If you look carefully at this drawing, you will begin to see recognizable objects. This is a still life, a group of inanimate objects arranged together. What items do you recognize?The wide range of white, gray and black values of shading, give this work a realistic sense of form. Using values in drawings is a good way of showing light reflection and shadows. Adding these will make two-dimensional objects "look" like they are three-dimensional.

M. C. Escher, Drawing Hands, 1948

Can you point out the 9 Steps in this drawing?

Value

Value refers to the relative degree of lightness or darkness of a something. The benefits of knowing how to manage value are very important to artists who work two-dimensional striving to make their subjects or the objects in their work, "look" three-dimensional. Light affects a true three-dimensional object in unique ways. Artists work hard to reproduce these light effects in their works, even though the drawing or painting is actually flat, two-dimensional. How many times have you been tempted to reach into a painting to grab an apple from the still life that looks so real you would think it was actually there! The mastery of representing or imitating true Value has been one Element of Art that many artists devote years of study. Let's see just how Value is achieved. We'll look at some examples of how artists use Value in their works.

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When artists draw they use value when they are shading. Value helps define the form of objects being drawn or painted.

Take notice of the drawing of hand; see how the artist used value to define the hand from linear to shading which help them to look 3-D and have the illusion of volume.

What is Value?

Value is the relative lightness or darkness of a surface or a color. In design it refers to the amount of light reflected or absorbed by a pigment or surface. Although value is perhaps easiest to see in black and white, it is also a part of color. Value is described as being high (light), medium or low (dark). White has the highest value and black the lowest. There are 100's of variances of value but we can easily identify 9 Steps of Value within a work of art.

9 Steps Value Scale and its Value Name

white high light light low light mid-gray high dark dark low dark black

                 

  high key values   low-key low key values  

Value Scale or Tonal Gradation - is a series of steps from pure white to black with thousands of grays in between. A value scale usually begins with black and ends with white.

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Illusion of Spatial Depth

Illusion of Solidity and Mass

To Express Mood and Feeling

The Uses of Value 1. To create the illusion of solidity or mass. 2. To create the illusion of spatial distance or depth in a composition. 3. To create a mood or express feeling or emotion - Value can also be used to set the mood of a work, creating a light and airy sense through the use of light values or a somber tone through he use of predominantly dark values

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 1. Stippling: Drawing with dots. To get darker values you place more of them closer together

 2. Hatching: Lines places parallel (same direction) and often follow the contour of the form being drawn.

3. Crosshatching: Hatching that has crisscross lines

Ways to Achieve Value

Drawing techniques—different ways of drawing, such as hatching, stippling, contour, blending, or shading

 

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4. Mixed Techniques: Stippling, Hatching, Crosshatching

5. Blending - A shading technique in which dark values are added little by little.

"Curtain Call" by Judi Betts, watercolor, 30"x22"

"Dark Movement" by Gerald Brommer, 15"x11"

Value SchemeIn a composition, values can be group together according to their position

in a value scale.

1. High Key Values in a work of art are all light in value or high on the value scale, so we call those compositions high key. The values are from mid-gray to white.

2. Low Key Values in a work of art are all dark in value or low on the value scale, so we call those compositions low key. The values are from mid-gray to black

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3. High Contrast: A value scheme which is dominated by values from the ends of the value scale and with little or no mid-range grays. The extreme of this would be a strictly black and white composition.

Contrast – The differences between two or more elements (e.g., value, color, texture) in a composition; juxtaposition of dissimilar elements in a work of art. Also, the degree of difference between the lightest and darkest parts of a picture. The strongest contrast available in art is the contrast between black and white.

Look at the examples below and ask yourself which bars stand out the strongest against their surroundings

Drawing – the process of portraying an object, scene, or forms, decorative or symbolic meaning through lines, shadings and textures in one or more colors. - Representing an image on a surface by means of adding lines and shades, as with a pencil, crayon, pen, chalk, pastels, etc. Kinds of Drawing

1. Line Drawing – pure line is the simplest technical approach to drawing. There is no attempt to distinguish between light and dark.

2. Form Drawing – form and shadow may be shown in a drawing by means of series of lines or crossing lines in many different directions. Such lines are known as hatch or crosshatch together with sharply accented highlights.

Line Drawing

Form Drawing

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In this painting the artist used Impasto techniques. Paint is applied so heavily that it feels rough to the touch. The thick application of the paint and the use of many colors to accent the paint strokes give this painting a textured quality. What was the artist trying to say by applying the paint in such a way?

"The Old King" by George Roualt, 1916-36, Oil on Canvas

Shannon Fitzpatrick, 11th Grade, Coral Study , Pen and Ink, 7 x 14"

Look at this delicate pen and ink drawing of a piece of coral. Here the artist used lines to represent the actual texture of the coral. It looks as if you could reach out and touch the rough surface and feel the texture.

If the lines and texture were not added, would you be able to identify what was drawn?

What does Texture add to this work? Does it make the work more interesting?

Which painting has a look of smoother in appearance and which one looks rough?

What is Texture? Texture refers to the surface quality in a work of art. It can be the actual surface feel of an area or the simulated or implied appearance of roughness or smoothness. It is a tactile experience.

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The owl however is a good example of Actual texture. It is a 3-Dimensional work of art and so we really can see the actual texture at work. The textural appearance of the owl can be seen. However, it's not real because this owl is not real because it's got a cement body. The different textures between the glassy eyes, the steel legs and the cement body give a lot of textural variance.

Textures are everywhere in nature. From water, to rocks to tree leaves to bark, there are tons of natural textures that surround us every day. Think of the different textures of different animal fur, skin, scales, etc!

How would you describe these different textures?

Textures may be actual or simulated. Actual textures can be felt with the fingers, while simulated textures are suggested by an artist in the painting of different areas of a picture -- often in representing drapery, metals, rocks, hair, etc. Words describing textures include: flat, smooth (third row, right), shiny, glossy, glittery, velvety, feathery, soft, wet, gooey, furry, sandy, leathery (second row, right), crackled (upper left), prickly, abrasive, rough (first row, right), furry, bumpy, corrugated (second row, left), puffy (second row, third), rusty (third row, second), and slimy (third row, third).

Types of Texture

1. Tactile or Actual Texture Texture that can be seen and felt. You can actually feel the texture with your hand. Tactile texture is actual and touchable, as with a surface This texture might be achieved by using thick paint, using layers of paint, using collage, adding objects to the paint etc.

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The painting above has a lot of different Implied textures. Since it is a watercolor painting, we know that there isn't any impasto. The grass, path, wall and windmills look like the real thing and so their textures have been implied or simulated by changing values and shapes.

2. Visual or Implied Texture The copying, or imitation, of object surfaces Texture that you can only seen but not felt. It is the illusion of actual texture. By using particular techniques in art a surface can be made to look textured even though it feels smooth. Visual texture is an apparent or simulated surface, read by the eyes..

3. Invented Texture Patterns created by the repetition of lines or shapes on a small scale over the surface of an area. The repeated motif may be an abstraction or an adaptation of nature patterns used in a more regular or planned fashion. 

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