Foolproof Concept Painting is a Schoolism course developed by concept designer and illustrator, Airi Pan. Over the course of 10 hours, she explores topics like light and color, photorealistic painting, photobashing, and speedpainting.

I've been working through it at my own pace, and wanted to write down my notes and record my progress here :-)

Lesson 1: Values

The first lesson is on values of black and white, as well as analyzing Notan (local value) vs. Chiaroscuro (shadow value) techniques. The main takeaway when painting in B&W is to use strong silhouettes (and contrast) to direct the viewer's attention to the areas of focus; some common elements that help frame silhouettes include windows, rim lighting, fog, clothing values, and sky values.

Notan techniques, which focuses on representing the essential value of the subject, give an orderly, clear effect to paintings, whereas Chiaroscuro, which focuses on light and shadow, heightens dramatic effect.

How to approach studying values from images?

1. Identify large areas that correspond to white, gray, & black

2. Identify whether it is primarily local/shadow value

3. Start with the shadows

The first batch of homework studies was to redraw 10 movie stills/master paintings with only 3 values. I did the studies and redrew them following Airi's examples if they were too off. Had some trouble simplifying the shapes and errors with value determination that I didn't catch until putting the image into grayscale. The Soul frame was particularly hard in determining which details should be included.