The "last" chapter (there are actually two more, but they are more about applying creativity to other fields and some concluding remarks on finding the artist within you) of the "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" book by Betty Edwards focuses on perceiving lights and shadows, also known as seeing things in terms of "values".
This was another mind blowing chapter for me, I always regarded this part of drawing as something subconscious, and also simply I couldn't really understand how to use lighter or darker tones to give the idea of tridimensionality.
Steichen: Self-Portrait
The first exercise of the book is to draw the face in the "Self Portrait" by Edward Steichen. That's a really cool picture, where half of the author's face is completely in shadow, and yet our brain makes us almost see that part of the face. The book here teaches also how to use the eraser as a drawing tool (if you tone the paper, you can achieve the "lightest light" by erasing some parts of the drawing).
Here is my drawing:
The drawing is not as dark as the original image, because I didn't have anything to tone my paper up to that darkness. But I think I captured the idea and I'm happy with the result. My wife's comment to this drawing was: "who's that, Voldemort?", which is not what I was going for but I found pretty funny!
Cross Hatching
The book briefly mentions cross hatching in this chapter as a way to control lighter and darker values. I was curious so I did an exercise on this technique following this tutorial on youtube.
Here is the result:
This was very quick and measures are not super precise, but I like how it ended up looking. This looks like something I can quickly practice in my day to day as well so will do more of these.
My Self Portrait
This is the "final" drawing of the book, where you are supposed to apply everything learned. Coincidentally, I ended up drawing this a month later my first self portrait, so it's a good way to check a month's progress.
And this is the result:
The left one was done on the workbook, which I ended up not using much, and the right one on my sketchbook. I'm mind blown by the progress. I need to work on the facial features more, as sometimes still the symbols for eyes and mouth take precedence over what I "see" but I'm really really happy with the result.
What's next?
This is the end of the "book", but just the beginning of my learning. I got what I wanted from this book, which is to give me a method and confidence to start drawing more. I bought two more books, which will arrive on Wednesday, and if I like them will be the base of my next learning exploration. But in the meantime, I have a lot of things I can explore on my own and every day I cannot wait for the moment I can sit down and draw something. I love the state of mind this puts me in, and I like that I'm learning something way out of my comfort zone. I'll also start a in person course end of January, can't wait!