Value is how light or dark something is. A white shirt has a light value; a black cat has a dark value. Value is separate from color: a yellow lemon and a pale blue sky can have nearly the same value.
A value scale is a strip of boxes that steps from white to black. Artists make them with 5, 7 or 9 steps. The white of the paper is the lightest step; your darkest dark is the last.
Key idea
Value is lightness or darkness. A good value scale steps evenly: each box looks as different from its neighbors as every other box does.
Why it works
Light falling on a form makes a range of values, from the brightest spot to the darkest shadow. A drawing that uses only a few middle grays looks weak; one that controls the whole range looks solid. Making even steps trains your hand to make exactly the value you mean.
Worked example: A missing step
In a 5-step scale, the boxes are white, light gray, ?, dark gray, black. What value goes in the gap?
- The steps should be even.
- Halfway between light gray and dark gray is a middle gray.
Answer: A middle gray.
Common mistake
People make the light steps too close together and then jump to black. Squint at your scale: if two neighbors blur together and one step jumps, redo the step that is off. Each step should look like the same jump.
The Color and Design course looks at value in color: Value.