How to Use Value Effectively in Your Art


So, what can you do to use value to your best advantage to create easily understandable and visually dynamic art? This section suggests several ideas.

Advancing and receding. ‚   ‚  First and foremost, light values generally appear to advance, and dark values appear to recede, as shown in Figure 7.11.


Figure 7.11: This image shows how values can be used to change an object's visual location within an image.

Locating the center of interest. ‚   ‚  Your center of interest will always be in the light or the lightest part of a dark piece, as shown in Figure 7.12.


Figure 7.12: Keeping the lightest values and greatest contrasts in the center of interest.

Massing your values. ‚   ‚  Try to form an interlocking and underlying value pattern in your work to give it a sense of solidity and structure, as shown in Figure 7.13. Notice how the left side of the image looks disjointed because of the randomly placed elements. Then notice how the right half has some solidity because the elements begin to interlock and form value patterns.


Figure 7.13: Massing value as opposed to random placement.

Expressing a mood. ‚   ‚  Have your work predominantly light or dark, depending on the mood and feeling you are trying to express. Avoid as much as possible too even a balance between the lights and darks. Figure 7.14 shows an image that is too equally balanced in value to be visually exciting.


Figure 7.14: An image whose values are too balanced.

Getting the balance right. ‚   ‚  Too much balance generally leads to visually boring work. If you are having problems deciding how much dark and light value to have in your work, consider this generality. Have 60 percent of your work fall within the midrange values, have 25 percent be either light or dark, and have the remaining 15 percent be the opposite , as shown in Figure 7.15.


Figure 7.15: A formula for balancing the proportions of value in an image.

Having a full range of value within your image. ‚   ‚  If your piece is predominantly light, make sure that there is still an area where you have some very darks. A wide range of value will help add drama and contrast that is so needed in visually stimulating art.

Using contrasts. ‚   ‚  As value contrasts increase, color contrasts decrease.

Using intense colors. ‚   ‚  The most intense colors will usually be on the terminating edge between the light and dark, as shown in Figure 7.16. Here is a blue sphere being lit by a bright light. Notice that the parts of the sphere in the direct light are washed out to white, and the parts of the sphere in the shadow are black. The only area where you see the true and bright color of the sphere is on the edge between the light and dark.


Figure 7.16: A blue sphere lit by a bright light showing the color on the terminating edge between the light and shadow.

Using gradation of light. ‚   ‚  As an object moves from near a light source to farther away, the light on that object will become gradually and slightly less intense, as shown in Figure 7.17.


Figure 7.17: An example of a light shining on a wall. Where the light is closest to the wall, the light is most intense when compared with the light on portions of the wall that are more distant from the light.

Drawing attention to the focal point. ‚   ‚  Use your greatest value changes possible at your most important center of interest. Then, gradually decrease those value changes as you move away from that focal point.

Using crisp changes. ‚   ‚  Keep your crispest changes between values at your centers of interest.

Transitioning. ‚   ‚  Keep your transitions between colors of the same value soft unless you want a cutout look. In animations, the movement will do this visually.

Using shadows. ‚   ‚  Warm lights need cool shadows; cool lights need warm shadows. Make sure that your shadows are consistent with the object they are associated with. For example, a light object will have a lighter shadow than a dark object's shadow.

Using reflected lights. ‚   ‚  Do not let reflected lights punch visual holes into your shadows. Unless you are striving for some special effect, the reflected lights should disappear when you squint at your art.

Using counterchange. ‚   ‚  Make sure that the 'light' areas in your shadows are darker than the 'dark' areas in your lights. A mid-value in a light area will look dark and vice versa, as shown in Figure 7.18. This is the principle of counterchange. Counterchange is a function of simultaneous contrast. Basically, counterchange is the impression that a mid-value seen simultaneously against both a light and dark ground will appear light where it is against the dark and dark where it is against the light.


Figure 7.18: Identical values may look dark in lighter areas or light in dark areas.



Digital Character Design and Painting
Digital Character Design and Painting: The Photoshop CS Edition (Graphics Series) (Charles River Media Graphics)
ISBN: 1584503408
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 112

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