Transcripts
1. Introduction: You want to drastically
improve your paintings and be able to create a wide
range of illustrations, there's one essential
skill you need to master, and I've got just the right
exercise to help you do that. Hi, I'm Gabriel Lachel. And today, I'm going
to teach you how to improve values
in your paintings. One of the quickest ways to
tell whether an artist is experienced or not is by looking at the
values in their work. If you really want to level
up your painting skills, learning to control value is one of the best
things you can do. Values are one of the most important foundations
for creating beautiful, impactful paintings
and illustrations. In this class, I'll
walk you through a few quick and
simple exercises that will help you improve
your understanding of value and take your
art to the next level. We'll learn what values
are, how to spot them, and how to group
them effectively to create strong visual impact. And finally, I'll show you two practical exercises to help you train
your eye and hand, whether you're working in
gray scale or full color. So grab your favorite
art supplies, and let's get started.
2. Class orientation: I've been wanting to create a short class for a while now, something focused on
one specific element that can really make a
difference in your art, and improving tonal values felt like the perfect
place to start. This class is a short and
sweet workout designed to help you better
recognize different tonal values in an image, whether it's black and
white or in color. Values are arguably one of the most fundamental
aspects of visual art. Mastering them will instantly make your painting stronger. We use values to create depth, giving the viewer visual cues about how far away
certain elements are. Values also help us understand lighting,
where shadows fall, what shape the subject has, and they give form and volume to the objects in your painting. But that's not all
tonal values can do. They also play a huge
role in composition. You can use value
contrast to create strong focal points and guide the viewer's eye exactly
where you want it to go. Understanding and
controlling value will help you build depth and visual interest no matter what kind of
artwork you're creating. The principles you'll
learn here today apply whether you're painting from
reference or imagination. The fundamental stay the same. In the exercises, I'll
guide you through today, we'll do a series of quick, rough studies based
on photo references. In exercise one, we will
work with just free tones. You'll learn how to simplify
and group values to improve readability and create
depth in your paintings. In the second exercise, we'll move on to a full
range of values to create a more detailed black
and white photo study. We'll focus on choosing
the right values for composition,
light and shadow. These exercises are based on thumbnailing with the
limited value palette, something that visual
professionals across many fields use to
quickly explore ideas. Whether you're painting
traditionally, doing concept art or
designing visuals, this approach is
a powerful tool. In this class, you'll learn how to choose the right
values to tell a story, build atmosphere,
and show depth. And of course, the best way
to improve is by doing. So I encourage you to pick
one of the reference photos I've provided and create
your own value study. You can use any medium. While I personally
prefer digital, traditional materials
work just as well. Also keep things time limited to avoid overcomplicating
the process. I suggest no more than
30 minutes per sketch. And for the simple
value exercises, you can go even as low
as five to 10 minutes. The goal here isn't perfection. It's to train your brain to
see and paint values better. In the resource section, I have provided you
with a selection of reference photos for
you to choose from. But before we jump in, let's
take a moment to talk about what value really is and how
we can apply it in our art. See you in the next video.
3. About tonal values: Of all the fundamentals of art, value is arguably more
important than color, but what exactly is value? Value or tone refers to the lightness or darkness
of a color or hue. Values create light, form, and depth in a painting. We affect value by adding
light or shadow to an image. In this class, we are
going to completely ignore color and focus solely on value. Let's take a closer look at the points I
mentioned earlier. Values play a fundamental
role in painting. For example, you can use value to create a focal
point by placing the highest contrast
in that area where you want the
viewer to look first. Take a look at this piece
by George de La tour. Notice how the painter used strong value contrast
to guide our eyes. See how we're naturally
drawn to that area. That's the power of
storytelling through tone. See how the intense contrast between the bright torchlight on the woman's face and the dark background makes her face the first
things that we notice. That's exactly where the
artist wants our attention. By controlling values, he leads the viewer's eyes
straight to the subject he wants
us to see first. Now look at this
painting by Va Ma. The contrast is
more subtle here, but we're still drawn
to the woman's face. The gentle lightness
on her skin against the darker tones behind her
does the job beautifully. Values are also essential for creating the
illusion of depth. Take the stunning
painting by Jan Aselin. Notice the hierarchy of values. The foreground ruins are
dark, as are the characters, with the light shining through showing the form
of the structure, the midground consisting of the bridge and the trees
are slightly lighter, and the mountains in the
distance are the lightest. This gradual shift in value mimics
atmospheric perspective and makes the scene
feel expansive. If we change the
values even slightly, the depth would
quickly disappear. Of course, flat artwork is
a valid stylistic choice, and many artists use
it deliberately. But if you're aiming for
more realistic paintings, strong value structure is key. Values help us show
three dimensionality. Now look at this painting
by Francisco D Zurbarn. If we remove the subtle tonal transitions between
light and shadow, the objects become flat. The way light wraps around form gives us clues about
what we're looking at. This applies to
everything, people, faces, trees, animals,
clouds, you name it. Here's another example
by Sanchez Cottan. Notice how the tonal differences between the vegetables and the dark background creates both depth and a
clear focal point. Values are also crucial
for composition. You can use a few simple tones
to thumbnail a foul image and test whether the composition works before adding any color. By using values strategically, we can obscure certain
elements and highlight others, creating a more dynamic and
pleasing visual structure. Values also affect the
mood of a painting. The dark surroundings,
broken by sharp candlelight, create drama and mystery. We don't always have to use the full range of values either. For instance, here's
a painting by Claude Monet that mostly
uses light values, giving it a dreamy, gentle feel. Now, compare that to the
Rembrandt self portrait that uses mostly dark values for a more introspective moody feel. A painting can also stay in the mid value range,
avoiding extremes. It can create a balanced
and more neutral tone. It's always good to experiment
with value schemes in your own work to evoke different
emotions and narratives. Here's another
wonderful example of several of the elements we
talked about by Velazquez. We have a full range
value painting here, which uses values
for composition to bring the attention to
the girl in the center. We can also see the painter
himself in the corner. He lowered the values as to
make himself stand out less. We also have a clear division between the foreground
and the background, due to the higher contrast
achieved with values. There's one crucial thing
to remember about values. All values are relative. A values intensity depends on the light and the
context around it. Let me show you an example
based on a sketch I did. Here's the original color
version, a simple landscape. Now, in great scale, you can clearly see the
value distribution. It's fairly bright overall with only a few darks in the
main subject, the tree. But watch what
happens when I change just the background
values, nothing else. I didn't touch the values
of the tree at all. What once appeared as
the darkest point in the painting now
looks nearly glowing. Yet I didn't change
a pitil in it. So what happened? Our
perception changed. Our brains have the tendency to lie to us about the
values all the time. The brain naturally wants to think logically
and label things. You can see it often in children when they
start painting. The sea is blue,
the grass is green. If you actually start observing
rather than thinking, you will quickly
see that there is a whole wide range of
colors in those things. And depending on the
relation to each other or what they
are standing next to, the color will appear
vastly different. A similar thing
happens to values. When we see a white shirt on
a person in the sunlight, we might automatically want to paint it with
the lightest value because our brains
are trying to tell us that since the color
of the shirt is white, we must probably use
white to paint it. Yeah, the same white
shirt will look significantly darker when the person is standing
in the shadow. If we were to actually check the value of that
shirt painting, we would see that in this
particular lighting situation, the shirt is much, much darker. This is why as artists, we need to learn how to see. We have to train ourselves to absorb values as they appear, not as we assume they should be. And once your eye is trained, you'll be able to
apply the skill even when painting
from imagination. And the best way
to do that is by practice. So let's do just that. In the next lesson,
we will talk about practical exercises to
level up your values. See you in the next class.
4. How to improve values?: In the previous
section, we already explored what values can
achieve in a painting. From creating depth to
improving composition, values play a crucial role throughout the entire
painting process. In the best part, there
are many ways to improve your understanding of values while actually
enjoying the process. One of the very first
exercises I was taught in art school was simply sketching objects from life
using a pencil. We would sit for a couple
of hours in front of various still life setups,
things like bottles, fruits, and shoes arranged under different lighting conditions
and sketch them on paper. It also strengthened our ability to perceive and interpret value. We were essentially learning
how to translate what we saw in full color into black
and white representations. I still highly recommend this practice to all
my students today, and it doesn't
have to take place in a formal studio setting. Just sitting in a cafe and sketching the coffee
in front of you or capturing the people
or buildings on the street can be
incredibly useful. Even better if you take the time to set up your own
little still life, whether you're
working traditionally or digitally and
sketch from life. It's a great way to connect observation with
value interpretation. Another excellent
way to practice values is by painting
from reference photos. This allows you to pre select
what you want to focus on. For example, if you're still working on basic
value recognition, I'd recommend starting with a black and white photo that has clearly defined
lights and darks. High contrast
images make it much easier to practice
identifying value shapes. If you want to work on
more advanced topics like lighting or storytelling, movie stills are a great choice. Since most film
shots are carefully planned with composition
and lighting in mind, they make excellent
reference material. You can find many curated movie
still collections online. Websites like film rap or Shot cafe are great
places to start. Another time tested method is to study directly from
the old masters. Copying great artworks
isn't just about copying. It's about internalizing the
thought process behind them. It can significantly improve your understanding of values, composition and overall
painting techniques. There are many high
resolution scans of master paintings
available online. Wikipedia and many
museum websites are great resources for that. Before jumping into practice, I think it's important to first decide what you're practicing. Are you trying to improve your composition through
the use of value? Or are you focusing
more on learning to distinguish and simplify different values
from a color image? Setting a clear goal will help you get more out of
your study session. If you're just starting
out, I recommend beginning with a simple
three value exercise, which I'll be demonstrating
in the next video. In that exercise, you'll take a reference image and simplify
it in just three values, light, mid tone, and dark. The whole sketch will be done
in just those three tones. This forces you to
group different areas of the image into
simplified tone blocks, helping you to decide
what's essential in the scene and what
details can be left out. This kind of simplification is also a key step
towards stylization, something that often
makes paintings more expressive and
visually engaging, compared to more hyperrealistic
photo like results. In the next video,
I'll walk you through that specific exercise
step by step. So you can follow
along and see how I personally like to
approach value studies. So grab your painting supplies or your tablet and
see you there.
5. Three-value-painting: In this first exercise, we will be making simple
limited value studies in three main values, white, gray and black. You can use any tools for that. You can use pencils, acrylics, or markers, as long as you have different
gray and black tones. You can also use
the whiteness of the paper for the
white elements. You can also work
digitally like I do. So grab your favorite painting
software and let's begin. I will be working digitally
in Art Studio Pro on my iPad. For this exercise, I recommend
deciding on a time limit. I recommend somewhere
around five to 15 minutes in order to not
overcomplicate a sketch. In this exercise, I will
take a black and white photo and try to recreate it with rough shapes in
those three values. It will be a more
abstract result as we will be limiting the
values so drastically, and that is the whole
idea behind it. To begin, the first
thing we have to do is group the elements of that
photo in three values. As you can see, we have many
more values in the photo, as in real life, there are many more
tones than just three. So our first task is to
translate reality, so to say, into three values, simplifying and grouping the elements
into three groups. If you're struggling
to do that at first, try to distinguish the darkest elements of the image at first. You can slightly squeeze
your eyes to do so. As this often helps
to make the image blurry and helps you focus
on the main masses of value. After, try to see the
lightest points of the image. Where are they located? The
rest are the middle values. We want to generalize and ignore the smaller details
as we will be mostly focusing on the form and overall shape. Let's try it out. So I start by preparing my reference image
in black and white. I like to color my
background a slight of white color as it's
easier on my eyes. In this particular case, I will dive right into
without a previous sketch. I use the mid color and mid gray and start sketching directly
the hill structure. I'm not aiming for
a perfect copy and just want to capture the
rough outlines and forms. I then switch to my dark one. I went for a very dark gray
instead of black again, as it's easier on my eyes, and I start sketching
the darkest shape. I then continue with sketching in the shadows on the
background hills. For the sake of this exercise, you could leave it that way
without adding more details, but I like to add a few more of the darkest shadows on the
hills in the background, so I will be adding a few
more lines and shadows. This is a very quick
and useful exercise to practice your eyes and brain to filter the
visual information and translate it into
limited palette. Adding those two persons
for scale and Wala, I quickly translated the essence of the reference
into three values, showing the shapes and
creating a nice thumbnail. Let's move on to the next one. This tree landscape is already pretty well divided
into three tones. That makes it much easier to
focus pearly on the shapes. Once again, I color
the background a slightly gray color to make
the contrast less strong. I choose the middle tone and
paint in the grass patch, in this case, our foreground. I then switch to a dark gray and start sketching
in the shapes of the trees very roughly.
That's about it. So now let's paint a
more complex scene. This seascape scene offers a more complex
variation of values, which we will be translating
into just three tones. I start by painting in the background off
white color again. This time, I continue with the darkest value and start by sketching in
the rock to the right, roughly drawing in the form. I do the same with the
rock on the left and proceed to paint the smaller
rocks in the center. The reason for me starting with those shapes is that those are the shapes that are
the easiest to spot at the first glance
due to the contrast. Going from there, I eyeball the position of
the middle rocks. After sketching in those, I continue with the middle tone. If you're having difficulties spotting the parts where
the middle tone is, try squeezing your
eyes a little. That way, you can see
that the middle value is roughly on the upper third and the lower third
of the photo. While I would say
it's even moving towards the darkest value
in the bottom third. I will correct just
that in the next step by adding the darkest
value to the lower third. I also switch back to my middle value and paint the
lighter parts on the rocks. You can see how the
painting instantly comes to life as we are adding more information about
the light and shadows. Upon squeezing my eyes, I can see that I removed too
much of the lightest value. So I decided to
add that one back. And that's about it. So let's
continue with another one. For the next exercise, I choose a movie still from, I think the movie Wolverine. Since the scene is
somewhat more complex, I decided to start
with a quick sketch to roughly place the objects
in the scene in place. We have a very nice division of light and shadow
in that scene, and it might be
somewhat harder to see the exact division between the lighter values
and the midtones. So at first, I decided to
put in the darkest values. Once again, I decided to
make them a bit lighter than black so that the
contrast is a bit lower. It doesn't really
matter, as it's a thing of preference and won't
impact the exercise. After putting down the shadows, I go in with the middle tone. We can see it behind
the character and mostly on the objects
in the right side. We also have a very
nice rim light highlighting the character
against the background. So I paint that back in
adding some highlights. I do the same with the
objects on the right. Can you see how we instantly get enough information
about that picture, namely, that we have a lot
of stuff in the corner. We can even see that it's a type of barn or storage facility, even though the picture is so limited in values
and information, yet it's enough
to show the mood. The lighting, the framing, and the composition
of the scene tells the story without the need
of unnecessary details. That's the power of
great storytelling. That's why I love to study
from movies still so much as the scene has been
planned beforehand by people who knew
what they were doing. In the next section,
I will show you how I do a more complex study. So bear with me and see
you in the next video.
6. Full-value-painting: Another exercise I suggest
after having practiced the tree value method is slowly adding more
values to your studies. That way, we can start adding
more value variety into our paintings while still having the hierarchy and
the main elements present. So in this video,
I will show you how I paint a full
range value study. A full range value,
black and white study is a great way to practice
all you've previously learned about values while going
a step further and adding smaller gradients and trying to connect them in a way
that makes sense visually. I will be using a
movie still again, a nice frame from
the movie contact. I turned it into gray scale,
so it's easier to see. If you want to go a step
further and test your skills, you can use a color reference and painted in black and white. That's a great way to test
how you perceive values, as you can switch the
color image to black and white to test if you've
got the values right. That's something we
do when we paint a still life with a
pencil, for example. So before I start painting, I decide on the
goal of the study. I want to try to
match the values as close as possible to the
reference image without color picking and therefore create depth and
the right shadow light to convey the image. I'm not interested in a mechanically correct
car painting or the perfect anatomy of the figure sitting
in the foreground. My goal is to get the values right in this quick exercise. My time limit is half an hour. I start by marking the division between
the sky and the ground. I like to color the canvas
in a lighter mid color. After that, I start painting in the horizon line in
the mountain range. As you can see, I'm keeping the values fairly
light at this stage, as I want to keep on
adding darker and lighter values as I continue
layering brush strokes. I softly mark the
shape of the car. I don't have to be
exact at this stage, as I will be painting
over and over again until I get the
form and the shape right. I also mark the
position of the woman. I remind myself as I go that
my goal is to get the values as correct as possible without getting lost
in the details. Depending on the
medium you're using, your process might be
slightly different from mine. The good thing with
digital medium is that you can always go back and
change things as you go. I start drawing in
the satellite shapes. As you can see, I
keep the size of the canvas and the reference
photos fairly small. I do that so that I can focus on the main
masses of value and the overall shapes without having to focus on
the details too much. I also pay attention to the
negative space as I paint. For example, when I paint
the shape of the car, I try to focus on the shape
of the surrounding grass and the negative space it creates to help me to better
get the form. Since I'm using digital brushes, they allow me to simultaneously
smudge while painting, similar to real oil paints. That's very helpful to
create gradients on the go without having to
switch to the smudge tool. I start adding lighter
values on the car, helping to show that it's a
three dimensional object. I work on the shape
of the car some more and add a shadow
underneath it. It's still very light in
comparison to the reference, but I will slowly build up
the values as I continue. I'm being quite rough and
avoid going into details. As long as your brains can
perceive that it's a car and the necessary information
is transmitted via the correct values,
I'm happy with it. I start adding the darker
shapes in the sky, trying to match the values
of the reference photo. The biggest satellite is
to high up in my sketch, so I will paint over it later on to move it slightly down. As you can see, I still didn't introduce
the darkest value. I do that because I want first to get the
lighter values right. The darkest values can be
found mostly in the foreground of the image below the car
and in the woman sitting. I'm working on a single
layer for this exercise, like you would do if you were painting with acrylics or oils, and it's a great
exercise that will also help you not to get
lost in details too much. It forces me to focus on the shapes and values
while I paint. I'm also rotating the
canvas because it's easier for the hand to paint horizontal lines when
it's slightly turned. I start introducing
darker values. I avoid switching to
a very dark value from the beginning and
choose just a mid dark tone. Once I pick a color,
I like to paint with it on all the parts that
need that particular tone. You can see that the car slowly starts turning
three dimensional. If you now look
at the image from afar or by slightly
squeezing your eyes, you will see that the values are now much closer to
the reference image. We are still missing a
bit of the darks though. I will continue adding
them gradually. I really like this
reference image because apart from the great
composition and storytelling, it's also very nicely divided
into very clear shapes. We have the car and the
woman in the foreground, which have the
strongest contrasts in the midground with the field, and then those big shapes in the background with
that strong whiteness. I add a bit of the deta to the car to add a bit
more visual interest. Since I don't want the
image to be too simplified, I add a bit of gradients in the grass to make it
appear less smooth. My car is a bit off from
the reference image. As you can see, I'm not
particularly a car expert, but I'm satisfied because it serves the job
to show the values, even if my car model turned out to be
somewhat different one. I add a bit of the whiteness to the cloud to make it
more interesting. Now, when I zoom out, I can see that the
values are much better now in comparison
to the reference. I consider the study done. Usually, I would do a few of those to warm up
and train my eye. This one took me around
20 minutes in total. The more you practice
painting little studies, the better you will become at quickly spotting
the correct values. You can use a color
picker if you work digitally to
check the values. But I guarantee to
you that if you start doing the studies
more regularly, you will experience
a tremendous level up in your painting skills. It will teach you how
to spot the values and how light and shadow behave in combination
to each other. And it will also improve your
overall painting skills. So I encourage you to find some time and do a quick
black and white study. Please do post them in the
project section of the scores. I would absolutely
love to see them.
7. Final words: Thank you so much for taking the time to go through
this class with me. I hope it give you
some new insights into just how powerful
values can be when it comes to creating stronger,
more intentional paintings. As we've seen,
practicing values can improve so many areas
of your art from depth, form and lighting to
composition and storytelling. In this class, we focused on two core exercises to help
you build those skills. The first was the
tree value study where we simplified an
image down to light, mid tone, and dark. This exercise is perfect for training your eye to
see value clearly and to make strong
confident decisions about what's essential
in an image. The second was the full
range gray scale study, where we explored how to
use the entire spectrum of values to build up lighting,
contrast and mood. This one gives you
a chance to absorb more closely and
work with nuance. Those are simple but incredibly
effective ways to build your foundation and strengthen your ability to see and
paint the right values. If you haven't already, I'd love for you to share your work in the
project section. Whether it's a rough sketch
or a more polished study. It's always inspiring to see how everyone approaches
the exercise, and it's a great way to track your progress and connect
with others in the class. If you enjoyed this class, feel free to check out my other classes here
on Skillshare. And if you found
this one helpful, I'd really appreciate if you
could leave a quick review. It helps other students
discover the class, and it means a lot to
independent teachers like me. Thanks again for joining me. Keep practicing, keep painting, and I'll see you in the
next one. Happy painting.
Gabriela Shel, Illustrator and Concept Artist
