Value

Is welcome to the fourth video. And the secret to drawing video course brought to you by the virtue instructor dot com. And this video we’re going to take a look at the next element of art value. First let’s define what value means in terms of art. Value is the darkness or lightness of a color you see value deals with light. We can only see Bokassa of light without light. We see nothing. It’s very important that we understand this because that means that value is exceptionally important . You see ultimately drawing is about seeing and creating accurate values in our drawings. Becomes absolutely essential when we understand this. In my opinion value is the most important element of art. Let’s begin by looking at a tool to help us create accurate value. This is called a value scale and it represent nine different values from the darkest Dark’s to the lightest lights. You see we see in a full range of value everything we see has the darkest marks and the lightest lights the lightest lights on the value scale are called tits tits are the lighter values that we see the opposite of tints are shades shades are the darker values on the value scale and are the darker values that we see. We use shades intense in our drawings to create the illusion of highlights. Highlights are the areas where light is hitting the object. We talked about this in a previous video the opposite of highlights or shadows and shadows are usually represented by the shades of color when we use highlights and shadows. Together we can create the illusion of a light source. Let’s take a look at this image. This is an egg that has one singular hard light source you can see here the strong singular light source and where it’s coming from. I’ve also illustrated to highlight the mid-tone area the core shadow and the cast shadow. Notice how the light affects the highlights and shadows and the tents and the shades. Here’s that same egg this time with two light sources coming from the same side. Notice what happens to the cast shadow. The core shadows and the highlights we still see the highlight. We still see a mid-tone and we still see a coarse shadow. But notice the cast shadow actually has two overlapping shadows. This is created because we have a dual light source now in this egg we have actually two light sources . One is a strong light source coming from the left and the other is a weaker light source coming from the right. That’s illustrated here. Notice what happens. We actually have two highlights. A large mid-tone area a core shadow that actually happens before the highlight and a cache matter that actually has light or areas inside of it to help us see this. Sometimes it’s a good idea to squint your eyes and blur to help you see the values. Now let’s get started with a value drawing exercise. We’re going to use this image of an egg as a reference. You can download it below. Our goal here is to focus only on the values that we see. We might use some light lines at the beginning to plan out where eg might be but then after that we’re going to try to focus on only the values. Adding the dark values where appropriate and leaving areas where we might have highlights it’s a good idea to begin a drawing like this by noticing the darkest areas and begin adding value in those darkest areas. In the case of this drawing of an egg I noticed that the darkest areas are in the cast shadow. Right below the right side of the egg. This is why I begin adding value here. I’m careful also not to get too dark too quickly. It’s always easier to make an area darker when you’re using a darker material on a white surface than it is to go back and try to erase or lift graphite out to make an area lighter. Since this exercise is about controlling the value that you put on your surface I’m not going to be using any blending stamps or my finger to smear the graphite onto the surface. I think this exercise is better executed by trying to control the amount of pressure that you put on your pencil to create the value sometimes a sharpened pencil will create lines on the surface. In this case I think a dull pencil works better especially a graphite pencil that’s equivalent to about a four B or x 6 be. In this case I’m using a general’s layout pencil which is about equivalent to a four B or six B pencil . Don’t forget drawing is at least 50 percent observation. In this case I’m looking at the values I’m using my values scale and I’m trying to match up the values that I see in math photo reference to the values on my values scale then I’m placing those values on my drawing. Pay special attention to subtle changes between darks and lights. The reason why this exercise is so good at getting you accustomed to noticing value is because eggs are white and against a white background all that’s there for you to see are the values and you really have to strain to distinguish the differences. It’s just like exercising. Sometimes you have to strain in order to have that muscle growth. The same thing is true with this drawing exercise. This is a difficult drawing exercise. It’s causing you to strain to see those values. And by doing this drawing exercise you’re getting stronger at observing those values and noticing those subtle changes that happen on any surface not just this egg but anything that you want to draw. Even though we’re focusing on creating value here it’s important that you don’t forget about cross contour lines again even though we’re not creating lines per se. It is important that we think about the direction that we add the value in our marks are still subtle but they do carry some weight in creating the illusion of form on the egg. So think about the cross contours of the egg as you add the value on it as you draw. Pay special attention to contrast that happens the contrast I’m referring to is the contrast between the dark and the light values. Oftentimes we see things as like value only because there’s a dark value right next to it. Pay special attention to the areas where this is happening. Eg by doing this you’re going to create accurate value accurate châteaux accurate highlights. And in the end an accurate drawing of your egg in this drawing exercise we’re in a photo reference to draw from. It’s always a better idea to draw from life so to practice this exercise further I would recommend getting several eggs setting them up at your house or at your school or wherever you may be an add different light sources to those eggs. See what happens to the highlights and the shadows. Experiment with different light sources in different positions and draw what you see your drawing skills will only improve because of this . Just like with any other drawing it’s important for us to develop the background in this case. A lot of the contrast that happens between the values happens because of the background. That’s why it’s incredibly important that we include it in this drawing exercise as I add value in the background and paying special attention and making sure that I create cross contour lines that are vertical in nature this will enhance the contrast between the cross contour lines on the egg and the cross contour lines in the background. Now I can go back and really push the values I can really make the darker values darker and increase that contrast. Remember we’re shooting for a full range of value. We want every value on our non-value value scale to be seen somewhere in our drawing. This is going to help create a realistic illusion that we’re after in our drawings. Don’t forget you’re an artist creating a drawing. It’s ok to embellish areas if it’s going to lead to a better composition. Don’t be afraid to take chances and let your artistic voice be seen in the drawings that you create . Even if it’s a simple drawing of an egg you can still create a drawing that’s considered a piece of art. So let’s take a look at what we learned today. First in terms of art value is the darkness or lightness of a color. It’s incredibly important. We learn that tints are the lighter values on a value scale. We also learn that shades are the darker values on a value skill and most importantly we learned by using tents and shades we can create the illusion of a light source in our drawings. And I hope you’ve seen that creating a light source in our drawings is incredibly important because after all light is how we see in the next video we’re going to take a look at the next element of art space and how to create the illusion.