Everything you wanted to know about

Value and ContrastValue refers to how

light or dark something is (its basically “shading”). Value gives objects depth, and creates the illustion of form. Contrast is creating differences between things. An artist can manipulate value to create contrasts between light and dark.

A VALUE SCALE shows different degrees of lightness and darkness. Making value scale helps you create more values for accurate rending and helps create contrast.

Sometimes artists use extreme contrast of lights and darks to create a dramatic mood. This is called chiaruscuro, mastered by artists such as Caravaggio, and W. Eugene Smith. Both artists used small areas of intense light with large areas of darkness, conveying strong emotions.

W. Eugene Smith

Caravaggio

On your paper, create chiaruscuro in W. Eugene Smith’s image. by filling in the shapes with values. Remember to leave a few areas white to create extreme contrast!

An image is considered “high key” is it contains mostly light values (white to middle tone grey). Conversely, an image is considered “low key” if it contains mostly dark values (middle tone grey to black).

Low-Key painting, by Rembrandt van

Rijn

High-Key painting, by Georgia O’Keefe

On your sheet, you have two copies of the same drawing. Make the drawing on the left high key, by shading in the shapes using ONLY whites to middle grey. Then make the drawing on the right a low-key image by shading in the shapes using ONLY middle greys to black.

Low-KeyHigh-Key

There are parts of a shaded form that are important to know. Here’s what they are:

Hightlight: brightest part

of the form

Core shadow: darkest part of the form

Reflected Light: light reflected onto the form from the

surface.

Cast Shadow: Shadow cast by the object

There are 4 basic forms that every object can be broken down into. They are a SPHERE, CONE, CUBE, and CYLINDER. On your sheet, shade in the forms like you see in the examples.

Cone Cube

Cylinder Sphere