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Texture Analysis Question: Crumpled Paper

1:25 AM, Thursday March 24th 2022

I'm trying to analyze the texture of crumpled paper, but there seems to be very few cast shadows in my reference photos (this is the photo I'm studying, but all the photos I picked are very similar). Most of the shadow shapes are actually form shadows and I recall Comfy saying in the instructions he doesn't want us to draw form shadows. If I don't draw the form shadows, then there won't be much to draw. What should I do?

I am studying a smaller portion of the image: about 1/12 the size of the whole image.

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8:01 PM, Thursday March 24th 2022

So this is one of the areas where the staggered development of the texture section has resulted in some... weirdness.

I don't have too much time to explain it right now (getting ready for the event that starts tomorrow), but in essence the crumpled paper is something that was added a little later. A lot of students had a great deal of trouble with diving into the bold, confident cast shadow shapes, and tended to be very timid, no matter what the lesson material would say. Then I ran into a couple students who did crumpled paper as one of their textures, and I noticed a pattern where after doing the crumpled paper - which they'd actually do incorrectly (focusing on the form shading and basically dividing it up where anything darker than a certain value would be drawn as black, and anything lighter would be left white) - they became much bolder and more confident in their other texture attempts.

So, I started assigning this as the first texture, and as a result I saw students becoming more confident with their shadow shapes. And of course, they'd all do the crumpled paper "incorrectly", but because it was still yielding good results and most people didn't notice the contradiction, I left it as is.

When my overhaul of the course material reaches the texture section, I'm going to address and formalize it (largely to eliminate contradictions and make it all clearer), but for now I've largely left things be, allowing students to do that first one incorrectly for the greater benefit it yielded going forward.

9:05 PM, Thursday March 24th 2022

Thank you for the explanation. You mention that the students did the crumpled paper incorrectly; so I take it that the clarification will be to reiterate focusing on cast shadows and not just simplifying the value shapes into black and white? I'm just a little uncertain as to how to go about completing the Dissections exercise regarding which textures are acceptable. I'm trying to find textures that are based on form variation and not colour or value variation.

I'm looking forward to the week of challenges/drawing prompts. I'm glad you guys will finally get a break -- good idea to build the breaks into your yearly schedule. I will be setting my exercises aside for the week; so your answer to this question could really wait till next Friday when I finally do the Dissections exercise; but I'll give it to you now.

Question: For these exercises should I only use as reference materials that rely on form (creating significant cast shadows) to create the texture, and refrain from using any that rely on form shadows or value/colour variation?

As I state above, I'm having difficulty knowing which textures will work for these exercises; though, this may very well be addressed in the overhaul (but I'll likely be past lesson 2 by then). Since you focus so heavily on the actual shadows created by the little forms -- specifically the cast shadows -- and basically want us to ignore any local colour or value, you have essentially eliminated many textures that do not rely on such forms (e.g. glass, chrome, smooth/sanded wood, etc; even the crumpled paper texture doesn't have much by way of cast shadows (at least once the crumpled paper has been "flattened"); basically anything that is smooth or has minimal/shallow form variation won't provide enough cast shadow information to sufficiently communicate the texture). I tried to accept these restriction for the exercises and work within them, but then I saw in the video demonstration and homework example that you do indeed record information from reference that is not just cast shadows (e.g. the ripples on the fried chicken skin would likely be form shadows, the chrome is purely reflection, the meat texture appears to be simulated using the difference in value between the muscle meat and the fat/gristle, and on and on). I do understand DAB is a work-in-progress, so I'm not upset or trying to give you a hard time; but due to the contradictions I'm a bit unsure about how to proceed.

Thanks for all you do. I hope this week is a great refresher for you and the crew.

2:32 AM, Friday March 25th 2022

so I take it that the clarification will be to reiterate focusing on cast shadows and not just simplifying the value shapes into black and white?

My planned up dates for the texture section are going to be a bit more involved than that. I'm planning on restructuring it and introducing some minor exercises in between to further explain the concepts - but you'll have to wait for the specifics.

That said, if you head over to the discord server, the #lesson2 channel has a lecture I gave on textural concepts pinned - it should help with your current work on the texture exercises. I also think that lecture should help cover the points you asked about.

Obviously having that stuff on discord is not as accessible as it could be - but again, the overhaul will address that. I've just got a million things to do, and not enough time.

3:00 AM, Friday March 25th 2022

Thanks for letting me know about the Discord lecture. I'm not on Discord and I'm very hesitant to join with what I've learned of their track record regarding privacy and users' data. I suppose I'll just do my best to complete the exercises with textures that have descent form and follow the homework instructions and examples best I can for now. I may revisit this lesson following the overhaul to see how your approach has changed. As always thanks for taking the time to respond. Let the games begin :)

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