The Importance of Value & Tone in Painting

Little did I know that my drawing background would give me a good foundation in value for my painting. Value is how light or dark that color is.

For example: If you took a black and white photograph of your painting, the shades of gray would be the different values within the painting.

Simply put, value is the lightness or darkness of a color or hue.

In painting, value changes can be achieved by adding either black or white to the chosen color. (Below: chart on left)
However, this also reduces the saturation and adds to the dilution of the color. (Below: chart on right)
Tints, tones, and shades are variations of the hues found on the basic color wheel when white, black or both are mixed in.

Believe it or not, value is more important than color to the design and success of a painting.

Value is used to create a focal point within a painting or drawing.
The human eye is immediately drawn to a light element against a dark element. This creates, the focal point of interest.
To create the illusion of depth, gradations of value are also used.
Areas of light and dark give a three-dimensional illusion of form to subject matter.

white
2		high light
3		light
4		low light
5		midvalue
6		high dark
7		dark
8		low dark
9		black

The above value scale of Denman Ross was introduced in 1907. His value terms set the standard still used today. This scale helps artists understand and identify light, mid-tones and darks more easily.

Value is independent of its hue. This is a fundamental element in the impact of visual art whether abstract or representational.

The above example is a painting “en grisaille” – a painting done entirely in values of grey or another neutral greyish color. Grisaille was sometimes used for underpaintings or for oil sketches. Rubens was noted for this.

Today, many successful artists believe in keeping a narrow value scale – limiting their composition to approximately 4 values.

In this case, it seems less is more and helps create cohesive and harmonious work.

Below is a contrasting example of the use of values. Whistler used ‘low-key’ values and Monet used ‘high-key’ values and achieved dramatically different results.