Howdy!
Today we are on episode 8 of Let's get Better, Values!
They might actually be the most important part of a painting..
When I started out I didn't really understand what it was.. people were always telling me my values were off!
What did mean.. They weren't talking about moral values or anything. It was about the how light or how dark something is.
100 being full white,, 0 being black.
So this might still come over as being a little abstract.. I understand.
But imagine this.. White (100%) happens only when you look into the sun.. or a lightbulb?.. Black is only in places where there is absolutely no light.. Yet how often do we (especially when we are still at the beginning of our painting careers ;) ) use full black or full white in our paintings.. .. .. a .. lot..
I'm not saying that is a bad thing, but if we understand the physics behind it, it doesn't quite make sense.
So if we aim to take a more realistic approach to our painting/s we must perhaps try to avoid going into the extremes.
(being full 100% white/light to 0% light/black)
In other words, if we have a better understanding of the values we actually see around us, the easier it becomes to make a more realistic and believable painting.
So how do we practice this?..
1 of the exercises I can recommend is the simplification of values.. breaking it up in smaller and smaller bits and back!
These exercises will teach your eyes and brain to sort of draw lines of where a certain value (on the 0/100 scale) ends and the other begins. You will have to do this quite some time to fully understand what is going on and how simple you can get, with time and practice you will get better and faster at this.
When you at some point want to make a study (color study for example) it will become easier for you to look at the values instead of the colors.. the colors are then just a distraction and don't make something look more real.. the values rule over the color instead of the other way around..
As you might sometimes hear that people are afraid of using color in their work.. it is probably due to the lack of understanding of values. Values first, then colors.. Later on when you become more confident and comfortable you can easily do both at the same time.. but when you are making studies, focus on the value first.. it will make or break a painting.
A great way to bring this exercise into practice is by doing self-portraits.
Simply grab a mirror and a lamp and start treating your face the same as you did in the exercise.. Then build up the values on the whole painting (background included) in shapes of lighter and darker shapes.. refine the shapes and add smaller and smaller shapes.. until you end up with an actual portrait painting..
Practicing the 'Negative Space' lesson/exercise from episode 1 will definitely help you with this one!
Please check out the video on this here: ( Though I warn you it is fairly old! )
Thank you for your time!
I hope it was useful for you.. If you have any questions, comments or requests! Feel free! :)
Cheers
Rogier