Value Planning



value planning

 When I am planning an art quilt, I have to figure out what colors and values I want in my piece. Sometimes I do several thumbnail sketches and try out different colors using watercolor paints. Once I have the colors and values that I like, I use the thumbnail to select fabrics.

I have recently been working on a black and white piece, so instead of colors, I was planning to use different textures and black and white values to depict parts of my landscape. On the left is the value sketch that I prepared to give me a "roadmap" for where I wanted to go. I took this roadmap with me when I pulled out fabrics from my stash and when I went to the store to get more fabrics for this piece. It gave me a good idea of the percentage of black or white I wanted in each area. It was a bit more tricky than using color, but it worked!