HOW TO SEE VALUES UNDERSTANDING THE MEAT AND POTATOES OF ART
The value scale is a system of organizing tones of color. It consists of nine, or more, shades ranging from light to dark, with diminishing shades in between. These shades make up the meat of art, and help to create the illusion of depth and three-dimensionality. This is the typical greyscale that artists have used for centuries to get their values right. This scale represents a color from a pale tone to a dark tone Some artists arrange their palettes in strings of values in each of the colors they want to use. This system of a controlled palette is a great way to find the value you want. But it takes a lot of time to set it up each time you paint, and in my opinion it is not worth the effort, as I was taught to learn values by comparing one thing to another and then mixing that shade on the palette or on the canvas.
Classical Artists were taught to make drawings based on simple shapes, like the sphere, cone and cube. This exercise helped them learn to see values, and learn how to turn form which is an expression classical artists use to show three dimension in their work. This is one of my drawings exploring space and form done in Silverpoint, which sadly, doesn t reproduce too well, but you get the idea.
HIGH AND LOW KEY DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS It isn t hard to tell the difference. The apples on the left are mostly in the dark range of the value scale while the Apple Car drawing is at the other end and appears very pale in comparison.
Monet was always experimenting with the effects of light on his subjects. While in England he painted the bridges over the Thames River many times at different times of the day. Here you see the low key painting on the left and a higher key painting of the same subject on the right.
LEARNING TO SEE VALUES This is how I was taught to see values COMPARE, COMPARE, COMPARE So I start with the darkest dark and keep the lights open to the white of the canvas. This gives me a range from darkest to lightest and I can compare everything in the scene to those values and to a neutral background. It is much easier to do this with a live setup in front of you rather than working from a photograph, but I need to use the photos because my studio and my schedule don t permit me the luxury of working from life too often, especially with fruits and children. Here is a demonstration of what I mean
This is the original photograph of the copper pitcher and fruit in my studio. I didn t put up a background this time, but sometimes I photograph against a wall where I can control the value and color of the background. It can be a chore to edit out a confusing background, but I do it all the time
In this case I wanted a simple neutral grey background against which I ll put my subjects. When I was an art student we always had a neutral grey background in the studios (some people called it a battleship grey) to keep distracting items out of our vision. So I do pretty much the same thing with my camera and photo editing. In this painting I am looking for simple shapes and simple colors. It is MUCH easier to have numerous comparison points to which you can then mimic on the palette.
When I start I spend some time deciding what would be the darkest dark. Sometimes it is necessary to squint at it and that helps see the values. I have a sheet of clear plastic which is red and it helps remove some of the color and we can see true values if we look through it. I don t use this very often but I do have the red sheets in the class closet for people who want to use it
Use a neutral background to compare everything to each other; is it lighter or darker than this grey. Squinting as you go helps The table top represents the lightest light and will be painted last I determine that this shadow is the darkest dark, closest to black on the value scale and I begin my painting here Some of those blue folds are a close second When you learn to do this with your paintings you not only learn to see values but you can keep revising your painting based on what is in or out of value as you go along. Is it too light or too dark, making an area look like a black hole, or a white that is popping out of the painting? Remember that values are subject to the illusion that we think we know what we see. Painting is a process of learning that what you think you see is not what you should paint!
Here is the painting. As you can see I had to lower the table in value or that white would have stood out too much and ruined the look of the painting. See the photo below and you can see that it has changed the look significantly. I also changed the drawing of the cloth to try to bring your eye into the painting and made the table edges more interesting. I think I went back to the supermarket to buy more plums and simply set it up and painted them from life. I also made the background more dramatic by making it lighter on one side. This is the original photograph
CHECKING FOR CORRECT VALUES Turn your painting upside down, or look at it in a mirror and you will immediately see what is out of value in the painting. This disorients your brain and allows you to see the work without the preconceived brain pathways that has been set up while you are working on the painting. Very often what we see in nature is out of value and when an area of white is surrounded by a darker color the value of the light area appears even lighter. If possible grey it down! Monet didn t seem to care if his whites were sticking out of the canvas, and you can see paintings like this in his work very often.
With apologies to Monet for my rather crude demonstration. Lowering, or greying down, the white value of the cloth allows your eye to travel around the painting and not linger on the area of white. Is it better? You decide Dark areas (black holes) are not as common but if you look at the woman s hair you will see it as a tad too black for the rest of the painting. I don t know this for sure but I suspect that painting in Plein Air causes lights and darks to be exaggerated.
VALUES MATTER COMPARE! You can resolve your value issues by careful looking, comparing everything with everything. I don t mean to be silly here, but painters must be AWARE. We must be constantly aware that values are much more important than the right color. Color is relatively unimportant, in a painting. Sure we want it to be singing with color, but which colors to paint on the canvas can be a a little of this, or a little of that, and in the end no one will know if you hit it correctly or even if it matters at all. But VALUES matter. A little lighter blue on that shirt will make a whole lot of difference than struggling with which blue to put there. This is why we work over the whole painting going from one thing to the next as it calls to you for attention. When you paint on one section you usually must adjust the rest of the painting. Paint the grass and the sky will need attention. Paint the table top and the background will need work. It is back and forth through the entire painting adjusting and adjusting, comparing and comparing, until everything is in value and the whole thing works. Then you are finished! It is called value driven painting and it has been the method taught to painters since the Renaissance.