To inspire creativity

Get the painting or drawing you love with a few value studies that will save you time in the long run on your design.  Most of us have some difficultly when it comes to understanding and applying values to our painting or drawing.  I'll show you a few simple steps that can help you differentiate your values.  If this resonates with you keep reading. 

What are values and why are they so important when you are creating your painting?  Values are lights and darks within your picture plane.  This can be a landscape, portrait, or any subject you are passionate about.  GOOD VALUE PATTERNS WILL CREATE A GOOD COMPOSITION.

I use three markers in a warm grey shown below and a sketchpad in grey as a middle tone to save time.  You can use what you feel most comfortable with or what dictates your subject using only three colors for value plus white.  These value studies are a great way to organize your composition.  This does not have to be large, just keep it simple and small.

I would recommend purchasing a value scale to help you understand values.  A scale from 1 to 9 or 10.  With 10 being white and one black.  Five or six being the middle tone.  Values are also interchangeable with the use of tones and contrast.

Let’s take a landscape scene and look at the values.  Although there are several values for the purpose of this exercise let’s break it down to three or four fundamental shapes.  We also want to capture the effect of light.  If you are a landscape painter and working outside where the light is constantly changing you will have this value study as reference either outside or in the studio.

First, step back and squint at what you want to paint.  Then break your composition down into three to five shapes.  The objective is to achieve a strong design for your painting by simplifying your values and shapes.  Always compare your darks and lights to each other.  What are your darkest darks and your lightest lights and how do they compare to one another.

What do you see?  If you squint down you should see a pattern of lights and darks.  When you break down your shapes, you should be able to see the contrast of lights and darks.  After you finish your drawing step back. Without strong values in your painting, you will have no design, no contrast of lights and darks.  If you start painting without doing this, not to say you can’t, you might struggle with the values especially when you start to apply color.

Below is another quick value study with people.  I only used the white charcoal pencil for areas of the lightest lights.

Understanding the relationships of values to one another is the hierarchy of painting and drawing.  Understanding and getting it right will save you a lot of time and also you will create a terrific painting.  Happy Painting!

Next Month: Another meaning of Value.  If you doubt the value of what you do or the value of your paintings check back in a month.

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