Here are my notes on Robh Ruppel’s Graphic LA pages 39-57.

“The effect of-the large mass… the overall, the aggregate… PERSPECTIVE is more important than the actual objects.”

I think this goes with the idea of working from general to specific. If you have a pleasing shape to your composition in general, it’s going to look cool.

Robh Ruppel talks about simplifying your designs into the fewest possible values, and this advice is paired with several images done on white paper with a black marker. You can still tell what’s going on in the images, and you don’t need all kinds of values. I think that’s a sign of a good composition–it can be broken down easily into really simple value areas, and still make sense.

Examples from my own master copies of Ruppel’s works:

Advice:

Think while you’re drawing: Is it looking the way I pictured it? How am I picturing it? Ask yourself over and over.

“Graphic in nature. Dimensional in execution.” What does that mean? Hmm. Perhaps its just talking about the fact that Ruppel breaks things down really graphically into values at first, and then he adds dimension as he works? I don’t know.

It’s awesome, regardless.