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Adding values to your line drawings transforms them, creating the illusion of three-dimensional form. While lines are great, values take your art to the next level.
In art, value refers to how light or dark something is, not its monetary worth. For example, in a grayscale image, skin might appear lighter than lips, even if their actual colors differ.
Value and Color
In reality, you don't see lines, you see shapes filled with colors. Color consists of three properties:
- Hue: The color family (red, blue, yellow).
- Chroma: How pure or gray the color is.
- Value: How light or dark the color is.
For artists, the most important aspect of color is value. Focusing on value helps you capture the light and form of your subject.
Think of lines as the framework of a building, and values as the walls that fill in the spaces, making it solid. Values create the illusion of form, depth, and volume and are essential for realistic drawings. Texture and color are like decorations and furniture.
As a beginner, focus on drawing with values before adding color. This helps you understand light and form without the complexity of hue and chroma.
The Value Scale
Imagine a scale from 0 (black) to 10 (white). This is borrowed from the Munsell Color System. Although there are infinite values between black and white, artists simplify this into steps, typically 10. This is more manageable and makes it easier to communicate.
You don't always have to use all 10 values in every drawing. Sometimes, you might choose to work with a limited value scale. Maybe you decide to use 5 values, just enough to represent the main elements of light and shadow.
You can also play around with different value ranges within the scale. Maybe your drawing only uses values from 3 to 8, with no deep shadows or bright highlights. Or you could go for a moody drawing using only darker values from 0 to 5.
Our goal is to train your eye to see these subtle shifts in value and then translate them into something you can work with on paper.
Four Sources of Value
There are four things that determine the values we see:
- Local Value
- Light on Form
- Surface Material
- Atmosphere
For beginners, I highly recommend focusing mostly on those first two.
Local Value
Local value is the inherent lightness or darkness of an object. It's important to note that local value can vary within an object. For example, an apple might have a gradation and texture of values across its surface.
Light on Form
When light shines on an object, it affects its value based on the object's form. Planes facing the light are brighter. Planes turning away are darker.
Local value and light on form work together to create the final perceived value. Objects with different local values will have different light and shadow values under the same lighting conditions.
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I hope you are starting to see the value of values! There is a lot more to learn, but first I’ll give you a simple warm up exercise and project in the next few videos to get your hands dirty. See you in the next one.
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