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Author: Cherie, Contributing Editor
| Value is one of the basic elements of drawing. Much like line/shape, perspective, and the big picture (some call this Gestalt) value is creating light and shadow. Balancing the light and dark areas of a drawing is just as important is getting the proportion right. |
| Touch of grey.
There is black and there is white. But don’t forget about all those greys in between. Those pesky greys are the meat of drawings. They are what allow you to turn a flat piece of paper into a realistic looking portrait, landscape or still life. Variety in the grey values make up the lights and shadows that create form, add substance and meaning to shapes, and help develop perspective. One thing to remember when drawing values of grey is that examining the subject (either from life or photos) can guide you in identifying value before you even set pencil to paper. 1. Find the light source. Every life setup or photo has a light source. Where the light comes from is going to make an impact. Hard light sources are often not very flattering because they do not contribute to creating shadows. (Think about a sunny day when the sun is directly overhead. Things appear washed out and do not have much variety in light and shadow.) Side lighting will create strong contrast, and will bring out the detail in your subject. Back lighting makes your subject dramatic and softer in appearance. 2. Find the values. Now that you know where your light source is, you can start to pick out the values. You will see bright, almost white areas, light values, middle greys, and dark, almost black areas. Generally, the shadows created by objects on your subject and shadows cast by your subject will be the middle to dark values. The brighter values are highlights and the light to middle values are the areas in between. Highlights also occur when the light source is bouncing off of a reflective surface, like water, metal or eyeballs. 3. Find the relationships between the values. Most drawings – especially drawings that are going for a realistic look – do not have strong lines between the values. You may notice that when a hard line divides different values, the result appears forced. This is a good technique when you are developing contrast, but when your goal is creating a representational drawing those hard lines should be avoided. The relationships between values can be created with blending (also called tonal value) or drawing yet another value that lies between the two values sitting beside each other. |
| This is all best illustrated with a photocopy technique. This example uses a photo of fabric that has several folds and wrinkles – therefore, highlights and shadows. |
| This is the original reference photo in color. |  | The first thing you will want to do is…find the light source. Well, it appears that this light source is coming from what would be the bottom right hand corner. The values start light in the lower right area and move to dark toward the top left area. |
| When you are trying to identify value, it is sometimes easier when you strip out the color. This can now easily be done (at least when you are using reference photos) by scanning the image into your computer and using a photo editing software to make the image greyscale. If you are working from a live subject, squinting helps pick out values. |  | In “black and white” you can begin to see the chunks of value. There are distinct lines or areas of greys that are much easier to see when you are not influenced by color. This is also the point where you can see the relationships between the values. In this example, there are some hard lines and there are areas of gradation where one value blends into another. |
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