Tonal Value Studies: Two Fun Value Excercises for Stronger Paintings

Getting your values right is one of the most powerful ways to improve your paintings—no matter your style or medium.
Whether you work traditionally with acrylics or oils,  or digitally in Procreate or Photoshop, learning to see and paint values more accurately can completely transform the way you approach your art.

In this class, we’ll focus on building your understanding of values through simple, practical exercises. First you will learn how Old Masters used values in their famous paintings. You’ll learn how to look at a reference photo and break it down into a few clear tonal groups, helping you create more focused, readable images without getting lost in the details. 

This isn’t about creating polished artwork—it’s about learning to make intentional choices and train your eye to spot what matters most in a scene.

I will teach you about the importance of values based on some of the most famous paintings in history by Old Masters. You will see how they use value to create depth and move the eye through the painting.

You will learn how you can use values to improve your form, composition and storytelling.

After that, I will show you in a demo two fun ways to quickly improve your overall painting skills.

We’ll work through two painting exercises:

• A three-value black-and-white study to simplify the image and focus on structure

• And a more complete, full-value version that lets you explore nuance while applying the same principles

This class comes with free reference images which you can use to jump right into pain

These studies are easy to repeat and will help you build strong habits you can carry into every painting—whether it’s a landscape, a character portrait, or a fantasy piece.

Music: Massobeats - daydream and Massobeats - Lush