Art + Quilt: Quilt Indy Group - Value Contrast

Here is another feature spotlighting the Quilt Indy Group. I love following the progress of these determined artists as they work their way through Art + Quilt.

Value is the poor unappreciated sister of color in the artists world. But truly - she does all the hard work. We enjoy playing with color so much that we often forget to pay attention to the contrast of values within those colors.

The exercise here is to create three similar compositions while studying the effects of value. Make one composition with highly contrasting values, one with all low values (darker colors) and one with all high values (lighter colors.) 

The mood and feel of Carol's three pieces are quite different 

simply because of her varying use of value in each piece. 

I love her addition of contrasting line directions here.

I love the way Laura has combined all of her studies into one composition.

It's a very effective study and a lovely piece of art.

This is an intriguing study. Pay attention to where the lights and darks are in Judy's drawing in comparison to the textile iteration. Photographing the works in black and white truly helps you to see where value has created focal points and paths for the eye to follow.

Mezzie's work is whimsical and fun with her overlapping transparency effects and her shapes escaping the edges of the frame. Again, the differing value contrasts create quite different feels even though the compositions are identical.

Mary Anne has created compositions with simple shapes very effectively. You don't have to get elaborate to study the elements of art. Again, she has done a great job of working with different values.

So. What have you learned from these lovely value studies? I'm delighted with them and with the fact that the group is taking the time to study and learn together. You can see that one doesn't need to make a masterpiece each time you pick up your cloth or sketchbook. Every time you learn something what you have created becomes valuable. Leave a comment and let them know what you think.