Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Making a Practical Value Scale for Painting










I'll post this here as I know it comes up in artist discussions
on judging values. This is a device I have students of mine
frequently make when they are struggling to see values. Of
course, the intent is not to have to use it long...but in the
beginning it can greatly help. First...just paint a simple gray
scale of 8-12 values...white to black, this one is on a mat
board using acrylics, then a simple paper hole puncher puts
one hole on a side...

Outdoors, you simply squint your eyes looking toward your
subject hold up the value scale...and where the cut out hole
blends with a particular value...that is how light and dark
that mass you are judging appears. You can mix your color
and value then accordingly.

In this next image...you see me holding it up against a work
I'm painting on...and how it can help you get those values
right-


















A thing to remember once said by Emile A. Gruppe
that if you get your values right, you can paint with nearly
any color scheme and the painting will work.

3 comments:

Yellow said...

I've just done one of these last week using an 8B graphite pen and I need to do one in ink and one in acrylic. Have you been peeking in my sketchbook again?

Larry Seiler said...

every chance I can!!! 8^)

Yellow said...

But the idea of the punched holes is fabulous. I'm going to use that idea. What a clever chap you are.