix, will result in a color somewhere in between the two. So if I add

  • just a little bit of the green to the red, I'll still have a red, just a lower chroma

  • version.

  • Ok lets move on to value. Value is how light or dark the color is. There is an infinite

  • amount of values, but most artists like to think of a finite scale, zero to ten. It's

  • more manageable that way and it makes it a lot easier to communicate. A teacher might

  • say, make that shape one value darker. And you'll know roughly how much 1 value is.

  • Drawing with charcoal we don’t use color, since everything is grey scale. Or a better

  • way to put that is, we don't use hue and chroma, the only element of color that we see is value.

  • So many artists have separated value as its own element and say its more important than

  • the other elements of color. You can have a very beautiful drawing without using color

  • - just greyscale. you don't need it to draw a representation of what you're looking at.

  • You don't need it to show form and depth. So, I think it’s wise to practice drawing

  • without color as a beginner, since that’s one less ball you have to juggle as youre

  • learning. Once you get the hang of values, then add the colors, and go wild.

  • But, I don’t want to make it seem like color isn't important. It is! Colors are beautiful

  • and quite often its what will catch the eye of someone looking at your artwork. It could

  • set off an emotional response to a piece of art, that a gray scale drawing can't do. But

  • as the artist you must understand, that if you don't get the values right, the rest of

  • the color won't look right. So focus on accuracy of values, and that will allow you to experiment

  • and bend your colors.

  • So that's your color basics 101, maybe not even 101. More like 10half...

  • The final element is Edge Edge is the transition between two shapes.

  • It doesn't have to be an edge of a volume. The shapes within the volume have edges too.

  • The types of edges range from sharp to extremely soft, with an infinite amount in between.

  • But to simplify it weve come up with 4 types of edges. Sharp, firm, soft, and lost.

  • A sharp edge is a very sudden transition between 2 shapes. It’s sharp like a razor blade.

  • There is no transition, its a sudden change. A firm edge is almost hard, but it has a very

  • small gradation to it. Think of these as corners that have a bevel or rounded corner. On a

  • figure youll typically see firm edges on tendons and joints.

  • A soft edge is a very smooth transition between 2 shapes. Youll see a longer gradation.

  • Soft edges are like clouds or baby butts.

  • A lost edge is one that is so soft, that you can't see it anymore. It’s frequently used

  • in areas where the values of two forms are close together and a really soft edge would

  • merge the two volumes together.

  • Putting it all together

  • Every time you're drawing or painting and you look at your reference, you need to have

  • an intuitive checklist of elements to identify. What’s the shape, color, and edge? And within

  • color, what's the value, hue, and chroma? To make this intuitive you have to train your

  • brain by intentionally thinking about these things while you're analyzing the subject.

  • Eventually you don't have to force it anymore, it becomes part of your observation process.

  • For example as you look at this clementine and you observe the shadow, you ask yourself:

  • what is the shape? is it circular, rectangular, triangular etc. In this case, its a crescent

  • if you simplify it and something like this, when you look at the details.

  • What is the value on a scale of 0-10? and more importantly what is the value in relationship

  • to all the other values in the picture? This shadow, is the darkest part of the picture.

  • So if you want your picture to have the full range of values, from 0-10, you have to make

  • it a value 0. The top part of the shadow on the clementine is about 1 value lighter than

  • under the clementine. The reflected light down here is another 1 to 2 values lighter.

  • Instead of the full value range of 0-10, you can choose to go for a narrower value range,

  • say 3-7, The darkest part would be a 3 and the highlight would be a 7. And accommodate

  • the other values to fit within that range. So it’s the relationships between all the

  • values in the picture that really matter. The next question is, what is the hue? Even

  • though it’s an orange clementine, not all the colors on it are orange. I’m seeing

  • a transition from orange on the light side, to a redder hue on the shadow side.

  • What is the chroma? Ehh, it’s somewhere in the middle, probably a little closer to

  • the high chroma side.. And the edge is firm on the left and softer

  • on the right.

  • The ability to see and properly identify all these elements is a skill, its a sense that

  • you need to develop. At first you will struggle to see the subtleties , but just as a musician

  • tunes her ears to hear notes and compose the notes into a symphony, you too can develop

  • your ability to see these subtleties and view the world through an artist’s eye. As with

  • most things, it’s about repetition through practice.

  • Before you go, I want to thank everyone who bought my Portrait Drawing DVD. You guys have

  • been really supportive and I owe you a big thank you! If you dont have one yet and are

  • interested, you can go to proko.com/dvd1 to learn more.

  • Hey if you like this video, your friends might too. Please help me out and share this video

  • on your favorite social network. And don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter on Proko.com

Welcome to Proko, my name is Stan Prokopenko. This episode is a really important one. I’m

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