EofA: Value

• Finding the contrasting values
• First shut out tiny details by squinting your eyes
• Look only at the larger shapes of similar value
• The elements of dark and light will become more noticeable
• You can also use this technique to balance the value contrasts in your own work more effectively.

Element of Art

Value

• Some artists prefer to use strong value contrast only a little, perhaps saving it for a design’s center of interest, a special area to which the artist wishes to draw the viewer’s attention. The center of interest, usually where the artist wishes the viewer to look first, may also contain a design’s most important object of figure, or other important information.

Value

Using Value in Design

• This range of light and dark in an image is called value, the lightness or darkness of grays and colors.
• White is the lightest value
• Black is the darkest
• There are an unlimited number of values between them.

• All the things around you are illuminated, or lit, by some light source. Without light, you would see nothing. No matter how bright your whitest clothes are, you cannot see them in absolute darkness. With a little light, the clothes begin to look gray. As the light increases, the white clothes look brighter.

• The light in a painting, drawing or photo may come from any single direction.
• Areas facing a light source are lightest in value.
• Areas facing away from a light source are darker
• Light creates shadows
• Single bright light creates sharp dark shadows
• Multiple light sources or indirect lighting produces lighter shadows with softer edges.
• Shadows and varying shades of gray can create the illusion of three-dimensional space or volume.

• The greatest possible value contrast is between black and white.
• A woodcut or linoleum-block print made with black ink on white paper uses such contrast.

Light Values

Dark Values

• To depict happiness, warmth, or sunshine, an artist emphasizes lighter values

• An artwork with many light-valued colors is high-keyed. High-keyed colors have been mixed with white and are called pastel colors.
• Sargent uses light values in the watercolor of alligators. The whiteness of the colors recreates the glare and heat of strong tropical light

• Value may also be used to show depth
• The farther away the objects are from the foreground in a landscape or cityscape, usually the lighter they are.
• In the photo of the Grand Canyon the darkest areas are the canyon walls closest to the viewer.
• In the distance, the canyon becomes noticeably lighter

• Artists often depict the actual effects of light, but sometimes choose to alter or invent them.
• emphasize darkness to convey a sense of mystery
• Brightness to suggest happiness or excitement
• Values may not be realistic
• They can strengthen the mood to better suit the artist’s intended effect

• To suggest dark and gloomy days, nighttime, or dim lighting, an artist uses darker values.
• The lack of brightness tells the viewer that the source of light-whether it is the sun or artificial lighting-is weak or far away. A painting or drawing that emphasizes dark values can convey feelings of cold or sadness.

In a generally light-valued design, a dark shape or line will stand out.

• Notice how your eyes are quickly drawn to the top of the work, where the subject’s face is composed of dark feature and frame by dark hair.
• This is the painting’s center of interest.

• If an artist uses all light or all dark values, the space within his or her design may seem shallow with little or no depth

• A work that uses mainly dark-valued colors is low-keyed. Low-keyed colors have been mixed with black or gray.
• The use of charcoal to draw and shade an object on light-gray paper produces a low-keyed result.
• All the values will be dark; the lightest value will be the gray of the paper itself.

• e.g. sun’s glare at the beach. The light is so bright that we have to put on sunglasses
• Darkens the intensity of the light

Georges de La Tour. Newborn Child. Mid-1640’s

• In a work that captures the effects of bright lighting, the shadows are often dark and clearly defined

• In a generally dark-valued design, a light shape or area will become the focus.
• The entire scene is dark, with a burning candle as the only light source.
• The candle itself is hidden, but it beautifully highlights the face and right arm of the young woman.

James Abbot McNeill Whistler.

Symphony in White, No. 1:The White Girl, 1862.

Describe the time of day depicted in this water color.

Value Contrast

• Artists emphasize not only dark values or light values in their work, but also include values all parts of the scale.
• Light values placed next to medium or dark values creates value contrast
• this contrast may help viewers distinguish between different parts of a design.
• It may also make one area of a design stand out.

Frederick Edwin Church. Aurora Borealis, 1865

Georgio Morandi, Still Life, 1953

There are neither bright highlights nor dark shadows.

The artist worked with values that are close to one another.

John Singer Sargent, Muddy Alligators, 1917

• The artist chose to use little value contrast
• Brightness only comes from the green and red light in the sky
• The low-keyed colors perfectly capture the atmosphere of a mysterious nighttime scene.

The soft colors and subtle changes in value help emphasize a feeling of quiet and peacefulness.