Introduction to Values - Basics in Oil Painting

1. Introdution to the Class: Hello, and welcome to this introduction to values in oil painting class. My name is Elizabeth Floyd and I am so excited to be here to teach you about values in oil painting, and it is my belief that painting values is probably one of the most effective ways to improve your paintings if your goal is to paint realistically. Getting spot on values is what creates that sense of three dimensional form and and weight and heaviness that you can express in your oil paintings. In this class, we are going to discuss aspects of the value gradient and how in nature we see an infinite levels of darkest darks and lightest lights. But as artists, it is our goal it's our responsibility to constrain those values within the limitations of our paint pigments to create a very evocative feeling of three dimensional form in our paintings in art. In this class, we will dive deep into our value gradients, how we as artists can constrain and decide on what type of value gradient we want to apply in our art so that way we can better express what we want to be sharing with the viewers. I will also be talking about some tips on really good rules with them of how to make painting values easier while you're painting and the role that the value gradent has on creating three dimensional form, that's pretty much it. This class is designed to specifically focus only on values. That is because I believe when you can strain down what you're focusing on to improve when you're painting, what it does is it creates construct a a situation where it's more measurable. When you finish that painting, it becomes more measurable and you can see the areas of what needs to be improved, what's gone well, and then you can actually more rapidly improve and grow with your skill set. Let's jump in and let's dive deep into an introduction to values with oil painting. Thank you so much. 2. Introduction to the Basic Concepts of Values in Your Paintings: Values and total quality in your art. And this is going to be a lesson that we're going to dive in deep and talk about the subject in depth, and then you can go home and immediately start applying exploration to your own work. Okay, so, first off, values and total quality in your art within nature, we have an infinite choice of values. And the decisions we make with regard to the value relationships is crucial to creating engaging paintings. This is because in nature, there's a variety of value shifts, and it's infinite. However, in painting, we artists must reduce the number of values that we observe and then interpret and put into our painting. For two reasons. One is that our pigments limit our lightest light and our darkest dark. And then two, it helps and makes it easier for the viewers to perceive those value shifts in your work, which then the more you can engage sevier the more you increase the likelihood of you getting them, enraptured in your work. And as artists, we are creating connection. I think that's the number one goal as being an artist is to figure out ways to create connection with your viewer. And the easier you can find ways to connect with your viewers, the easier it will be that and mastering value is one of those ways. As artists, we use the gray scale or graduated gray scale. And that is it's a simplification of our value continuum. So, you choose to put them into specific steps and you are organizing your value shifts into these steps in order to create that easier to perceive and easier to express your subject matter. The first order of business as artists is when we're looking at our subject to paint is to decide how we want to organize our value continuum. Found in nature and then simplify it so it's easier to understand. And so that's your value gradient. And, you know, the easiest that we can start off with is a two value gradient where our lights automatically are white and our darks are just black. You know, that leaves for think something very graphic. Black and white, like a black and white wood block would be, you know, you know, that value gradient is two values, white, the color paper, and the black ink. And then your next one that you have choice, which is also very easy to choose from is a three value scale, which is you have a light, you have a middle tone, and then you have a black tone. And again, that's very simplified, and it will be perceived as a little bit more flattened. So say we chose to use a classical scale painting gradient. That is one where we provide equal steps within the value gradient. Okay, so our, you know, the simplest gray scale that we have available to us is the black and white. It's also called a No ten, which means, I think in Japanese light black or light dark. And then the next one is our three value scale, white, middle tone gray, and then black. And then one of the cool things about the values that we see as artists. We've got the full value spectrum available to us is that we as artists, then get to choose, how do we want to organize the values we see and how do we want to convey? And that is, like, why we want to organize our values. Why we want to simplify and constrain is because the way we use our values influences the emotions that can also be conveyed in our art. So like this Vermeer painting is you know, Vermeer used a classical scale gradient. Rembrandt was prone to doing these low key paintings, which, you know, you would have a very small percentage of your value gradient would be light. And then more black to your mid tones. Your high key is where you have more lights, more mid tone values. But your Blacks take up a very small percentage of your painting. And then the impressionist model, which you know, it's not always impressionist, but the impressionist values is where middle values prevail, where essentially you have maybe a little bit more white or your lightest lights values, but you would have less dark values, but your middle tones, those midtons really prevail and take up the majority of the square footage or the square inch coverage of your canvas. Okay. Now, light and shade is always we're always having to organize that. And so adding light and shade makes your objects look real. And when you think about you're creating a painting and you have the outline of the object. Now, immediately adding light and shade to that outline starts to give it three dimensional form, that sense of form. And form is the look of three dimension on the flat surface, but form also is in art, conveys a sense of weight and visual sense of touch. So you can create three dimension, but if you're not rendering it in such a way that you're also giving that sense of visual weight and a sense of touch, it will start to look flat. And to avoid breaking up your main values, you must first establish the local values of your subject first and then superimpose the sense of order on the shapes by adding the light and shade effect. Does that mean? That means that say you have a lemon. A lemon is light in value, but you have right next to it, an apple. Well, that lemon object will always have probably lighter values to your red apple just because of how light the local color of yellow is versus how light or how dark in comparison to yellow. What it means is, like, when you're mixing paint, that means you do not want to be always using the same paint puddles that you used to say the same like if you're doing a gray scale painting, you're not going to use the same values that you used for a dark object for a light optic because essentially, you know, it will confuse the viewer because we rely on the value to provide us with a sense of light and dark. Okay, so one of the things that I want to talk about is that as artists, we have the choice to either use a simplified order of light, which when I first started painting years ago, I was prone to using a three value or a six value simplified order of light. I try to organize everything to make it just easy, and it works great. So like, at the beginning, if you're having difficulty with making sure you're getting your value spot on, I suggest you create some exercises where you've simplified your values. Your value groupings into less depths, less gradations. And that will help you get better at organizing your value shapes. However, one of the issues with using a simplified order of light is that you do start to lose that sense of visual weight and, like, sense of touch. It has a tendency to flatten your three dimensional objects on your picture plane. Using a simplified order of light is a fantastic way to plan all the composition to figure out how you want to organize your shapes of value on your picture plane. Where a classical order of light, especially if you want to paint realistically is a great way to really think about your objects because it's easier for you to express a graphitasa form. You have greater variety. So therefore, you have more nuance in your expression in what you're painting. And I think Like, I just think of Rome painting. It just helps that painting jump off. You know, that subject matter just engage the viewer. I want to talk about like, let's talk about when you use a classical order of light, and you're thinking about your shape. And when you're painting, you have half you have lights, half tones, and darks. And the line between your half tones and your darks, half tones shift to your lights and your darks or your darks. So like, for example, here in this image right here, you choose where your half tones are, and, like, this is a decision where you just make it while you're painting. It's not so much as an artist, we're always in charge of how we're interpreting what we see. And so it is important at the beginning of a painting to make certain decisions of, like, this is where my half tones start and that go off to my lights. And then this is where my shadow shapes, my darks start and go to darker. And what I want to point out in this, when you're painting a three dimensional object and you want it to look three dimensional, you have what's called a coarse shadow. And the core shadow is essentially the place. Like, so the area, the the plane, the area of the object that is directly facing the light source will be your lightest value. And as it rolls away, it gets darker. However, your darkest dark in your dark areas is your core shadow. And that core shadow is the place where it is perpendicular to your light source. So therefore, it is receiving the least amount of direct light from the light source and also the least amount of reflected light that bounces off from any of the adjacent services to create a core shadow. So when we look at this ten value gradient, the core shadow is your number nine, but it goes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven is your dark half tone. It's your darkest light value, essentially. And then you don't go to eight, which is your light shadow. No, it switches to your core shadow. And then your light shadow is usually the part of the shadow shape that is receiving some reflected light. And your darkest darkest dark is usually the area where there is absolutely no light whatsoever. I received no light. So therefore, it's often your crease of an object in the shadow and so when we're thinking about values, it's always a good idea to be thinking about how you're separating your lights from your darts and looking for where that core shadow would go, especially in a round object or a cylinder object. 3. Some Tips When Considering Value Decisions: Okay, so with that, I want to talk about some tips. And that is when you start a painting and view the scene and consider all the values within the value continuum and adapt them into the graduated value scale that you're planning on using, it's important to really think about that your painting is not going to be as dark as you see, nor is it going to get as light as you see? And one of the reasons is actually, in nature, it's important to notice that like what you're observing in nature, you cannot replicate in painting. And one reason is that your whites and your pure colors, your lightest lights that you see in nature always have a little bit of color to them. And so that automatically means that you can't use pure white pigment. You have to shift it in just a little bit in your value scale to make your lightest light will be just a smidge inside of, like, the whitest white that your pink pigment white is capable of getting. And then your darkest dark is also going to be smushed in just a little bit as well, because all darks do have some color, too. They have a little bit of color temperature to them and everything. So they are not also going to be a pure, pure black. They're going to have a slight color. And in order for our eyes to perceive color in paint, that means the darks have to be lightened just a smidge, and the lights need to be deepened in value just a smidge. And so that means value the value continuum that we are working in as artists is just a bit smaller. And so we always you start a painting looking at that. Look at your lightest light and look at your darkest dark and realize then that everything else that you go into goes in between. And like I love this painting here is because there isn't really a true black. Like, for example, the lightest light is probably, like, right there, but it's not or even right there, but it's not a pure white. But when we look at the gray scale, we can identify it as the lightest light. Because we have a comparison. And then our darkest dark is down here, but it's not a pure black either. Another tip is the correctness of value goes hand in hand with how it interacts with its adjacent areas of the painting. If the areas do not harmonize in value relationship, then something is off. And one of the things that I also want to talk about real quick is that if you're painting and you keep encountering, like a muddy area, muddy colors, it is my experience that it's typically not the color that is off. Most oftentimes it's an error in your value than your color that you've somehow got your value relationships off. But we think it's the color, but it's probably the color either needs to be darkened in value or lightened in value to help that because we as our eyes have like four times the receptors to see value than color. And so with that, we always have to make sure that our value is more spot on than our color accuracy is spot on, which as a colorist, I kind of find that very sad, but it is true. And that's also why having a value plan when you're working on a painting is so helpful, too, because then you can if you're experiencing muddy colors, you can be looking at your values, and then you can decide whether or not your values are on or off. Another tip. The main division between lights and darks usually occurs between the half tones and shadows. By keeping the half tones within the light areas, you give yourself more room to add variation and interest while also giving the object a sense of mass and volume. This also makes sure that the highlight value is special. Your highlight is the only object that's directly opposite to the light source, and it is the lightest value. So with this painting, your highlights are your lightest values right there. And also on that flower petal and that petunia right there. And all the whites in this bowl are like your mid tones, and it helps create volume, but it also makes those highlights special. Another tip. Be careful about making the shadow areas too light. If you focus too much on them when you're painting, your eyes will dilate and adjust, thus making it easier to discern more variation in your shadow shapes. When this happens, focus on the light areas more and flick your eyes back and forth to assess the shadow shapes, but not lingering on those shadow shapes. This will also help in simplifying your shadow shapes because the more simpler your shadow shapes are, the better the design and organization of your composition is, as well. And it also will help you create more visual unity. Shadows play a supporting role in art. They are meant to recede and fall back in contrast to the light areas that are supposed to come forward. Reflected lights in the shadow should never ever be as light as your dark half tone. So I'm going to scroll back just real quick, and I want to look at this. So, for example, your reflected This is what this vertical line is too, is like, for example, you your reflected lights and your shadows should never cross this line in your value continuum that separates your lights from your darts. And that just helps you control and make sure that you have that everything gets organized so that the viewer can immediately tell that, Oh, this is, you know, that form turns, and that's the shadow side, and this is the light side. And it just makes it easier for the viewer to engage in your work. And then my final tip when looking at values is to squint. Squint and squint and squint at what you're painting. It's the easiest way to make your eyes work in your favor to discern your value shapes because we have so many more rods. It's rods that discern value. And our eyes than cones do. And cones to discern color require like flan light. But when you start to squint, you are reducing the amount of light that hits the back of your eyes. And so your cones have to start come to the forefront of your perception, your visual perception, and therefore you start to see the big shapes. And one of the best ways to organize is to squint, and that's how, if you see one shape that you think is a light value, but when you squint at it, it starts to shift into your shadow shape, then that probably is one of your light darks. You know, it's it would be your light shadow, like your number eight, if you're using a ten scale gradient. 4. Exercise: Developing Form Through Value: I really want to encourage you guys the best way to get better at understanding your values is to practice drawing or painting with just, like, white and a dark. So with drawing, you would start with the color of your paper is your white, and then whatever your drawing material is if you're using charcoal, graphite, int. And then when you're painting, choose two colors a white and a dark. An ivory black, a burnt umber, or hombr. Like, so for example, this portrait study right here was done was done with burnt umber and lead white. And in fact, actually, I would encourage you not to use Ivory Black because most times when you're painting, you don't use Ivory Black. You know, your darkest darks and most paintings probably never ever get much darker than your burnt umber. And it helps you learn how to constrain your value scale just a little bit more by starting with a dark that is not as dark as dark as black. And the more you work in just a two value subject matter, you get better and better at discerning the value shifts. And then when you do return to a full color palette, it's so much easier for you to incorporate and interpret value as well.