VALUE
Perhaps the most important skill to have as an artist is the ability to have fine control over your pencil. I would like to quickly explain what the element of art, value, is and how it will help transform your drawings.
Essentially, value in art describes how light and how dark something is. Below is a “value scale” and it visually demonstrates lightness and darkness.
As seen above, 1 is the lightest and 9 is the darkest, with everything in between being a multitude of grey tones.
Why is value important?
Reason number #1:
Over the course of teaching art, I noticed that students who were most often frustrated and sloppy were the ones who were overly heavy handed. When drawing and sketching ideas I noticed that said artists would draw using overly dark values the moment their pencils touch the paper.
Imagine trying to sketch out an idea and laying dark, heavy lines the instant you put your pencil down. It’s frustrating! Said lines are nearly impossible to erase and guidelines are not possible.
A slow, light build up of line values will help beginner artists develop their skills best without all the frustration.
How to build up value line control.
Take a blank piece of paper and conduct the following.
Draw a long, thin rectangle from one side of the page to the other. On the left, start very lightly, almost impossibly light to the eye. Then gradually buildup pressure as you move to the right to where it’s completely dark.
It should look something like this:
Do this a couple of times, so as to develop both your pencil pressure and your eye for value detail.
The next step would be to draw something with a special attention to the values you see, the lights and the darks. Draw a still life of an apple on a table. Remember to always start light, and build up your darker values thereafter.
Still life, apple value drawing:
(Image: Shutterstock)
Why is value important?
Reason number #2: Using your knowledge and control of value allows you to manipulate it to your advantage.
The above chart demonstrates various ranges you can use for your drawings to help you decide a mood or style.
Full Range example:
Reminder: Always start from lightest to darkest when drawing.
Low Key Range Example:
High Contrast Example:
Using lights and darks and no grey tones creates high contrast imagery similarly to what you would see in pop art or cartoons.
Conclusion
I can go on and on, with more examples of other ranges, but the most important thing I wanted to make was to put an emphasis on sketching using light pressure first, and then to build up in value to create form. Get practicing and pay particular attention to value when viewing not just art, but everyday things we see in reality. Keep on, keepin’ on!