Seeing the Values of Colors

Transcription

1 Level: Beginner to Intermediate Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level:. Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease:. Drawspace Curriculum..R - Pages and 9 Illustrations Seeing the Values of Colors A richly-illustrated introduction to the most important skill for painting or drawing in color This tutorial has three sections: Identifying the Values of Basic Colors Examining Values in Single Colors Exploring Values in a Realistic Painting Identifying the Values of Basic Colors You can paint or draw a subject with hundreds of different colors, but without an intrinsic or learned understanding of values, your artwork can t look realistic. Realism in a color medium demands a wide range of values from light to dark. The different values of the colors within the light and shadow sections of an object visually define its shapes and forms. ArtSpeak Color: The visual qualities of objects based on individual perceptions of their hues and values. Basic colors include: yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and green. Realism: A style of art in which living beings and objects are represented in an artwork as they appear in real life without stylization or distortion. Values of colors: The intrinsic lightness or darkness of a specific color. For example, a soft pastel yellow has a light value and a deep midnight blue has a dark value. In painting, dark colors can be mixed with white to create lighter values (colors). Value scale: A range of different values that are rendered in order from light to dark or from dark to light. Highlight: A small section of a drawing subject that is rendered with white or a very light value to identify the brightest area where light bounces off its surface. Highlights are more pronounced on shiny or glistening surfaces than dull or matte surfaces. Shadow: A dark area on an object or living being that receives little to no light. Low contrast: A drawing or painting created with a limited range of values.

2 Drawspace Curriculum..R: Seeing the Values of Colors You re likely already familiar with a grayscale value scale (Figure ). The next step is to recognize values in colors. Figure ArtSpeak Values: The various shades of gray in an artwork. A broad range of values can be achieved by using various grades of a medium and by varying the density of the shading lines and the pressure used when applying the medium to a surface. Complementary colors: A set of two colors that are directly opposite one another on a color wheel (such as red and green, yellow and purple, and orange and blue.) When placed beside one other, these colors seem brighter and more vibrant. Key: The overall amount of light and dark values in an artwork. Low-key: An artwork with a range of mostly medium and dark values that often appears ominous or moody (think of low levels of light). High-key: An artwork with a limited range of values that are mostly medium and light (think of high levels of light). Even the shadows and dark areas are often shaded with medium values rather than dark. Challenge! Examine ten different colors (Figure ) and identify which color is the lightest in value and which is the darkest. Then arrange all ten colors by value, from the lightest to the darkest. You may want to assign each color a letter or number so you can write down your answers. If you need a little help, Figure illustrates the same ten colors when translated into grayscale. When you are done, check out Figure (on the next page) to find out which colors are actually darker or lighter than others. As you might have guessed, yellow is the lightest, and royal blue is the darkest. Surprisingly, some colors are almost identical in value when used beside one another in a painting, their values appear similar. Figure Figure

3 Drawspace Curriculum..R: Seeing the Values of Colors Figure Seeing the values of colors is much more challenging than seeing values in grayscale. The only way to train your eye to recognize the values of colors is to practice drawing or painting with color. In the beginning, it s mostly guesswork. Examining Values in Single Colors Every color in the universe (except white) can become either a light, medium, or dark value in a value scale. For example, Figure shows a value scale of all light values. The yellow from Figure (on the far right) is now the darkest in a scale of nine different values. However, the values/colors are very similar. Figure Conversely, if you take the royal blue (the darkest value in Figure ) and make it the lightest color in a value scale, many of the resulting colors are also similar (Figure ). Figure Technically, any color can be broken down into an infinite range of values from very light to almost black. However, there s little point in using colors that are so similar that the human eye cannot discern one from another.

4 Drawspace Curriculum..R: Seeing the Values of Colors The key to drawing realistically with color is to use a full range of values from very light to very dark, as with the greens in Figure. Figure Compare Figures and 9. A full value scale of any color (plus black and white) can achieve the illusion of three-dimensional reality as well as a full value scale of black (called a grayscale). Figure Figure 9 Figure 0 When drawing with color, values are definitely more important than the chosen colors. Examine variations of the same dagger drawing with limited ranges of values (Figure 0). Each still looks like a dagger just not quite as realistic or three-dimensional as those in Figures and 9.

5 Drawspace Curriculum..R: Seeing the Values of Colors In addition to using a full range of values from light to dark, you can create a less dramatic, threedimensional reality using a range of: Caution! all light values plus medium values (high-key). If you try to render a realistic color artwork with a range of values that are all light, all medium, or all dark, you might be disappointed. all dark values plus medium values (low-key). A very limited range of values can t create the illusion of a realistic three-dimensional reality. Exploring Values in a Realistic Painting In this section, a few areas of a photo-realistic oil painting (Figure ) show how a full range of values in mixed colors can create the illusion of a three-dimensional reality. Figure Most color media requires some colors to be mixed together in order to create a realistic artwork. Wet media, such as acrylic or oil paint, are usually mixed with a brush or palette knife before they are applied to the surface. Dry media, such as chalk pastels or colored pencils, are usually applied to the surface in layers to mix the colors. No matter which medium or colors you choose, you still need to use a range of values from light to dark.

6 Drawspace Curriculum..R: Seeing the Values of Colors The skin colors in Figure are a value scale of ten different mixed colors, from very light to very dark. Each skin tone has been assigned a number from to 0. Examine the close up view of a section of the painting (Figure ) and then compare each value to its corresponding number in Figure. As most of the arm is in sunlight, the values range from light to medium ( to ). The section of her upper leg that s in shadow is painted with darker values ( to 0). Figure Figure Here s a trick question: what color are the white polka dots in her bathing suit? As an Aside I rarely use pure white in my paintings and never use black (I don t even own a tube of black paint). Hint: not white! The dots that are in the bright sunlight are light in value but not white. Those in shadow sections are made up of light to medium values.

7 Drawspace Curriculum..R: Seeing the Values of Colors Compare the numbered sections in the close up of the bathing suit (Figure ) to a value scale of the colors used for the polka dots (Figure ). As you can see, the polka dot colors are mostly a mixture of white and a little yellow, red, and/or blue. Figure Figure Even the lightest value () is very light but not white. The other three values have identifiable colors, yellow (), pink (), and light brown (). As a final demonstration of values in color, examine the pink bathing suit. Most of the colors used are not actually pink yet, if you look at the complete painting (Figures and ), the full visual effect is a bathing suit that appears pink. Figure Figure The nine bathing suit colors (created with three primary colors plus white) range in value from light to dark (Figure ). 9 9 Compare the value scale of colors to the close-up section of the bathing suit (Figure ).

8 Drawspace Curriculum..R: Seeing the Values of Colors Figure Tip! To make good use of the values of colors, take black-and-white photos or scans of your color artworks in progress, and assess how your values are working. For example, compare the original painting in color (Figure ) to the version in grayscale (Figure 9). As you can see, the subject appears three-dimensional in both versions. The two most important things to remember when creating color in art are:. Colors are not always simple. If you use pure colors just as they are either in a tube of paint or in a colored pencil then you ll be very disappointed with the resulting work. Colors need to be mixed with one other to achieve realistic colors/values. Figure 9. Values are much more important than color. Whether a bathing suit is blue, purple, or pink, you need to focus more on values than colors. Tip! A highlight appears brighter when contrasted with the color that s opposite it on the color wheel (complementary). For example, if the iris of an eye is blue, a very tiny bit of orange (complementary to blue) added to the white makes the highlight appear brighter.