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Organizing values into strong, connected shapes does three huge things for your drawings.

• Improves readability: Allows the viewer to understand your drawing at a glance.
• Adds depth: Well-organized values build a convincing hierarchy of planes.
• Commands attention: With control over where the eye goes, every accent, texture, and highlight feels deliberate.

Oceans, Lakes, and Rivers

Think of value groups as oceans, lakes, and rivers:

• Oceans are large areas of light or shadow.
• Lakes are medium-sized shapes from the opposite value family within an ocean.
• Rivers are halftone or reflected light connections between lakes and oceans, guiding the flow and gesture in your composition.

Rivers help to tame down distracting lakes and guide the flow in your composition. This approach helps unify your values, grouping them into larger connected shapes.

Balancing 2D Composition and 3D Form

Don't just copy the shapes you see, think like a designer.

• 2D Composition: Values, their shape, size, and location play a big role in the overall composition and how the eye flows through the drawing.
• 3D Form: Values reveal planes, a change in value suggests a change in plane.

Every shape you design should enhance both the two-dimensional arrangement and carve out the three-dimensional forms. Sometimes, major plane changes help unify smaller shapes, improving the 2D composition.

Organizing values into strong, connected shapes does three huge things for your drawings:

For example, think of big planes on the forehead or jaw, or simplify the hair and beard into cylinders. Small forms can feel cluttered, but if you let the cylinder's major plane changes influence the values of the small shapes, they work together cohesively.

Dealing with Floaters

Be aware of how much each shape stands out, based on its value contrast with surrounding shapes. A common rule of thumb is to avoid floaters, isolated shapes, unless they are intended to draw attention.

When you encounter a floating shape that feels distracting:

• Merge it with the ocean: Modify the shape to make it part of the larger value area.
• Add connecting rivers: Use halftones to connect a floating lake to an ocean or nearby lakes.
• Adjust the value: Change the lake's value to make it closer to the surrounding values.
• Modify the shape's gesture: Alter the shape to flow with the gesture of your composition.
• Emphasize it intentionally: If you want that shape to stand out, let it be an eye-catching element.

Halftones aren't dark enough to be part of the shadow family, but they are dark enough to create a visual bridge between shapes. Consider the planes of the major 3D form and bring smaller lakes closer to the values of those planes.

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