A Painter Ponders: Hello Darkness
Painters and art enthusiasts benefit from understanding the components of great paintings.
One Key to Greatness
Some call it values. Some call it tones. Either term refers to the amount of dark or light of a colour. The placement of darks and lights is crucial in painting. If those are well done, you’ve got a well-done painting.
Not being aware of value use is like forgetting to put the eggs in the soufflé. You don’t have much of a soufflé. Skilled value use is that important. Yes, there will always be exceptions. It’s art and art is about exceptions to ‘rules’. Nonetheless, I would argue that excellent value use is frequently seen in the best of the best paintings.
To capture the feeling of a night scene, many areas in the above painting have similar values even when they change colour. This makes adjacent areas appear to blend into each other. The lack of distinct shapes is typical of our human night vision.
If you have a good handle on this concept, it should be easy for you to name the extremes of value. (These are revealed at the end of the article, in case you are uncertain.)