OZAD Day 14: Decorative Value

Your Wednesday Hostess, Ellen, writes:

Hi all. Another week. Time is flying, but I am still very happy to take part in this OZAD group. I get motivated and inspired by all the work that is posted online and of course by the book itself. It feels a bit like being back at Oakhorst and sharing and talking and doing. If only the costs were less. I would love to go for a second time and to one of the CZT get-togethers.Well, in the mean time: OZAD.

Day 14: Decorative Value.

I have to admit that when I create a Zentangle I normally don't think about the decorative value as such. I do think about the patterns I use and like to put lighter and darker patterns next to each other, just to make things more interested. For me. But I don't think about the place of the tangles.

So for today, on the black tile I started thinking. And I felt a bit restricted because I normally create from my heart and now my head was "in the way". Maybe I have to do this more often to get the two to work together, but for now I'm not sure about the result.

Looking forward to read and see what you all have come up with.

Have a great tangling week,

Ellen 

I really like what Ellen said about her "head getting in the way" of her art when she was working on this assignment. I have been having the same problem more and more often as I work through this book. I hope it is something that I will be able to overcome. I like the idea of using both my head and my heart when creating art. I think I just need to get these lessons so thoroughly learned that they become automatic and don't get in the way. Like when you are learning to ride a drive a car and have to worry about everything: steering, brakes, not driving too fast or too slow, keeping the car in the lane, avoiding hazards, keeping a safe distance, finding the pedals, using the turn signal, etc. Then after driving for so many years, these all become automatic and we can enjoy the process more.  

From Sharon Matys:  "When I completed this tile, all I can say is 'yay', finally I have something that I like. I enjoyed doing the Dyon tangle… and the Chainging... keeko is definitely one of my 'in the zone' favorites as is printemps."

I am very impressed with you Sharon curved her  punzel so neatly.  I attempted the same thing, but you will see, did not have as much success. Sharon, do you have any tips for getting your punzel to go where you want it?

Marty Deckel contributed this:

I used string# 024 by Jadie Wright on my white tile, and string #027 by Courtney Franz on my black tile.  I totally enjoyed doing the white tile and using Dyon, which I had never done before.  I morphed it into a tangleation of Shattuck, and morphed Chainging into Onamato...FUN!!!  The black tile was harder for me to accomplish the planes using the pattern values...I find the black tiles quite challenging!  Probably means I should do more of them!  :-)

Angela Werner writes:

Decorative Value which means having no established light source. Beckah says children do it well but that the effect leaves the project looking flat. Then she tells us that to achieve the effect, you put the lightest value closest to you, then the middle value, then the darkest value. So, I attempted to do that. However, my tile was screaming for something around Knightsbridge and it definitely didn't call for a dark value...

I returned to Flux, my lightest value. I don't think my tile looks flat and I do think I am confused about the point of the lesson. Do we want to go for decorative value or not? The pattern Dyon never appealed to me but I thought I would try it. I don't like it sitting all alone and I couldn't figure out how to connect it to other tangles. I can't wait to see what other's will do. I always learn from all of you!!!! I also find "changing" quite challenging and going around Dyon was nerve racking. So much to learn! 

I had similar questions to Angela about decorative value. In fact this is the one section of the book that I have to respectfully disagree with Beckah. Decorative shading absolutely does not have to look flat. I never choose a light source for my Zentangle and most people think my tiles have a lot of depth. And, I know Beckah personally and know she would never intentionally be condescending, and yet that is how I feel when I read her description for today's lesson.

So, instead of working on part 2 of the assignment, I went off on another mini research project. I've been searching for information about shading for about 4 hours this morning.  (I felt like I was working on my book again.)  Here is some interesting information that I found. 

Interesting definitions from DINA PEARLMAN, instructor at SUNY Ulster in her class: Introduction to 2-Dimensional Deisgn 

• decorative value flat patterns of tones creating a value scale
• descriptive value the range of tones in a drawing or design that accurately represent what is seen
• arbitrary value value that does not necessarily conform to the actual appearance of an object; the use of tone based on intuitive responses or compositional needs
• expressive value value that is expressive or subjective in nature, often created by the expressive use of a specific media 

I especially enjoyed her resources page. You can learn a lot about art by exploring these pages.

I also found an interesting article about Shadows in Painting and found out that  it wasn't until the 15th century that shadows were used in painting when they discovered you can get a 3-D effect by using shadows.

I'm not exactly sure what this has to do with shading our Zentangles, but I thought since I spent so much time researching that I might share.  I also found another very cool website that has a ton of general art information, including essays and timelines at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

So, based on the definitions above, I think we should shade our Zentangles using arbitrary or expressive value and by no means does this imply that they will look "flat."  So, finally, here is what I did using dyon and punzel.  Sorry for rambling.  I hope someone finds it interesting.

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