How Much of Each Value Do I Put in a Painting?
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How Much of Each Value Do I Put in a Painting?
Value in painting, is the degree of light and dark. (Value is sometimes referred to as Tone. ) Values range between white and black with any range of grays in-between. These grays are known as middle values, because they lie “in the middle” between the extremes of light and dark. I use only 2 middle values in my work: Light Middle Value and Dark Middle Value. Thus, the 4 values I use are Light, Light Middle, Dark Middle and Dark.
Values have two essential functions: 1. They differentiate the shapes one from another. 2. They provide contrast. Value is much more important than color, because it takes multiple values to make a painting. However, only one color is required to make a painting.
There is no scientific method to determine how much of each value to use, however most paintings will be comprised mostly of middle value - I would estimate in the 65-75% range for most paintings. The lightest lights and darkest darks will make up less of the painting, maybe 25-35%, and provide the needed contrast to develop a center of interest. It is often said that middle values are the “glue” that holds a painting together, because so many of the shapes are connected by middle values.
Frank Webb, the famous watercolor painter and art educator, sums up his typical value pattern in this way, “I use small lights and small darks in an amalgam of middle value.”
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