All right. The time is finally come to take everything we've
learned about cloth and apply it
to our model. model.

Okay. So as you see there's an enormous amount of cloth here.
Probably a lot more than you encounter in daily life. But
what I'm interested in here is how we can begin to pinpoint
the individual constructions that we covered on
the fabric that we have already spent so much time on
and we're going to encounter all of that here.
The other thing of course is that the there's a local color
to each of the pieces of cloth here and we're going to be
working in a way where that
plays an important role to the tonal relationships on the
page.
So it's not just a light and shadow,
it's also
individual tonal contrast between the fabrics as well.
So the procedure though, however remains the same.
So, let's see what's the amount that we need here,
right? We don't need information on the head,
right, we just need to kind of lay some of these things in
a little bit.
And let's just get a general placement, right? it right
In terms of the amount of form we'll be able to perceive
underneath everything.
That of course is important but not to the
extent that each of the individual pieces of fabric
is. So
arm there,
just kind of lay in
each fabric. Maybe even one at a time, right, just kind of okay.
So that's that. It's almost like a cape.
We're not going to go all the way down to the legs.
Now we have this
fabric on the torso,
a sash
in that lovely turquoise.
And then this expansion of cloth at the bottom at this
lovely angle.
All right.
So be relatively loose with everything, right? We don't
need to be too specific at this early point. I'm more concerned
with what the tonal structure of everything is, right? So
we're going to start with that, which is not exactly how we did
it before. If anything we would establish our shadows before
figuring out the local value of the fabric. Here let's quickly
figure out what's happening with the outlines.
Right, take your time.
Step back, right, just kind of assess the whole thing. I'm
working on a panel on which I stretched paper but did
not put a tone, right? I didn't think there was a need to tone
primarily because I'm working in charcoal and I wanted to get
a range of tonality. Right? So I'm using the white of the
paper. I'm going to need it. I'm going to need it that
bright.
So yeah squint a lot right squint a lot to get.
the fabric now remember it
doesn't really matter
like how long something is or how short something is
just on its own, right, it all has to do with how -
what's the amount that you need to express a certain movement?
And like the thing that I'm seeing here is that there's an
interesting contrapposto, right, inside. So the contrapposto,
meaning the hips are tilted that way,
the shoulder girdle is either completely
horizontal or actually slightly tilted the other way, and the
clothing has to help this, right? So the sash would kind of
accent this movement, right? Because that's the movement
helping to establish the angle of the hips.
Then up here we'll make sure that this shoulder reads -
this shoulder reads as opposed to the other one and we can
even see that structurally, right? It doesn't even - you can
even see the other one because
of the cloth around the head.
So you can already see
that S curve, right, that
larger movement
here.
Now the shadows are also going to show us the forms inside.
This is very - at first glance you might look and see oh my
god, there's so much stuff going on, so many individual
pieces of cloth and then there's tons of
interruption within each cloth due to the patterns
of the fabric, the constructions that we covered,
but just bear with me and we'll figure out the tonal structure,
figure out the light and shadows as they apply to the
forms below them.
Below the cloth that is.
However, let's begin of course with
laying in a tone.
Now remember value is relative.
We're going to push our values for sure but value is relative.
So this darker fabric.
By the way, a number of these fabrics you've already
encountered, right, like the darker gray one on
the torsowe explored and a half-lock and the diaper
construction
the
one underneath, we did the spiral
and the
zig zag so
you already kind of have a feeling for the local value if
you will.
So I'm just going to start with that, right, everything will be
very very flat because I feel like
without this
we'll be lost and applying this after the fact is a little more
of an issue. Of course the other thing that we see is that
we're going to have a little bit of a different textural
quality to each of these fabrics.
The sash is highly reflective.
The white fabric underneath is a little bit sort of crumpled.
The
cape is very very smooth. The folds are easy to see and
follow. So all of that has to be
apparent in the final result.
Okay, so this seems reasonable to me as a general value.
Okay, cool.
Now the next thing that we have here is we're that we have here. Is
this turquoise sash. Now, of course, we don't have the color
to use
but because of its reflective properties the highlights are
lighter than the grey fabric, but the shadows are actually
slightly a darker value so we can't really
flatten this at the moment, right? I would actually
show that. So I'm toning down the fabric.
It's going to be a darker value and possibly the the charcoal
won't reach that value right away. So we'll have to find a
way to achieve this.
But right away, I'm just going to lay in some lights. Right?
So this is a very painterly approach. But as you saw a
little more - if the approach is more of open-ended right where
we're finding our way here as we did in the inert - when we
working on the inert fabric
will actually be a little bit
more precise and be easier to find our way in the long run
than taking all of our time earlier on, right, because
if you take all your time earlier on you might run into
some proportional issues that you can't even pick up. So
instead I feel like
it makes a greater amount
of sense just get something on the page that you know what and
how to correct.
So that's clearly in shadow. I just lay that in to have a dark
value and see how dark I can go. So keep that in mind. Okay.
So where else are we? Don't have too much more to do.
Head does not matter. Let's find the whole head is in here.
So that kind of will matter.
What's important now is to just get a general value for the
cape.
Right? And it's fairly light
and we're going to treat the shadows and lights evenly.
We're not getting to the shadows just yet.
Notice the approach that I'm going to take here is one that
I mentioned actually somewhat in passing. I'm worried about
the larger forms underneath, especially because maybe especially because
they're rather obscure
in this case,
obscured by this enormous amount of cloth.
Okay good.
Arm not in the most natural position, but doesn't matter.
We don't need to focus on that
and this whole side too, right?
Keeping in mind of course, and we're going to see this, that
the right side is the side catching the light and the left
side is the side shadow.
So we can't over - we can't push these values
more than we need to here because then we're going to
have to tone down these.
And then there's of course the cloth
underneath everything, which is
the lightest cloth we have. So the hard part here is how much
we really tone it down and I think for the sake of being
able to erase out certain bright highlights, just going to
get a little bit of a tone on it, but not not much. All
right. So even that is in a sense enough of a distinction
between each of our fabrics. So is that all that it is of
course not. As we begin to place shadows, figure out the vigil
bits of cloth,
tubular structures, how they're moving in space and so on,
the values might change, we're always gonna have to come back
and readdress this issue.
But before that, let's figure out our shadows, right?
So we know, right, that is our ribcage.
The arm is right there. Right, just basic
simplification, an egg. All right, so squint and notice
that most of our shadows even on individual piece of cloth on
this side following in this general direction.
Look at that shoulder, right? It's all in light. Everything
here is shadow. We're probably going to unify everything into
a darker value in the shadow.
See already it was a feeling of light a little bit right?
I'm certain the terminator will become a darker value and I
don't want to overstate this because when we do get to work
on some of the specific bits of cloth, we're going to encounter
some more problems.
Right, we're going to encounter a darker value within that
value so we can't overstate this now.
At the moment. It's okay
to unify with the darker fabrics of the torso.
Let's show what we have here just with one cloth, right? So
just follow along the procedure and just see what I'm
doing and why.
I need that shot over to still separate the cape, right,
because it's still lighter even though it's in
shadow. So the rule is right. This is where things get a
little bit complicated. The general rule is that the
shadow no matter how light, no matter what the color of the
fabric is must always be a darker value then the lightest
part on any other fabric no matter how dark that fabric is.
So this is going to be hard to do and we might - that's the
general rule right? We might break that rule if we need to
but hopefully we won't, right, because we need to keep things
consistent.
So the general rule is that this shadow on this light
fabric can be a darker value then the lights on this darker
fabric, but the shadows next to each other will still allow you
to see their original local color.
Good
now.
Just blocking these in,
Right. No specifics.
We're going to get there later.
Just to get that overall form.
Right so I'm already getting
in fact, I am getting a little more specific but not too much.
Okay.
All right. We're not worried too much about the form.
We're worried about our lights and local value.
But that is a nice large sweep there.
And I'd say let's even leave it for now.
I would move on
to this whole area
and when we start modeling, we're really going to discuss
this. This is clearly a half-lock, right? You can see it all lakh, right? You can see it all
bunch up and change direction drastically. That's a strong
half-lock
shadow,
cast shadow,
and now dark cast shadows under the arm in this whole. There are
some lighter parts inside, but we'll get to them later, no
need for them right now.
Okay, see what immediately it allows us to establish. This
part on the darker fabric begins to look light.
So we're here, gonna carve this in.
That kind of solves itself, right? We're getting a shadow
on this side. Not a not a particularly difficult problem.
Bring that in.
We can play around with these things later,
the amount of fabric on one side or the other.
Not that important now. The head is in fact turned.
So we're going to simplify this at the moment.
Not worry too much about this.
But cast a shadow onto this cloth.
Interesting, right? I'm more concerned with that big light
right now because it's very easy to lose if you start
getting into the tiny little shadows too soon.
Interesting, okay.
All right. This isn't -
no one would pretty much wear this amount of cloth
for no reason so that just keep in mind this is to by this is exclusively.
some degree unnatural. So it's right. This is not how
you would see clothing outside. However, you are also
well aware that the clothing of today uses as a sort of a very
small amount of excess fabric and you remember that excess
fabric is what creates all those cloth patterns that we
discussed.
Nice sweep with a little twist. This is lovely
sort of long straight line becoming a pipe that expands
and then connects up there, right? You can see I'm already
beginning to think of the fabrics. This becomes
a diaper because there's a fabric is connected here. This
is one point of connection that's the other so this whole
area is the diaper structure and then there's smaller pipes
coming off of that.
And then it's another sort of hanging
construction down here. It's in the shadow. We don't need too
much of it. But that's
something we have.
Now
in her hand, she's holding -
we'll is hint at the hand - she's holding cloth which
very clearly falls like a
multitude of pipes and that feeling that drop, right? So
it's gonna spiral a little bit. That's not a spiral fold.
That's just the end of a pipe. So everything is all right.
It's falling down there.
Now what we have here?
Is the big sweep of some of these pipes that are opening
up, right?
Underneath the sash we also have an area of pretty dark
occlusion shadow, which will
define the end of the form.
I personally think that's too far. So let's erase it. That's the
magic of charcoal.
Excellent, excellent.
And then of course some cast shadows falling onto this lower
light fabric,
cast shadow from the sash and the bow onto the white fabric,
and then individual,
right? I would even call that a half-lock right or even
more than a half-lock. That's almost - that's not anything but
just a lock if you will.
And those are the folds
over there.
And this will continue all the way down. This will be higher.
Interesting. Okay. Okay, probably this shoulder comes
out a little bit more.
And I think we have our general feeling of light and shadow,
general local color,
and some placement of folds
and quick.
So what I would do now is switch to something a little more
manageable, right? Everything's little bit smaller here because
it's - because there's just more going on. Everything is on a
much smaller scale. Whereas we would take this just with this
one part and work on an 18 by 24 piece of paper.
Here we obviously have
essentially five square inches, maybe a little bit more, a
little bit less at the best. So here's what we're going to do.
Just going to take my pencil
and begin to go piece by piece, right, analyzing the folds of
each part. So clearly not too much to work on here.
Using an eraser of course.
These are just nice core and cast shadow on big pipes, Shadow and big on big pipes,
right even if that pipe, as I said before, is becoming
a diaper fold.
Now just getting a general value for something here,
right?
Make sure to be logical with some of this stuff. Core shadow,
cast shadow here falling on that pipe.
So it's more of an aesthetic at the moment. It's you asking
yourself what am I looking at? And then
moving into it with core and cast shadow.
Right and making sure it's known due to the proper placement of
core and cast shadow.
Right? I'm not interested in patterns
of light and shadow really, that's not my primary concern.
Making adjustments, of course, to
some major directions and angles
like this.
At the same time I'm keeping what's within the shadows
relatively flat because I don't think I need to get in there too
specifically. But I'm going to stick to this fabric.
Right, I'm sticking to that, the pale fabric on
the cape or shawl that
is up top.
So this is - right like everything is very simple.
But because of
what we practiced we can begin to see the twisting of
different pipes, the sort of opening up from one type to the
other, right, there's a lot going on here. Look at that clarity of that
cast shadow. That cast shadow can help us read this big
hanging
pipe fold right here that cracks and then changes
direction quite drastically.
I don't know why I call it cracking.
But it almost feels like it, right, if it was a solid object
it's almost as if it would be a
definite alteration
in order to change direction.
Also, I kind of feel that the word crack amplifies the action
a little bit and that's a good way, I think it's a great way
to think of cloth right as
active.
Hm.
Right large movement. That big light on top is good.
Big light on top and then
there's that origin of that pipe coming down from there.
But also that other shadow,
which is
kind of complicated right? Because it's a combination of
the core shadow from the fold itself onto itself. But also
the cast shadow from the arm onto the entirety of the fabric
that's of the head.
So there it is.
Always step back, right, always step back especially at this
early point to make sure that things are going in the right
direction.
Now our mannequin head
you can make some alterations, our proortions seem a
little bit more consistent, but
it is not
a primary concern, of course.
We'll get there later if we need to.
Now a lot of what's going on down here is a little bit
muddled because of that shadow and stuff and we'll probably
have to move this arm a little bit, open up some room down
there on that side.
But switching back
to our vine,
this eye of the fold, this awesome half-lock right here is
going to be important.
And just lock that in, so it's a very
simple thing up to this point.
Still moving that arm. Okay. Why don't we take a moment to
reassess because I don't want to keep - because I want to keep
developing some of these small things already without kind of
rethinking some of the large relationships. I think they're
okay, but it'd be nice to take a break, take a look from afar,
make some corrections and then keep going as we have been
up to this point.

Okay, I've taken a look from afar. There are few things I
want to change that have to do with the general
placement of certain axes and kind of the emphasis on the and kind of the emphasis on the
contrapposto underneath.
But that's pretty much it. I think generally the proportions
are good. Let's make those quick corrections and then keep
going on
figuring out the basic placement of all of our
specific folds.
The thing that I noticed - and this will of course be
something to to work with when we get the arm - is
that right? The hip. The hip needs to kind of come out of
a stronger angle.
That's what needs to happen.
And then all of this will happen later, right? However,
however large this is and this tilt and blah blah.
It's the hip and then some action here that'll bring this
hip in and we'll figure all that out when we go,
as we keep working on this side. So we need this movement,
right? So I think possibly even to bring in some of
these pipes, right, on the left, right, to get that
hip coming out there.
It's not a big deal.
Not a big deal. We'll figure it out as we go, I think that's
already helping. So we'll do it piece by piece.
We'll keep it in mind, right? So we're thinking of the whole -
we're thinking of that big movement, but we'll make
corrections piece by piece.
I actually tend to think in certain ways that somewhat more
accurate.
Alright, so then we're don't worry so much about any of
those specific cast shadows onto the folds, they're going to be
very helpful. But in the meantime, let's not concern
ourselves too much instead
with the sharp eraser
maybe let's find a how some of these folds tuck back in.
Take your time. You'll see that if you do then
I'm not saying stick to one spot, I'm not saying
hesitate but I am saying don't rush.
Right? Just sort of larger blocks, especially there's more
to cover in a smaller area. So it's gonna get a little
tricky at times.
Keep squinting a lot though.
For the most part we're good here
though you I almost want to just keep going, right, get this
part done or at least a little more developed than that. But I'm
not going to, I don't think it's necessary.
Just if you do see something clear just make sure your
shadows in the right place that you can kind of - you can
keep working from there in the future.
Let's bring this in, bringing this in.
Wrap
this around
and we're kind of okay.
Kind of okay here.
Let's move on. I think we got everything we need in that
area. Right? That's clearly a knot in the sense of accent. I
said I'm gonna start using that. And let's get up here.
Right, and just see what the cast shadow gives you. It gives you a
lot, right, it gives you
everything you need
to establish the folds that come off of that cast shadow.
Right, of course, we might need to go back over everything to
re-establish those large
tonalrelationships that we got in relationships that we got in
straight off the bat, but...
Use that side of the eraser to create a nice sharp edge when
a fold becomes sharper, right, becomes a sharper fold and you
get to see
I have increased this a little bit I think.
But I like it so I'll keep it.
But I've increased that amount of space I have here
That's good. That's fine with me.
Now, let's bring this up
all the way to there.
Increase those
soft and hard edges, right, make them show everything that you
need in this small space.
Get a fold in the too.
Remember don't be too concerned with placement. In a sense just
keep going,
adjust when you see that something is
really problematic compositionally.
There's all this small stuff down here. I don't know how
much of it we need right now.
But that's
looking solid.
I'm going to bring this
up here
and use the shape of that shadow to define
the fold.
Right there.
How much should we have right here?
I'm just going to lay that in there. I know it's weird and it
doesn't describe form, notice how everything here is sort of
is pretty much a pipe coming out like
opening up into multiple pipes. And that's it, right, everything
down there in this area is all pipes here. We have a couple of
large ones
and of course this wonderful little area of
lots of creases clearly zigzags in that half-lock down there.
So, already recovering a lot,
I mean a lot of stuff. Everything here though
I like to keep them as as pipe folds.
And keep in mind that the more
kind of elongated the model is,
in our case our mannequin is quite long
but the more the structures that appear
are going to be sort of longer pipes and zigzags, right?
Because the rest of the
forms that we've covered are much more connected to some
sort of horizontal movement, right, like a diaper is taken
across,
a half-lock is taken across a form a -
yeah, that's pretty much it. Like it's just about like the -
there's the thing to think about is
what is the under like underlying structure below the
cloth in terms of its height against its width relationship.
So the wider an object, a model, like a person,
or just anything that the cloth is hanging on the more you see
those horizontal cloth formations. emissions
The longer the form is the more you'll see the elongated cloth
formations.
Right, and if you want to accentuate that longitude
then focus on the zig zag and the pipe fold.
If you want to exaggerate
the latitude then focus on the half-lock and the diaper.
Now the other structures,
let's do the spiral for example,
essentially could work in either situation because it's
not so much about any kind of vertical or horizontal
movement
it's more about a
spiraling or essentially diagonal in part horizontal
movement against the either longitudinal or latitudinal
movement inside. Right? So that has more to do with the
form, as you know, underneath than it as with
proportions if you will.
So that's kind of in a sense a formula by which to think and
compose.
Not one that you need to you know
just trust in a hundred percent, but I think it's a
good starting point.
All right, getting more and more precise here. Now here
we have a certain horizontal action.
So
this will be interesting,
right, because in general
I would like to think of these as spirals, right, spiraling
around
the area of the pelvis. I would like to think of it that way. On
a smaller scale of course
you can see a lot of diaper folds, right, small ones, which
are essentially just
tiny changes in the
direction within
each of the pipes, each of the tubes,
and there and you can see that it's just a few degrees. So the it's just a few degrees. So
there's hardly any real ability for a half-lock to form or you
can even call this a large elongated zigzag fold, so you -
so now we're really running into certain terminological
problems.
Because it's all the same thing and you can call them
whatever you want.
Now there are specific things going on here, right, things wrapping.
Don't worry so much with the highlights right now, right,
just keep them in mind. They're going to be really bright.
But I would say take each one of these pipes individually.
each one of those pipes individually because
you got to be crisp here.
Crisp and clear on what's happening. We're going to
develop them further no doubt.
But we need something in place first.
Little crease in there, zigzag,
real strong eye of the fold, zig-zag down to here. They're even
because of our ambient light, they're highlights within the
shadows. Oh my God, that's the real hard part highlights in
the shadows. I never know what to do with them honestly, but
we'll try to make them work right there. Just have to read
like highlights within the tone of context of the area
in which they are placed.
Okay. Okay. I'm pretty happy with some of those distinctions
at the moment. I like where we're going with them. Let's get
every part of it. Right look at that. Now this is
a real knot, right, it's actually a knot, because it's a
bow.
This highlight I'm just going to place like this right now,
right, it's crude, not really
figuring out what's going on with the highlight but notice
right the things sticking out.
That folds in,
this comes out from there,
reenlarge this upper part a little bit. That's that for
now. A lot of that work will be highlight work. There's no
other way to show that form really but now
look at this cast shadow from the bow onto the fabric
below it or in the context of our paper above it.
Right, look at that. It's really beginning to stand out
because of that.
And right here a dark shadow.
Cast shadows are really powerful here and will define
a lot of the forms. Let's use them. But there we go we're
going to hint at that bow.
This feels longer to me, but I don't even mind.
I think it's okay. I like that elongation. It's already
happening might not want to exaggerate it.
Bring that in. This is a knot, an important area.
I'm actually just translating knot because that's what you would
call it in Russian. Obviously in Russian it's not called a
knot, but that would be the term to use for
a specific accent, right, because everything is tied into that
area.
So after I just realized that I've been actually just
translating that term for me, that's why that's been the for that's why that's been the
one that I feel like I should use here and there are plenty
of knots, actual knots. SO here cast shadow
from the bow on to the sash and we have the other one.
Let's move on to this area
and then we'll be left with these pipe folds on the side
and then we can
go back over everything a little bit and call that the
end of part one. This has been going
relatively quickly.
Just let's get them shadows in.
Right.
Nice
and even but maybe not too dark.
Now this right here is actually a piece of this fabric.
And I don't know if I want that. I might just go with the
fabric that I have here in general
and take it all the way to the left. all the way to the left.
Here, remember, light fabric
it has a certain translucency
that really requires those occlusion shadows and darker
areas within the shadow. So we're going to be working in
there
to make this read like a separate fabric, right, a fabric
with a character of its own
in relation to everything else.
This of course is a nice pipe that just folds over itself.
We'll figure out what to do with the legs as we get there.
If we were working from a model, I probably would say
that is a fundamental thing to get on the page right
at the beginning but
I don't feel so strongly about this one, this mannequin.
For it is not human
and our goal is cloth.
Look at that nice and strong cast shadow here really
defining that bit of that pipe that moves down this way.
And look at that big tubular change of direction. It's going
along the sort of the same plane as our eyes, but look at
that.
Lock that in place, cast shadow, bring that down.
Right, just kind of lay in some information here. Maybe tone it
down just a little bit. I think
we can allow ourselves this and get a general feeling of light.
There's not a lot of shadow there. Most of that work will
be done in half tones.
And now maybe a hint at a leg.
I'm widening a little bit for character.
This is interesting, right, because you can really see this
light from the bottom, that turn of the form. That is exciting
and we're going to definitely need that and we're going to want
to show there's a volume here. So a lot of this work inside
the shadows is going to matter, then wrapping around the
leg there.
We don't need the feet or legs. I think that's perfect. There's
no more information than that that we need. Just kind of do a cash shadow
though
because where would we be without cast shadows.
And that's looking interesting. Now, of course
we currently have no accents, right? Everything's going to be
evenly developed, even laid in so we're going to have to
worry about that, but not now.
Some of these pipes would be nice
but their composition is very important.
Cast shadow.
We'll figure that out when we get there.
That's just a general movement that I'm going to work to get
there. But right now that's all we got.
And to just - right, these pipes are important but not too much
really.
And we can even play around with maybe
enlarging the openness of that fabric, right, have it
express a little bit more.
I kind of have to give it a little bit more of a flow that could
be something to think about.
Right, something like that.
But I actually think -
I don't think part one is entirely completed. I still
think there's some general placement,
compositional things,
you know, some specifics
in the general understanding of things that still need to be
organized. Maybe some of the values inside the shadow there,
stuff like that, like before we actually get to refinement. So
let's take a break
to reassess and then come back, see what needs to be sort of
drastically
altered and then sooner than later we could begin
part two, refinement.

Okay, so we've taken a moment,
I've looked at some of our - I do like what's happening with
proportions, I like how the shadows and the general like
the local values of everything at the moment is laid in. There
are of course some adjustments that will have to be made. I
think this fabric on top maybe is a little bit lighter than it
needs to be
and of course we can get more specific with both our cast
shadows and of course our core. But let's begin by
just figuring out what to do with these pipe
like structures on the outside. Once they're in place
we can then start from the top again and go all the way down,
really refining the fabric as we did with all of our
individual pieces of cloth in the previous assignments.
Yes. So the one thing I do want to do
is
invent a little bit.
And I started to do this here, right? Because I think keeping
that perfectly - sort of keeping those pipes too parallel, not
adding
enough in there can be a problem a little bit.
Right, so it's more about inventing. Right? So I'm taking
the general shape that I see for sure, maybe even using a
charcoal for this,
and
just widening it really, right, like having it having it
taper just a bit more.
Now there's distinction within that structure, right, between
the core and cast shadow, so on, so forth all that enjoyable stuff,
but
that's not
my primary concern at this moment.
The key here right is just be clean with your outlines.
See and now we're already having a bit of fabric there
and then locking it in on this inside, the left side, with
our cast shadows, occlusion shadows, all that stuff.
And right here
just going to be a little bit more precise
with some of this stuff.
With that cast shadow falling onto the fabric because it
gives us a lot of information. Now now.
of course shadow
which I'm going to just place as a terminator as a line
because there's a lot of reflective properties to this
fabric catching a lot of reflected light. So
I'm not going to erase that reflected light, but I'm just
going to keep it as is.
And then something exciting down here, right, some kind of a
swirl right? Everything is hanging. You can even get a little
bit of the fabric underneath.
and then
that's what we have there. I think for what we have is
exactly what we need. Now
the arm, hand.
Right just erase enough for to work. Right? So we have a clear
hand, we're not worried about the hand obviously, right? It's
just
hinting at a hand that's holding fabric.
Now obviously this right here, sort of a knot right. It's kind
of an anchoring point, the beginning of our pipes. If
anything these pipes are even more
expressive than the ones we worked on before right? They're
very clean. There's not a lot of excess,
sort of textural quality to it.
Just
they're - so we have -there's one kind of a small pipe here, but
then
another one in the back when it becomes this one large pipe
structure fold.
Core shadows, right all its core shadows underneath.
However
cast shadows falling on that
drop like
area right? It's
still in the sort of the pipe formation, but
it's kind of unfurling so that's what we need.
I'll take it down to that point.
That's our terminator.
That's our terminator.
That's another pipe.
And there's of course some of these folds coming out from
behind.
Right, have them be parallel, but still
tapering just enough, right?
And possibly, you know, zigzagging at least on the
outside.
Look at that, once we get
a little bit of evenness there we'll be fine. this there will be fine
Toning this down, right. I've decided to keep this
a single fabric. I'm not going to push that little
bit of fabric, just gonna tuck it in a little bit so that it's
not
an issue right so that we can just knock it back and figure
out what's going on there.
And of course, you don't actually need to move it. You
just need to make the changes on the page.
That's the best part about this. There's a twisting here,
right, twisting of the folds.
I would even venture so far as to say, there's sort of
spiraling.
The diaper structure of the diaper fold and then the sort
of kind of continuation of the diaper right there that then
becomes a spiral and spirals around a hand here.
Everything's locked in a nice half-lock.
Going to flatten it out first.
There's some folds there. I'm always skeptical about how much
of this to include, right, because it's so
interesting, but dark, right? It's in the shadows. What can we
really do there?
And then these nice sort of zigzagging folds, but they're
at angles.
Goodness. That can be its own - that can be almost an accent of
its own. Just gonna knock that back, keep it as lines. If I see
that I need to do more with that than I will. Okay, so I
would say now that that's accomplished.
That very clearly completes what I have called
part one of our process.
As you know, I'm a little bit more sort of cautious of
calling anything that outside of this exercise,
but
I think here it's served us well, right, served us well to come
to kind of go from the block in
to -
the initial block in to the stage of refinement.
Now it's time to work piece by piece in getting that
refinement.
So obviously for this we need some sharpness, right,
some tools that are a little bit sharper. So a sharp pencil,
something to smear with as a sharp point. Even this eraser
that I have, I've used it enough times that it's lost
that edge. So I'm going to cut it so that it has that
sharpness right? Don't worry about
the fact that it feels like you know, there's still plenty of
eraser to use, that's not important. What's important is
that the tool
does what you want it to do. Okay, so I'm just going to
begin by pulling out of the terminator, right?
Darkening these half-tones. I'm not even working within the
shadow yet.
Just adding a little bit more information there. And of
course some of these things are going to need to come up.
Because there's little creases and all that.
Take your time here. This is
a very enjoyable part
or if it isn't then the whole point is
just practice this because you learn to enjoy this I think.
It's calming.
But now I'm taking this in. Now I'm really beginning to
differentiate
between core and cast shadow right, taking this
in.
I know I'm working with in the shadow. But as long as those
contrasts don't overpower we're pretty much set.
Now I did mention that this upper cloth is feeling light to
me and I'm certain that I'll encounter this more and more.
Right I'll encounter this as I race to get specific details.
And as I erase, I'll bring up the general value. There's
no way around this. So
that's where
we're then going to come in and reevaluate
literally
re-evaluate
our tone, our values
by maybe sort of a
wash as I like to call it, a glaze.
Yeah, excellent getting there. Now right here is where we run
into some
things that are a little more intricate, right, shoulder. This
thissoftness
is hinting at that softer shoulder underneath.
But I want to continue the fold actually because I think
it's too - because at times you just need to go with it, right,
because otherwise you'll lose it.
You just lose that element.
Following that fold up there.
All right exciting highlight in the
deepest part there.
And turn that form upwards.
And that's lovely right? That has a kind of a that has a kind of a
continuation of that line from the top of the head into all the top of the head into
there. They're not actually connected. That's not the same
form
but that continuation of a line is quite exciting.
Work within the shadow, right, get some of those areas because
we need to define that cloth.
We're not simplifying to the extent that oh, it's in the
shadow we can forget about it. Right? We can't do that.
So work within the shadow, but just keep the shadow
the dark value that it needs to be and you're set pretty much I
think.
All right, getting more of that cloth on the shoulder. Here
though we of course have
a fair amount of darker values. I'm not getting into
all of them.
And that nice cloth.
But now I'm taking that in,
into the shadows.
This cloth too, it needs
information. Especially look at that dark occlusion shadow and
it's going to help with that twisting. Oh, man.
There we go. There's that twisting and bunching up, right?
Remember that important thing, right, you need to think about
points of origin.
The advantage of having so many bits of cloth is that you can
just
stick to one for as long as you can before moving on.
This is interesting.
There's a light here that I omitted strangely enough.
Or rather there's a shadow above that from the cloth, but
I think we'll get there.
Bring this down.
And of course, there's fabric behind. Now there I don't know
that we need too much.
I think over stating that stuff in the back there will already
kind of
really
just be more than we need, just get a little confusing.
But I'm taking this fold down because you could really see
how it wraps.
A bit more unification and sometimes the eraser helps with
that.
Hmm. Okay. Okay. I think that as a pass is actually pretty
good.
I like what is going on there. I do think there's that crease
right there.
Just a little bit of information.
This, the little bit used to be a little bit cleaner, right, in
how it's defined. It needs to wrap
around the way that it's doing because that
gives us
once again, right, it kind of shows the form of the shoulder
underneath that. Now
wrap that around, right? This is a nice snap. I mean in this
case, of course, there's
those two bits of fabric or help together
by a clip so I'm not going to draw the clip, but I will draw
the formation.
Everything here has just been kind of small pipes, long pipes,
a couple of zigzags. That's pretty much it.
But
we do need our cast shadow from the head defining the folds.
Really defining the folds.
Now what's going on up here. I'm interested in this, some
stuff. Soften that though at first.
There's a fold at a pretty much a 90 degree angle.
And I tend to think that a 90-degree angle is enough to
call it a half-lock.
Enough to call it a half-lock
as it wraps around the head.
Of course the problem is that it's all in shadow.
Maybe that's enough there though.
Don't think we need too much more there.
Tone down that.
Dark shadow.
On the neck though a little bit more. On the neck though a
little bit more.

So this is a little bit high up on the page at the moment
so in order to get there and have a little bit more control
I'm going to use my step ladder,
which of course changes my perspective, but I'm going to
I'll deal with it.
And really get that small crease
around the head at this angle.
I'm going to make this shadow smaller. It seems a bit large.
Give us some room.
I'm not worried about the exact mannequin head.
So I'm just going to make sure it reads properly.
That's more than enough if it's a little bit small.
Not a big deal.
In general
I'm going to need to get a gradient there as you just saw
right so that I can get
a light up at this top part of the head.
I'm trying to show as much as I can the forms below the fabric.
Is there that feeling of it wrapping? If it is then I'm
there.
Narrow I think.
All right. So as I refine some of these areas
I make corrections to proportions.
Now let's get into
some of this stuff. It's pretty fun.
Right, small little bits of cloth and fabric, that's
exciting.
But they are really small so that can get a little tedious.
Wrapping and getting that twist
as it reaches
towards that half-lock, it nears the half-lock right here.
Just refining
as much as we can, piece by piece. You can't do it all
here. This is a particularly interesting sweep of the curve.
I like the amount of light that's there because it really
guides the eye.
And then we really need
to get that other pipe, I could look at all that change.
Cloth coming into there,
right, kind of changing direction, little triangular
forms, right? The whole thing. Stuff we have encountered
time and time again now. We're really good at this now.
Okay, clean this up a little bit.
It requires that.
Now keep in mind we're gonna
go back into this
and unify some areas. I mean we won't need all this cloth
but on the other hand,
maybe that's what the assignment is.
Maybe you ask? You should know.
I probably should but
my general attitude towards these things, right, is that
your initial ideas
can really change
as you
discover more and more things.
I don't know if I want to go into here yet.
That part's a little tricky. I've got the arm down straight right,
before anything.
So I'm not going to do any of that
just yet.
I mean, I'm gonna hint at some of these things but not
really, right, that bit of a shadow, not a big deal.
So right in here is where I'm going to go now.
This half-lock needs definition.
I'm working on the eye of the fold now,as you see,
to make it come to life.
Getting that right twist,
highlight, and all that fun stuff.
Look at that twisting half-lock. That's an exciting part. lakh. That's an exciting part.
I feel I mentioned this that this is going to be an accent,
like this really important spot.
Let's get those shadows in place.
Because you want to make sure that this has all the proper
accents,
though if you don't have them right away they're not the
biggest deal. It's more important to
just make sure there's enough information so that later we
can get to
highlighting
and
darkening some of the cast shadows around it right just to
bring
the contrast up in those areas that we decided might be
important.
So
in this particular instance though,
there's so much going on that
when you do this assignment
it might be other areas that you decide to focus on, it's not -
there's a lot that you can
pick and choose.
Okay. So now the next step is to move onto here. I know we
can essentially continue working in this corner, but I'm
not going to do it
because it requires the arm and then I would have to continue
down with these folds. I'm more focused on what's going on in
the
the main parts here.
So I'm going to start actually by getting a darker value over
the whole thing.
Though probably on this later because I'm going to erase
highlights, but I want to see it as the value that it most
likely will be at the end
and I noticed that everything here on this side is going to
be a little bit lighter.
I am going in one direction because I think it just has
that effect of toning everything down.
And that already sets this in as opposed to this.
Some of these shadows might help with that too, but
let's get to it.
Cast shadows right, the dark. Hmm trying not to
keep my hand in some spot where...
Nice, right? Darkening these
will have a really strong effect I think but I'm going
to try not to erase here. Right? Let's try not to erase
highlights. I'm gonna try to work in a way that uses the lightest
values here to get the desired effect.
Maybe
this tool I have can actually pull out some charcoal and
that'll be
as much as I will erase.
If I get that, the flow of of these,
what begins to matter if you haven't noticed,
when you're dealing with multiple fabrics
is
how heavy each of them is, right? That's where you really begin
to differentiate between them. Right? Like the
gray fabric is heavier, right? It's got a certain kind of more
even kind of a flow to it than
the lighter fabric on top, the light green one.
So it's nice to play with these different
textures, if you will. We're really going to
enjoy that - I'm going to enjoy that - when I get to them.
The sash and let that reflective fabric, that
green one, the satin,
those highlights will really be good.
Now in here
I'm going to push this in, right, because what's happening is
that this fabric is more like this part, this cloth, this
area is more closely connected to the turn of the form.
Right, in general that's somewhere here. We can really
begin to get
some of that happening, right? And I'm trying to get a big
rotation, right, that big egg. We started with in a sense,
right, turning that down allows the form to wrap right as
opposed to bringing some of this up, actually allowing the
the form to wrap the other way.
That's all just figuring out where our lights are Going out where our lights are.
from there.
Now and the reason I'm saying this is because this fold
is not part of that turn of the form, right? It's just sticking
out. That's why it's going to be a bit brighter.
Not that bright of course, but possibly due to the fact that
it's here
it'll create a strong enough contrast
against this, right, so it'll actually -
by having a fold
sticking out
and kind of counteracting the form of the
torso below it
actually enhances the feeling of structure on the folds that
are conforming to the volume that's below them.
Right, it's all relative and you can play with those
contrasts.
Just knocking that back a little bit. I'm probably not
going to put these squiggly folds in.
They really don't matter enough.
I might use what I already have, hint at something going on in
there. But in general keep it simpler because I can't
find a justification for them.
Just want that nice light of line, right, just on the crease
of that fold.
Good.
Right. Using the eraser to get those triangular planes that - I
mean, we're going to knock them back.
Now I'm just using the eraser to kind of carve a more
topographical -
some slightly more topographical elements, right?
These larger creases and all that stuff.
All right, so we're really
working piece-by-piece here
as much as possible.
I'm worried about sharpness now. You can see it,
right, where you can kind of really squeeze in a fabric, lock
that in,
the sharp edge. Stuff like that is fun.
Just rendering.
Just watching this come to life.
Is that too bright?
Probably. Knock it back.
Hmm interesting,
Little bit of an overlap, a tiny half-lock.
Wouldn't even call it that, maybe a tiny zig zag.
Not enough to be a half-lock.
Now by now I think you're seeing right, it doesn't really
matter
what you call these things.
You get to a point where you just know where to go.
Okay, and
I'm liking, I'm liking what I'm seeing. All right, there's
definition of course, the problem is that maybe
I need to knock some of this back. Knock it back,
knock it back.
But I'm more concerned with this arm right now.
Just going to get a basic shape for it, right? We
don't need the arm and hand and all that stuff.
Huh?
Let's follow this line.
Right, is that the exact outline of the arm? Not really but it's plenty
for now. At least it's in place.
From this point on
can kind of get.
Okay. Okay. Now I'm wondering do I go into here? I could but
it's also not that interesting.
Or do I move down and work on
these two fabrics, which I think actually are the most
exciting.
The answer is pretty clear. Right? I go where I'm most
interested. I just go from interest to interest and then at
the end you can see
if you've neglected something because it was a particularly
on an uneventful an exciting parts and make sure it's
finished to the degree that you need and that might take a
little bit of effort
on your part but that's okay, ight? But instead in general
proceed from the parts that captivate you and that I think
will just make the process so much more enjoyable.
So this is where we move on to next but I do need a break and
just to reassess, see the amount of completion. Clearly this is
bothering me, there's more to do there,
but after the break we'll come back and I will proceed to work
on that sash which I've been thinking about this whole time.

Okay, I've been looking at this from afar and I'm quite happy
with how this is going. Now let's get to that part that
I've been waiting for this whole time: the sash.
Now in part,
I would think that I'm interested in this sash because
I'm a painter and I like that color.
I'm a big - it would be wonderful to paint.
Everything else is kind of, you know, obviously colorless and
gray,
but that's sash has
so much happening in terms of reflections, highlights, and by
reflections I also mean like the reflection of color and now
we're obviously not going to worry about that. But just
think about that though and realize
that they're like
we have not of course touched about color at all
because we're not focused on painting
but
there are times when you do need to disassociate yourself
from color because you have no way of doing it, but the other
thing that's actually rather interesting
is
that you can find ways
to get accents
i a way that's not a direct translation of the value of a
color.
Right, like the sash jumps out at me because of it's not just
because of its awesome reflective properties
but because of the color. So
in a sense it will become an accent.
But you have to find a ways to make it an accent
that will work.
Oh boy.
So I'm starting with the top part of the sash, right, and I'm
making sure that the dark values from the gray fabric
above, the dark gray fabric are coming in extra sharp against
that top part of the sash. At least where the lights are.
Right really make it jump out at us. this
At the same time
there is a value to consider and we need this value
because
otherwise, how are we gonna get those highlights?
Now I'm just using the eraser to carve those highlights out
and probably have to go back in and sort of work around them to
sharpen.
Even that's beginning to work already. There's a softness
though, right, those those highlights are sharp, but they
don't appear right away. Right? Like they do on glass for
example, so we have to - they have kind of like an aura
around them. A halo.
Nothing to worry about. And I'm going to make these highlights
pretty much white. I'm going to enhance this effect. See that's
already getting a sharpness, right, kind of erase if you
will an area, right, general area. Kind of prepare the highlight
and then
place the highlight itself and control its edges.
That's the way to do it here.
Excellent.
Cast shadow onto the next fold.
Right. I've decided to think of these as of spirals, right, that
are wrapping around the pelvis.
Notice that's now the terminology, I'm thinking of
them as a certain kind of structure because by thinking
of them as that it affects the way that I render them. It
affects how I accent them. Right? That's
kind of where we are now, right? That's the point of
learning these structures of cloth.
So that you can then use
that understanding
to get what you want
on the page, right, not exactly what you see but what
you want.
And remember
we're even getting something akin to highlights in the
shadows.
So probably we're going to have to do a similar thing, right,
erase them out
and then -
erase them out and then tone the back down.
Just enough for that to work.
Or be a little more careful and work around those highlights.
Now I'm getting it really dark in there. Now according to our
rules,
somewhere in there might not be exactly
the
dark that you want, right, in a sense because that could be
accentuated to show more reflected lights. That is true.
But also we're being a little more direct with our values,
right? We're being a little more direct with the tonal
structure
of just the color of each fabric
and all that stuff, right, and as well as with those values
are as well as maybe incorporating a little bit
of just that ambient light that's affecting our shadows in
certain places, but not in others, right, kind of creating
environment not just the form.
So all of this in the shadows actually looking kind of
complete.
And then the spiraling happens here, remember that the spirals,
thinking of them as spirals,
leads you to
find those overlaps,
get that form wrapping
on the edge.
That's beginning to work, but maybe tighten up around the the tighten up around the
highlights
so that we still have those reflective properties very
clearly
sort of appearing in the shadow side.
Just even here
the darker shadows
on the shadow side are clearly
maybe they have really sharp edges, right and that's a
property
of the fabric, the texture aspect of it.
Knock it back.
Is that too much? Maybe.
Let's get some
zigzagging in there,
right, it's still cloth. So the zigzag is necessary. Now,
notice I'm working the shadows here because I'm
almost leaving the best for last
slightly
like I'm kind of gonna reward myself with those bright
highlights later.
I like the shapes, but I think that is too wide to read like a
cloth that eye of the fold needs to be clear and more of
that tapering
action.
And then underneath we have this bit of
fabric.
I'm okay expanding on this and making it larger.
Because I feel that's going to be quite effective. And then
here too, strong contrasts against the cloth underneath
right? Really
showing that.
And now in this little part I'm moving into the white fabric to
simply not to do any work there yet, but simply to show some
some cleaner lines in
the placement of -
in the placement of those cast shadows from the this cloth.
Everything is looking a little overdeveloped, natural, normal,
happens.
A little on the even side. So now maybe it's time to get into
some of our bright
highlights here. Remember that on a lot, of them a lot of these
tubes, those highlights
are going to be
right on the edge.
It's just falling on the fabric of the turns.
But that's beginning to work.
The more that I can do on the -
up there, of course. I'll get there in a second.
This is just very enjoyable. There are times
when
the work could be quite indulgent, but it's just it's
nice to sit and what's the word, noodle?
Right and especially when it's really effective and you get
results quick.
You play with those highlights, get a nice eye of the fold in
there. This is tiny. But hmm, even this eraser which I have
kind of
cut off a piece to get nice sharp edges, right? So
it's an eraser that's
really good at carving out material because it's
it's got a texture, the eraser itself.
As you know,
you can kind of use whatever really, like it'll all do the
trick and you can as you know erase anything if you just - if
you push hard enough.
And all the erasing though up to a point is kind of like after a
certain point,
fairly soon really, is causing damage to the paper. So just
keep in mind you cannot erase
forever.
They'll come a time when you have to stop.
Small highlights are in fact a pain.
And usually it'll be hard to get something really sharp.
A trick we use, we'll see if it'll work.
I'll take the knife,
right, you take a blade
and you place it right up against kind of like a
template.
And your erase right up against the blade
and it gives you a little bit more sharpness.
Did it do much? Not really.
But working in a
kind of a highlight template sometimes is
effective. The other way, of course to do it is what I'm going
to do now. As you kind of highlight an area and then you
make it sharp with the lines
around it.
Now
going to continue this down to here, a little bit of a fold,
right, this kind of they became some sort of pipe folds,
really.
And then some creases that go contrary to the direction of
the fabric.
It's important to get a dark value against the light right
here, right? That's a strong contrast that I think we need
to use.
All this on that side, I can't be too sharp.
Where do I anchor?
It actually needs to be sharp, can't be too dark is what I but can't be too dark is what I
meant.
Because that's already a shadow on the lighter cloth.
But if it does go dark, it's kind of okay.
couple of these little highlights,
something like that.
And then maybe a little bit of a unification with the shadow
there.
Extend it out.
Extend it out.
Making things a little bit more even,
this cast shadow in particular,
which I'm going to move a little.
But we'll cross that bridge when we get there I think. It's not
of a prime importance right now.
And then enhance
some of these shadows.
A similar thing right? I'm kind of building up to highlight.
You know what this is teaching you actually,
it's teaching you how to
create this sort of highlight, right, this highlight that has
that halo around it. Right that bit of light
on
the sides of it.
And what that is actually teaching you is how to make
highlights on objects that are - that have metallic reflective
properties.
I'm purposefully making a dark behind that knot of the
sash
and a similar thing above.
The one problem with charcoal,
anchoring on the page lifts a lot of what you've already
done.
But it does have a unifying effect and that could be
helpful
actually. Now look at this. Now let's extend Let's extend
right, it's an actual knot so you get fabric coming out of
the knot
with a slightly different angle so that
highlight's going to change direction a little bit. I'll
rather change placement, kind of move over to the side and then
you have this piece. I'm being very sort of observational here.
Comes out at a different angle,
knock it back, highlight coming off
from the other side.
All right kind of in the direction of that fabric is
appearing.
Nice now, of course, we have some nice half-locks, right, this
tiny little half-lock
which
we show with shadow right? It's kind of wrapping around, this
whole part is half-locked.
Begin to move
my way into those
areas
and begin to tone down around the highlights because without
those we can't have the sufficient contrast.
More tiny little
folder squeezing in
into that knot.
Before I move on I do want to get
highlights everywhere
to be bright
right, because I don't know how dark to push the darks
without the lights.
But it's all relative. All in context, context is everything
in life
and
in
art.
In both art and the technique of art.
Look at that knot beginning to come out.
Let's take it sounds like them.
I'm getting a massage here, right that knot's coming out.
Hmm, right, the highlight gets sharper and sharper gets sharper and sharper.
as the cloth is squeezed together more.
Now I do believe -
look at me erasing stuff that I've already done. It's fine.
It's okay. I do believe that maybe right now even is the
time to get the darkest accents.
Pitch black is what I'm going to do.
Which will of course allow us an opportunity to push those
highlights more right? Because we get a larger range. Larger
tonal range is always good
for highlights, right, because
the capacity of the medium
leans more towards the darker values and towards the lighter
ones than are lighter values on the page are much
darker value than how we see them in life so we can't get
the full tonal contrast
in lights, but we can get a much larger tonal - I mean
we can't get a full tonal contract in general, but we
can get a much larger effect of light by pushing the darks
that it's kind of the secret right? It's the capacity of the
medium.
And that's the advantage of a darker medium.
It's sort of more tonal in the sense that it's also closer
to life. closer to the way we see because
we see
these tonal distinctions
that we can only achieve
by establishing proper contrast.
Right, the illusion.
It's always the illusion.
That's why there are rules here.
It's all about
finding a way to make us believe that this
is cloth or form or person or whatever you're after.
I'm going as dark as I can there right because I just
want to accent this sash.
Hmm. Okay. I'm kind of okay with it at the moment. I think
it'd be nice to move
down to here.
But in order for me
to be able to work
in these areas I'm going to need to have a seat so that I
can reach these areas
easier.
And see them.
Okay. So let's start with a fold here, right? It's a big
fold, it's kind of creating a lot
of form.
So I'm just going to follow
with that
and work the terminator, which this fabric we've encountered
before has a lot of creases, right, it's uniron which creates a
great compliment to
these upper fabrics, which don't actually have many
creases.
Fabrics that I just I think that the
the quality of the fabric that
the texture it doesn't allow
for the formation of that many creases, which is helpful
because then you don't need to iron it.
And look at that big sweep.
Here I'm going to actually try to push the contrast right?
Let the light be
as bright as I can.
At the same time I want a certain kind of softness that I think I
can get by going back to my vine charcoal.
Remember the dark occlusion shadows
are necessary because they allow us to then have greater
range within our shadows, creating those feelings of
transparency and reflected light.
In general I'm gonna knock this part back, right, still worried
about that greater turn of the form.
So
I mentioned this multiple times, but I never hesitate to
say something again.
But as you can see I'm seated.
And that is
something as you saw I've been avoiding, I usually stand when
I work and this is not only here, it's more about -
it's also in my own work in the studio, but I do like to say
that there are times when I just find it easier to
concentrate on one area, the execution of an area, so this
particular
part that we're focusing on right
just taking it everything piece by piece and modeling it, that I
personally find a little bit easier if I am in a chair. Kind
of calms down my mind and I can can focus. I also can't get up
as as fast and obviously I could but it can't get up as
fast as I can just move back and I can't see the whole thing
at once. So I naturally begin to focus on one area. Now
easy to run into problems there, right, if you're not focusing on
the whole thing at once,
the whole piece becomes disjointed a little
bit.
But that's a not something that's that hard to fix. It can be
depending on how much but
and
you know
the goal of education is to is to combine
these
elements, right, is to find the perfect balance
between detail,
right, rendering details and all that.
Find the perfect balance between that and
sort of keeping in mind the larger relationships
that - and this applies, of course to both technical side
of things, right, the actual larger toner relationships,
color relationships, proportions, and so on so forth, stuff we've
been talking about here but also to your ideas.
How to make
the idea that you have come across
in the whole and
in the specific things and in the whole.
In the large
movements.

All right, so that bit of cloth. The other thing is of
course, back to sitting in a chair,, a chair with wheels
actually helps.
You can wheel back a little bit. You can in fact step back
just a bit.
Now this is a nice bit of the form wrapping here.
Sort of low on the page, low on the cloth closer to the
bottom, but just really important.
So something to focus on, right, turning that terminator into a
dark -
into some of the darker half tones there, but look at
this. There's a little bit of the cape there
coming in from behind and I don't want to isolate the cape,
but I
I'm going to make sure the background there is a little
bit of a darker value.
And bring it down a little.
I think that just brings out the fabric more as a contrast
and I noticed it there and I could have kind of invented it
even but if it's already there might as well use it.
Hmm this part's a little a little tricky, right?
Everything here is in a shadow.
Not much going on.
And those pipes coming in, right, on the left. So how much
information do we need there
is is a question.
But I think a certain amount right? So we can't leave
our lights, our lights our what's guiding us. We can't say
no to any lights really. I did up here but for the most part
with light you got to you got to really figure out what
it's doing, but then you got to use it.
Interesting
I actually see this fabric is now a little bit smaller,
which really creates that curvature in a way that I like.
Good, and I'm also interested in this overlap, right?
Extend that out a little bit more, turn it around.
Terminators.
Terminators are everything.
And then right what's going on with with the form of the
folds?
Couple of creases in there.
Right. Just loading on some tone.
Doesn't matter, maybe even a little bit crude is a way to
add information in there, but then you can always soften it.
Tiny little creases
really represent the fabric. So in the shadow side, I think
we're getting somewhere.
Just knocking back that light, even seeing it as it folds
under,
a little bit of a light.
Clearly this large half-lock down there
is of prime importance.
Just going to pretend there's nothing there sort of
because I want to follow that movement.
I think it's effective and highlights the tilts of the
angles below it.
I'm doing a similar thing here. Right? I'm working in an area
that's not as fun because then I'm going to reward myself with
all this cool stuff in the light.
So it's a game I play with myself in this case, right, because
otherwise.
I'm just gonna get a dark value underneath right, that shadow on
the leg.
Without being specific
but just shows the value of the fabric, right? It shows this
fabric is white despite the fact that in this area it is in
shadow.
Okay,
let's move on to a part that's a little bit more
exciting.
Right, that nice little crease right here.
I'm a big fan.
And then
kinda half-lock from the top and the bottom. Lots going on there
that we already know.
Right just getting that swirl going.
Right, it's a series of arcs,
a series of
triangles in space and sometimes
there's a curvature there.
But always make sure to have what's on the other side, right,
if you're going all around there's also that inner
movement right there.
God this is small.
Try to make this value I placed up here a half tone right,
attacking it from both directions.
Turning that form too a little bit more than maybe I see it
and then carving out a more precise light.
Inside here, because of the full twist and turning up words of
the form, we're going to get a bright light.
Okay, we're getting somewhere.
locking all that in with shadows.
Nice, a nice
detail right, a fundamental one really.
Without it we don't have much.
And
just I'm going to quickly move up, right, I'm gonna move up to
this. There's a fold right there. It's kind of flatter,
much flatter. That is a flatter fold and then
cast shadows falling onto it, falling onto here and then
rolling onto that fold, right so
there's a lot
of stuff going on this describing form.
Cast shadow's
of prime importance in these areas, right,
because if they're defining the folds underneath you could see
them appearing with just that tiny bit of a line.
And we can take some of the folds into the shadow, right?
So we're not just allowing everything to
stop existing because it goes into the dark.
It's a little on the sharp side though, and we know cast shadows
are sharp right but that penumbra, right that softness
of the cast shadow,
that
is necessary. But look at those twists and turns, thet're really
describing stuff.
Now
you can see the way to tackle shadows right, half tone is of
course the hardest way to do it.
Because
that requires a more precise analysis of changes in plane
and all this but to lay things in,
by now you think can see the use of shadows and highlights
is fundamental.
The highlights will give you the change of plane more clearly,
the shadows
once that's in then figuring out the remaining half tones,
gets considerably easier.
Remember, eye of the fold, clean-cut, crisp.
That's what's happening there.
But then just a flat half tone we know is not fun,
especially with these creases. So we just got to keep adding
those creases.
There's something enjoyable in all this.
Now I actually have some lines here which don't correspond to
the forms underneath and I can't really erase them.
So I'm just going to make them into something.
Make them into creases.
There we go.
That was easy enough.
This tiny light.
You know, you can't live without it.
Then allow, right, the start of this but allow that
cast shadow to describe
the forms
underneath.
And the similar concept as with the rest of this
is this,
look at how these folds, even in the shadow, continue past.
And try to make those cast shadows describe them. Shadows describe them.
And then
with
a darker value, come in and show those shadows from below.
Like the underside of this cloth,
which is very dark
and can be used once again to show that our white fabric is
white even though it's in the shadow.
It's just like a property of the local color.
See there definitely has an effect.
Now while I'm down here, just figure out a couple of accents,
right, a couple of
general directions.
sharp edges of cast shadow.
Okay, I would get into here just quickly
because I'm already down on this chair right here, trying to
find ways to isolate this cloth.
Notice that when this cloth stretches out enough, it
too has somewhat reflective properties, kind of metallic.
Just cleaning this up a little bit.
Let's get this shadow a little bit softer, right, towards the
bottom and lighter.
And that'll create a little bit more action as we move from
that sharper edge on top to the softer ones at the bottom.
At the same time let's not overstate that fabric
because we have a lot of other stuff that's more important
going on. So I'm going to put a little glaze over it. First of
all, because it's a darker value than the white that's already
happening, but
also, it will kind of
it will kill it a little,
neutralize it a little.
And then back up.
Okay, we're definitely getting there.
So what we need to do
is
this bit of fabric here
and then we'll be left with just this area of the arm and
then to go over everything and you know, once again pull out
our accents, maybe subdue a few folds,
maybe even add a couple that we notice. So
we're getting much nearer to our goal.
At the same time right everything here is in shadow, so we don't
want to overstate it.
All right, this spiraling around the arm is going to be
an accent. First of all, there's lots of light and
second of all it's around the arm.
It's fundamental to the form. Let's do it.
Even that out a little bit. helps.
And
possibly
some element
of darkness behind here, right, a softness in there. We don't
want too much information
in there.
And here I'm going to just soften that part into the
background so that soft and hard edges will begin to play a
little bit of a larger role.
Gonna move down this
cloth
into this twisting thing behind the arm.
This wraps.
This is another - this is kind of a somewhat of a
an answer to that, right?
It's kind of a call and
an answer.
A call and a response in certain parts, right, like a particular
structure of a cloth has
a similarity like it's similar to another one. So you
want to maybe try to get
them working together. One's the main one, right? Ones the one
that's accented. The other one is just hinted at.
At the same time
the outline here on this half-lock is more important than lakh is more important than
anything else right? Because we don't want to do too much
there. This is all wrapping around. It's more like we can't
overstate this part. Otherwise, it'll get just a otherwise, it'll get just a
little too much.
I'm going to leave it at that for now. I might
do more. All right.
Hand-holding fabric, good. Let's move down from there.
Right at the place of origin where the hand is holding that
fabric.
Good. Cast shadow onto the hand from the fabric, right, same
rules.
Little bits of light.
Follow this fabric down.
And this nice spiral twisty thing.
Quite exciting.
A little detail, one of the only ones of its kind in
this
collection of folds.
We'll do our edge clean up later, analyze some places
more or less, but that comes at just a little bit, right
after we get everything down.
Hmm. Okay.
Next fold, next pipe fold kind of the last we'll see at the
bottom.
Take it all the way down. And then from it
we're gonna have another one coming in right there. So when you
have too much of this parallel movement, this repetitive action
in a way,
this gets a little confusing for the eyes.
Both yours and mine and the viewers.
The audience.
Right? Just keep thinking like is that going to be
something that's really pleasant to look at
or not.
And that bit of fabric right there
just to spice it up a little, right, we're going to do a
little twist, the little lock right there.
Maybe, maybe we'll do it. I don't know, I can't decide yet.
But we definitely do need to do right is kind of continue this
fabric so that it doesn't just end.
Possibly darken in this area
so that fabric stands out a little bit lighter than
everything else and then
just push a dark
from it.
All that's too vertical, a little too parallel,
some just even mild hatch or kind of a tone placed across
this fabric might be good, especially getting to be a bit
lighter as we get to towards the hand.
And of course
have this white fabric extend further
and wrap.
This does require a little bit of patience.
Right? It's not something that can just...
Yeah just a little bit of information inside there.
All right.
I think this is a good point -
I think this is a good point to stop for the moment
and reassess. We've kind of covered every single detail
except for the folds up here
and it'd be nice to step away and come back, see what's
really
working as it and what else needs maybe a little bit more contrast, a
little bit more information and so on but
that's something that we're going to do when we get back as
well as see if it really is much more that we need to do
there or can that area be sort of
a pause if you will, right? There's a lot of stuff going on.
Some areas might need to be a bit underdone
in order to
accentuate all this information. So I'll see you in
a minute.

Okay, as usual we've taken some time off,
looked at it. I looked at it. And
I'm kind of happy where things are.
I am still questioning how much to do behind this arm using
that shadow. And I think it's time to answer that question.
So let's get to it.
So
just going to get a little bit -
yeah.
Sharpener.
Let's start up there.
So it's actually not that complicated. That's as much as
I thought initially right, but I didn't want to go too far
into this area
until some other parts were established. I can't really
justify that. I thought I could but I can't. It was just a feeling,
I wasn't feeling this area
so I didn't do it.
That's where
things are,
This shadow will give us a lot of information. Right? So it's
gonna bring this up a little bit.
Alright so that we have immediately established core
and cast shadows. That alone you can see how it captures
that effect.
And then there's this other fold, which is just hardly
there. I mean it's there but not really.
Cast shadow, right, cast shadow's falling there.
Just this
is a tough one, right because
I kind of want to really
get in there.
Do some small form modeling
explore the area,
but the same time I don't know. Maybe it'll take away from
something. Take away from some sort of unity.
Now just a little bit of information on this head, right?
But as I said the head is far from important, but a couple of
these core shadows, cast shadows on the
head from these areas
would be nice.
Get certain things across.
Allow this to fold over a little bit more
quickly, right, kind of get that under just to show
the fabric acting upon this certain way. Keep in mind it's
also spiraling
around the head there.
Cast shadow, so that's going to be a clean edge. This is
the terminator. That's the difference.
I like these cast shadows because they kind of cuz they kind of
break apart some of the patterns forming.
I'm gonna jump down here for just a second. This is one of the
things I wanted to do
is kind of get a little bit more of that reflected light in
there.
Just a little bit more.
Gives it a feel. I'm liking that feel, right, it just
shows qualities of this fabric
that sort of separated from the other ones.
And variation is key. Okay, so we're back here.
This is one of our four important areas, right, a knot
as I called it.
And I'm going to haze it out. Now there are of course
folds here in the horizontal
right and kind of reflective. It's interesting, but I don't
think we can allow them to appear.
Just going to hint at them, right, they're very simple. of very simple.
I think we're reading that shadow. I think it's working.
This arm of course is awkward. Right? There's no question
about it. But
it is a mannequin and mannequins in general are fairly
awkward. But
just remember the whole point is it allows us to
explore
fabric and it's not about the arm.
But I was going to carve into just a little bit so it looks
fine.
It won't look fine though. It won't look good.
I'd just so we know it's a hand or something.
Couple of shadows, core, cast.
Just some stuff like that.
It's weird that that's what's happening. I don't understand
what's going on there, but
just to clean things up, just for there to be some sort of
logic.
And to soften
that core and cast shadow even though it's fairly sharp.
Of course, I'd rather the cast shadow is from the fabric so
I'm going to keep it but just so that it stands
out so that we can see there's an arm, right? We just need to
make sure we see that it's something apart from the fabric,
something more.
Okay, so now quickly
let's follow through with this.
I'm going to get a wave going there.
And pretty much just focus on this one
crease in between two pipe folds.
Bring that in.
Knock all this back.
Pretty much it. All right, that's already enough. Maybe I
can even do most of it with the blending stump.
There's already too much going on in there to really worry
about.
Okay, let's squint
and see if our general values are there.
I think they're good for what they are, possibly this whole cloak -
like look at the cloak on top could be a darker value
potentially.
But I don't think we need it, right, it's far enough from
here. And these contrasts are a bit different right? We're
getting larger areas of light. So I think it's okay now, let's
get into this with a sharp pencil.
Or rather a dark value that's more important than sharp at
this point.
And make sure that we have our highlights,
accents, and
our darker areas where we want them like that, right?
I can bring that out, push that contrast. This cast shadow sharp
edge, dark value, good.
In there too, right, not everywhere.
Just a few places.
Excellent.
Don't really know what to do with this head. Nothing really.
Knock it back.
Add a highlight in one or two areas, right? It doesn't really
matter what's going on there?
Nice and strong, right, kind of place the cape over this, over
this
dark gray fabric. Here same thing. Let's reinforce.
Get a dark in there, right, getting it to
tuck right in and under.
Same here.
Right there as well.
Getting it to tuck is important
and then casting the right shadow
is nice right dark value there, too.
I'm losing this cast shadow.
And I want that to reinforce.
the placement of the sash.
Small itty bitty highlights.
Sharper lines.
Some darker values in here maybe.
Look at that, getting that dark to wrap around there. Really
helpful, right, to get that turn of the form.
You can see we're on that part that I like to call completion.
And probably most of the people do but it's almost like you can
see it in the way that you move, right? You're just - you start to
think more globally when you start to do this, right, you
start to
jump around, right? So it's the opposite. This I'm skeptical
that you can do or at least I know I certainly can't do it
while seated.
Yeah, get that to tuck in and out from there too.
That's bright.
Want it to read bright.
And actually see the shadow, but I'm gonna
cast it anyway, right I'm gonna because cast shadows
they are logical, if you know the form you can always place a
cast shadow anywhere in the area. We've done this, we've done this
enough from observation for I think you'd be able to do it
from
understanding.
Go to calm this area down.
Too much information there.
Though the hand here is not important
making sure there's a nice accent there is
mainly because of the spiraling of the folds in that area.
But more on that that.
cast shadow,
right? So the whole point right now is to
really push
some of these cast shadows or these core shadows, unify some
things right, like maybe even all of this would be just a
little more unified down at the bottom, a darker value there to
get more of a gradient and also really
give a little bit of a hump to the sash right as a contrast.
Nice good that works for me. I did - this is the fun part, the
most challenging part.
But
it's really wonderful to see how with just the smallest
alterations, right, things that you think would hardly do
anything. You might - you actually kind of enact the
largest changes.
They have the greatest effect.
Tone that down a little bit.
I like what's happening here with this with the shadow, but
I'm afraid it's a little too - but I just outlined and we
don't have any really just outlined areas of shadow.
If you've noticed right they
are all kind of explained
either with the form that's kind of curving into those
shadows
or certain accents within the shadows.
All right. So there are - the sort of thing happening here
is a bit of charcoal
on the sides
and that's totally okay. I'm liking what this is doing. This
is part of a little bit more inventive than any of the other
ones.
But that softness and hardness there of edge,
God as much as it's -
like you just can't avoid it and it's so important to the
medium,
so important to just the craft of converting something into
two dimensions, imitating the way we see.
I'm playing with that edge. It does a lot.
So yeah, so there is this - they're all these lines that I
started with that I'm going to clean up a little bit, see how
it looks.
I think
we need to get this diaper fold
a little clearer, right, it needs to read a little clearer.
I don't want to overstate all this stuff.
And this half-lock, right? This wrapping around. Simplify it
but still we need it I think.
All right, just enough to work. This is the
the secret for such an area.
Just enough to get the point across.
And to wrap
a little more clarity behind the arm - hand. Sorry.
And then that kind of swirly
movement and then eye of the fold. Cool. fold cool
Bring it in a little bit, triangular movement towards the
back and then
it falls. I'm almost okay with that. I'm okay with it being
kind of line work there.
Uh-huh.
Just a little bit of
this and that here
for things to work.
In order for this to really crack and turn just got to
continue that form.
Right show -
there's a wrap, you don't need too much more there.
Keep stepping back, now is really the time to do it.
Possibly simpler here, simpler and lighter
Just get that out of the way, so that the
almost outlining the bow.
Also to change direction, right? So that one of
these creases, so one of these pipe folds is kind of
covering another, gets a little wider on top, narrow at the
bottom, you know.
Interesting things to look at.
Got a little overexcited that with that hatch there. It can
get carried away.
And some of these deeper values in there.
Helpful.
Okay.
Let me just clean up this edge.
It really adds a level of
completion here too. Maybe knock this back.
Knock that back. A little bit cleaner on top, too.
A lot of cloth here.
I'm really pushing the darkest areas, making them as dark as
possible. Make some of this little bit softer. Don't worry
about the head.
Arm and all that doesn't really matter.
Cast shadow from the hand reading, cast shadow from the
sash, the forms down here could be of course more developed I
think, right?
I could spend a little bit more time on them. The question is
is that fundamental to
really representing this? Would it look any more developed
actually right? Sometimes you can keep adding information to
places, but it just never really -
you can push it past its
optimal point almost.
This is not
what's happening here but I think it's still possible to
keep going but
just keep in mind, right, there is an optimal point where it
reads like it should
and that's probably where
you need to leave it alone.
Gonna lock this into
get a darker value in there.
Assess and reassess this whole thing.
Just
getting that a little more integrated, right, knocking back
those highlights. Don't think we need them. Here maybe.
But up here
just toning them down, right, ever-so-slightly, might not even
even be noticeable at first glance to let's say the
viewer, right? But there's a like there's a
very slight control there.
At this point you're being the director, right? You're not
being -
we shot all of the
stuff we need to shoot to get
the information across essentially right? You shot
all the scenes, but now you're editing them together a little
bit.
In this case, of course, you're editing
as you're working, but you know
just to throw another analogy into the mix.
Okay.
That completes the final assignment in the cloth portion
of this course.
You have spent a fair amount of time now working on each
individual bit of cloth. Really learning its anatomy is what
we started calling it. And then piece by piece you kept
building upon this in order to add more information while
using everything that you had learned up to that point. And
so I think as a culminating assignment,
this particular one really tests everything that we've
covered here, Now with cloth the practice is endless. So - and
it's also somewhat easy because you all have a piece of cloth
at home that you can just put on a couch or on a chair and
practice. So I, as with all the parts of this program, I
recommend you go back over everything, do it over and over
again and also practice it at home from objects that you have
in your house.
This has been Iliya Mirochnik and
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

In this assignment, using the images and 3D scans provided
with the course, you're going to be working on the clothed
mannequin.
What you need to keep in mind is
that you're going to encounter all of the cloth structures
that we've spoken about up to this point. And it's up to you
now to pinpoint them, to analyze them, and see how they work in
concert. I wish you luck.