ARTS 111 | Design I | Introduction     

Introduction

Supplies

Markmaking

Components of Art

Line

Composition

Shape

Figure/Ground

Texture

Value

Space

Perspective

More Perspective

Still More

The end of Perspective

Color ~ Hues

Color ~ CMYK

Color ~ HVS

Atmospheric Perspective

Color Schemes

Color Interaction

Repetition

Typography

Gestalt

VALUE

Value is the lightness or darkness of an area.

Value is a relative term… One area can be lighter than another,
yet it can be darker than still another. This is easy to see with grays.

 

The left shape below is lighter than the center shape… and they're both darker than the shape on the right.

 

Colors have value also.

 

Different individuals can differentiate different gradations of gray between black and white. If you can see the difference between patches 1,2 and 3... you can differentiate at least 20 values. If you can see the difference between patches 3 and 4... you can differentiate at least 33 values. 4 & 5... you can differentiate about 100 values.
Most computers are able to show 256 different values... from white to black. Since this is a greater number of values than most people can differentiate, a smooth gray area can be represented.

 

Artists and designers use value to differentiate areas of a composition.
Georges Seurat Eden Concert, 1867	Sanford Robinson Gifford Kauterskill Clove, 1862
Local Value refers to the natural lightness/darkness of something independent of any lighting conditions. A piece of Bristol board has a local value of almost white… even though it may be in a dark room.

 

 

 

High Key High Key refers to images where most of the values are light.
Kazimir Malevich White on White MOMA Video	William Trost Franconia Notch, NH	Richard Diebenkorn Ocean Park
Josiah McElheny Print	Josiah McElheny Contrast artificially added	Agnes Martin The Tree

“Art no longer cares to serve the state and religion, it no longer wishes to illustrate the history of manners, it wants to have nothing further to do with the object, and believes  that it can  exist, in and for itself, without 'things'.”                ~Kasimir Malevich

 

Low Key Low Key refers to images where most of the values are dark.
Workshop of Bronzino Cosimo-I-de'-Medici	Kazimir Malevich Black Square	Edvard Munch The Kiss
	Lee Bontecue Untitled

 

Sharp Contrast and Gradation
Contrast of value separates objects in space.	Georges Seurat Sitting Boy with Straw Hat
	Kathe Kollwitz The Widow
Gradation of value suggests mass and contour of a continuous surface.	Martha Alf Pears
Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa, Detail	M.C. Escher Self Portrait

Leonardo primarily used five basic tone values: 1. Highlight facing toward light source 2. Half tone direct light but at a oblique angle 3. Shadow cut off from direct light and reflected light 4. Reflected light surface facing away from light will usually have some light bounced back from other surrounding faces 5. Cast shadow
Leonardo da Vinci Portrait of an unknown woman Detail with annotations

Chiaroscuro and Tenebrism
Chiaroscuro is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark. Chiaroscuro often refers to the modeling of forms using only value without any lines outlining the forms.
Edvard Munch The Sick Girl		Film Noir "Out of the Past" Directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas
Rembrandt was twenty-two years old when he painted this self-portrait.	Gerard ter Borsch Girl in Peasant Costume	Artemisia Gentilesch Self Portrait

 

Tenebrism is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark, and darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image. ~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenebrism Often the light source is within a tenebrist artwork.
Film Noir "Out of the Past"	Giovanni Baglione Sacred and Profane Love	Gerrit van Honthorst The Denial of St. Peter
Carravagio Crucifixion of St. peter	Georges de la Tour The Carpenter	Gerard Dou Old Woman Reading

 

 

Value is an especially important element in works of art when color is absent.
Rembrandt Self Portrait	Armen Hofmann Poster

 

Dark values usually attract attention and overpower lighter values, even if the lighter areas are larger.

Paul Rand Cover Illustration

 

Gradations of value attract more attention than flat areas.

Pablo Picasso Andrey Volkov

The eyes start with the strong contrast in value, black and white, then white, then grays.

 

 

Painted Gray Scale
For this exercise, use only black and white paints.
OR, if you are using transparent watercolors, use only black paint!
You’re going to paint oversized patches of gray and then cut them to size. It is easiest to paint larger areas than you need and then cut each one you use down to size… Trying to work on tiny precut scraps of paper or directly on the groundsheet is difficult

.

1. Pour a small amount of white paint onto your palette or into a mixing cup.
2. Paint a patch (approximately 2” x 2”) of pure white paint on your Bristol board.
3. Add a little black to the white in the cup, creating a very light gray.
4. Paint a 2” x 2” patch of this gray onto the Bristol board. Apply the paint evenly for a flat, no-strokes-showing effect.
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4, each time making a slightly darker gray until you have reached pure black (paint at least 20 patches)
6. Let the paint dry.
7. Roughly cut out the patches.
8. Cut one edge straight.
9. Pick the nine best grays by overlapping patches.



10. Cut these nine grays… plus pure black and pure white, to a final-sized rectangle of  ¾” x 1 ½”
11. Glue these eleven rectangles onto a new piece of Bristol board with their edges touching…

               

• no white between them

• no overlapping

• Keep the glue off the paint! 

• Neatness counts!

 

 

 

 

 

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