Get Better at Drawing with Value Studies

What is Value in Art? 

Value is the lightness or darkness of a color or object on a scale ranging from white to black. Also known as tone, value plays a crucial role in creating visual depth and dimension in artwork.

Why Practice Using Value? 

Value is an powerful tool in your Artist's Toolkit. Artists use value to give a 2D drawing the illusion of form. Value helps convey lighting, mood & atmosphere. Understanding value can help you choose colors, and guide the eye around your composition.   

How To Do Value Studies

Doing 2-, 3- or 5-value studies are a great way to hone your ability to see and group values together. They should be small and relatively quick. You can also use them to decide on a value structure for a larger composition. 

Pro tip: If you have trouble seeing what the value of something is, try squinting your eyes. It helps simplify the visual information.

Choose a reference image or a scene from life, and try these 3 variations:

 2-value study 

Choose 2 colors, like black and white (or a dark color or light color). For each part of your image, decide whether it's dark or light (hint: is it in shadow, or light?)  The result will be a black and white collection of shapes that look like a stencil. 

 3-value study (pictured above)

Make a 3-value scale with (1) white on one end, (3) black on the other end, and (2) gray that splits the difference black and white in the middle. 

Now draw your image using only those three values. You will have to decide whether each part should be white, black, or gray. You should be able to make out the 3D form with just 3 values, but it will still look simplified and graphic. 

 5-value study  (pictured above & below)

Make a 5-value scale starting with (1) white on one end, (5) black on the other end, and (3) gray that splits the difference in the middle. Then fill in (2) and (4) by splitting the difference between the neighboring values. 

Translate your image into 5 values, deciding as you go which of your 5 values is closest to what you're observing. 

Putting it all together

Value can be tricky, and even experienced artists need to continually practice and experiment. When you become comfortable seeing and using value, there are infinite creative choices you can make with simplification, color and composition. These choices ultimately contribute to your unique artistic style.

I go into more detail about value and demo these studies in our Drawing Foundations class in Mimochai Studio. 

Happy Drawing! 

-M💛