The Value of Value

Yesterday's post mentioned that my SewEasy Colour Wheel came with a bonus -- a square of red plastic that, when placed over a color image, visually reduces that image visually to its values, much the same as if that image had been desaturated in a phone or computer.

Above:  The top layer was printed with 6" x 6" Diatom s972.  Medium: acrylic paints.

Above:  The same print -- made with 6" x 6" Diatom s972 -- now desaturated on my PC.  Notice the contrast between light values (near-white) and dark values (near black), as well as the intermediate shades of gray.  Stripped of color this way, the print appears to be dominated slightly by light values. Dark values hold second place. Grays hold third. To my eye, the overall balance works because it moves my attention all thru the piece.

Above:  Central area is dominated by a print made with 6" x 6" Chandelier s971.  Background and frames were printed using 6" x 6" Diatom s972 multiple times.  (Medium used:  acrylic paints.)

Above:  The same print -- made with 6" x 6" Diatom s972 as well as 6" x 6" Chandelier s971 -- has now been desaturated by my PC.  Again, notice the contrast between light values (near-white) and dark values (near black), as well as the intermediate shades of gray.  Stripped of color this way, the image appears dominated by shades of gray.  Second in visual importance (domination) are the light, near-white, areas.  Black, near-dark areas come across as minimal in this piece.  Again, I think the overall balance works because it moves my attention all thru the piece, while allowing the central area to shine as the star of the show.

Above:  Central area is once again dominated by a print made with 6" x 6" Chandelier s971.  Background and frames were, once more, printed using 6" x 6" Diatom s972 multiple times.  (Medium used:  acrylic paints.)

Above:  The same print -- made with 6" x 6" Diatom s972 as well as 6" x 6" Chandelier s971 -- has been desaturated by my PC.  Again, notice the contrast between light values (near-white) and dark values (near black), as well as the intermediate shades of gray.  Stripped of color this way, the print appears to be dominated by a slight degree by shades of gray.  Second in visual importance (domination) are the dark, near-black, areas.  Near-white areas come across roughly as minimal in this piece.  Again, I think the overall combination of values works, because it moves my attention all thru the piece.

Above:  The top layer was printed with 6" x 6" Diatom s972.  Medium: acrylic paints.  Background:  a page from an old clothing catalog.

Above:  The same print -- made with 6" x 6" Diatom s972 -- has been desaturated.  Stripped of color, the print appears to be dominated by light, near-white values. Gray of several shades appears to be of secondary importance in the overall composition.  Dark values hold third place.  To my eye, the overall balance works because it moves my attention all thru the piece. The original background helps make this happen because it supplies an area of light value on the upper far right, a shape that flows into a line of light value leading the viewer's gaze downward on the far right, bringing visual interest to an area that otherwise would appear stagnant/boring. 

Above:  printed with 6" x 6" Diatom s972.  Medium: acrylic paints.  Background:  a page from an old magazine.

Above:  Made with 6" x 6" Diatom s972, the same print, now desaturated, shows a dominance of gray values that fall in several shades between near-white and near-dark areas of the piece.  Dark values hold second place -- and they rivet attention on the area where near-black sits side-by-side with near-white.  I like this piece because it has a focal area clearly defined by this positioning of near-black values jammed up against near-white values.

To approach the topic of values in another way, an explanation follows:

In the art world, "value" is a word used to indicate the darkness of any color, the lightness of every color, and 5 - 10 of the shades that fall between these two extremes.

One example of a value scale is here.

A typical value scale shows 5 - 10 squares in a vertical row or a horizontal row.  At one end of this scale is a hue that's nearly white.  Each successive square shows a darker hue.  The row of squares ends with a square that's so dark it's nearly black.  

Some artists use a rule-of-thumb that, ideally, a finished artwork looks best when it's 80 per cent dark and 20 per cent light, or 20 per cent dark and 80 per cent light.  In general I think that's a sound guideline.  But exceptions can happen, too.  Learning to understand value means that you can make value work for you.  Value has value! 

I hope today's examples encourage using whatever tool works best for you in determining value combinations, value contrasts, value domination and placement of value-elements in relationship with one another. 

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Thanks for stopping by today!