Elements of Painting: Value and Color

Color is the most attractive quality of a painting but, believe it or not, value is more important than color to the design and success of a painting. Since color is most often what viewers of the painting will notice most, the values of color are important in determining the success of the composition.

When we describe a color as "light" or "dark", we are discussing its value or "brightness". This property of color tells us how light or dark a color is, based on how close it is to white. The brighter the color, the higher its value. For instance, lemon yellow would be considered lighter than cerulean blue which in turn is lighter than black. Therefore, the value of lemon yellow is higher than cerulean blue and black.

The easiest way to remember this dimension of color is to visualize the "gray scale," which runs from black to white and contains all of the possible monochromatic grays. This scale helps artists understand and identify light, mid-tones and darks more easily.

You will have a better view of values if you squint your eyes, squeezing them as in bright sunlight. Looking through your eyelashes filters the colors out, letting you see values better.

For the success of a painting, a painter should approach it as a value problem, an arrangement of light and shadow. Value is the skeleton upon which the painting is constructed; color and detail add local interest.

• Value contrast is used to create a focal point within a painting or drawing.
  The human eye is immediately drawn to a light element against a dark element. This creates the focal point of interest.
• Gradations of value are also used to create the illusion of depth.
• Areas of light and dark give a three-dimensional illusion of form to subject matter.

To get the values right, you have to do a continuous work of comparison between parts of the reference image and parts of the ongoing painting.

Look at the reference picture, composition, or scene you want to paint, and find the darkest shapes or areas. Compare them to the other areas of the picture. See how they relate to each other in terms of lightness and darkness.

Hold your value scale in front of the picture and see how each area compares to the gray scale on the chart. The darkest dark on the picture might have for example a value 3. Now hold the scale up in front of your painting and check the value of your paint. No matter what color you used, to deliver the correct composition and structure, the value should be consistent.

Keep comparing. Look at the middle value in the reference photo and see how they compare. If the middle value is a 5, paint that on a value 5 color and do the same comparison for the lightest lights. Never get tired of comparing the relationships between values in the picture and in the painting.

Color can be tricky, you may think you can render a value 9 area with a yellow, but when you compare to your gray scale chart you may be surprised to see that the yellow you used corresponds to a 6 or a 7.

Another way to check your progress with values is to take a photo of your artwork, download it to your computer and, using Photoshop or another image editing software, desaturate it. Once you digitally take all colors out, you will be able to see values without any distractions by colors.

For a painting to be effective you should vary the proportional amount of area occupied by each value, applying a formula of most – some – and a bit.
Varying the values this way is much more interesting than dividing them equally. Identify the biggest area value, then the value you have less, and the one you have just a little bit of, like in the examples here. In each case, the smallest area naturally becomes the center of interest. The largest value area becomes the dominant value group.

If the largest area is light values, the painting is said to be on a high key, if the largest is dark, the painting is in a low key.

In the examples below, there are six possible variation of combining the value patters according to the most – some – and a bit rule. The smallest area has conveniently been placed on one of the sweet spots, by the rule of thirds, and becomes the center of interest.

1. A great way to practice values is to paint a monochrome painting. To do so you need to look at your subject and simplify what you see, finding the large abstract shapes. Take it down to 4 main values: darkest, lightest and two middle values.
   Paint the shapes that you see, rather than the object you are trying to depict. Think abstract pattern of shapes. At the end it will all make sense and come together in a simplified representation of your subject.
   For oil, paint on a burnt umber ground, wipe it down to a mid value, paint in the darks, and wipe out for lights (with paper towel or q-tips - try dipping in mineral spirits for the really white stuff). Use only burnt umber (or raw umber) - no white. For those using acrylic, you can mix your values with black and white.
2. Another great practice exercise to get comfortable with values is drawing with graphite pencil or charcoal, where colors are totally out of the picture. Practicing drawing and sketching will give you a better understanding of values and a deeper knowledge of how to use value to create depth, texture, and highlights.