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Have you ever wondered how a painting can look so realistic? How an artist can create the illusion of depth and form on a 2D surface?

Today I'm bringing you a short commentary on value in painting (the lightness or darkness of a color).

Understanding value allows a painter to control the style, mood and life in a painting.

The importance of value cannot be overstated.

~Jessica L. Bryant

 

The Color Wheel.

 

In order to demonstrate the relationship between color and value, I've created the above color wheel and then desaturated the image so you can see the value of each color. I tried to create a consistency between the colors by taking each color right out of the tube with a damp brush and placing it on the color wheel (without any additional water). 

 

Notice that the yellows and reds are quite a bit lighter in value compared with the blues and purples. 

 

Why is that important? 

Let's use yellow as an example. Beginning artists often assume that if you want a darker yellow, you just add more yellow. But no matter how much yellow you use to darken a yellow object, you will never increase the fundamental value. 

 

So how do you create form on a yellow object?

Look at the Goldfinch in the painting at the top of the page. In order to create form on this little cutie, I used magenta and a bit of green for the shadow areas. I could also have used blue or purple to achieve a similar, or even darker, effect. 

 

Therefore, in order to have a full value range in your yellow or orange subject, you'll have to enhance the base color with one or more of the colors that are inherently dark, either by mixing, glazing, or working wet-into-wet. 

 

The most important things in a painting are Form and Value.

Color comes last - like a friend you welcome.

~Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot

 

Value Scale.

Using water to change value.

There is another way to change the value of a color in watercolor (you can make it lighter, but never darker without changing the hue).

In the above swatch, I painted Indanthrone Blue straight from the tube. Then I added a few drops of water to create a lighter value, then more water... until I achieved the lightest swatch. As you can see, I was able to achieve a full value range - something I could never do with pure yellows or reds.

Hopefully, this gives you a better understanding of what I mean when I say that I choose colors depending on the value I want to achieve. If I want a light value, I choose a light color (or I add a lot of water!); If I want a dark value, I choose a dark color.

When creating form, value is more important than color. It's as simple as that!

Paint. Love. Repeat.