Lady Shiro

(Note: The line across her face is a crease in the paper)

     Shown above is my value project, one of the first projects I made in my art class. This art piece is of a character I created, her name is Shiro. She is cosplaying as one of my favorite characters from the anime Black Butler. She's shown wearing a pink hat and a bow around her neck. For the background, I placed roses on vines and falling leaves around her. My goal was to express beauty in this drawing.
     Value is my most used element in this project. I used value to show the light placement and shadows of objects, trying to make the image look more bold/3D. I would say lines are my second most used element since lines are what I used to make the image stand out more and make it more distinguishable. I only used color on the hat, part of her neck strap, and her eye because I wanted these three things to be the most eye catching. I felt that adding little color made these things pop out. Originally I was going to color the background roses in but I thought that that would take away the attention from her clothes. I have no specific reason for wanting her clothes and eye to stand out, I just thought that it was a pretty idea. Even in the color element, value is used.
     The story of this piece is quite simple, I had wanted the character I created to have a beautiful look to her. The flowers are a symbol of beauty and the leaves are to represent my favorite season, Autumn. I chose this outfit specifically because the original colors of it are pink and I wanted a soft color to go with the shading of the white.
     There's a a lot of judgement I have for this piece but I will only express a few. First is her eye color. The character she is cosplaying as has blue eyes and so I figured "why doesn't she wear blue contacts?" I didn't have to make her eye blue, but I did and I wish I hadn't. I feel this color is too deep/dark for this piece and contrasts too much with the soft pink coloring of her outfit. Another judgement I have is on the shading/value I did on a couple of the roses, specifically the one in the lower right corner of the page. I shaded it way to dark, showing little to now value in it. And the flower in the upper left corner also has little to no shading too, it is not too dark but too light.