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        When most people contemplate what makes somebody's art unique they generally assume it's connected to the brushes or medium ---sometime a sense of color or choice of subject matter. My feeling is that an artist's unique voice is strongly influenced by the way they interpret values. Yes, there it is again...that word that makes students' eyes glaze over! As a teacher, I've often felt like speaking on the topic of values was a sure way to to get everyone headed back over to the coffee and donut table. In terms of creating the illusion of light and 3 dimensions on a 2 dimensional surface though, nothing else you do with your paint will come close to having the kind of impact that careful observation of value relationships can have.

          I sort of understand the bad reputation. A lot of formal art classes start out with lectures about value scales, and students are assigned to complete a drawing using all of the value steps from darkest dark to lightest light. Most people can grasp the basic concept fairly quickly. When the topic comes up a second or third time though, the impulse is to think "Been there, done that. I didn't enroll in another class to go back to square one so can we just move on to something more advanced?"  For those of us however, who are consumed with wanting to know what some of our art heroes were doing, values will never be something you can check off the list and move on from. Of all the aspects of painting that I'm continuing to try to understand better, values are absolutely at the top of the list. I've always felt like if Sargent came back to life and I could get in one of his classes tomorrow, he would probably tell me to work on my values.

          So why would anyone place such importance on this one aspect of color? Simply put, compared to nature and it's range of light to dark, this is where our paints have the greatest limitations. Nature has objects like the sun -- so bright that even its reflection on water or snow can burn our skin or eyes fairly quickly. At the other end of the spectrum, our darkest dark is black, but black paint on a canvas with light on it can't really compare to the darkness of the absence of light in a deep hole. Artists who are compelled to try to depict what we see in the 3-dimensional world are put in the position of being magicians ---trying to cram all of the values nature has at her disposal into a black and white scale that relatively speaking is the size of a thimble.

         This brings us around to another aspect of learning to paint that seems to be underappreciated, and that's the importance of working from life as much as possible. When working from a printed photo, the values have already been compressed into an image with the exact  black to white parameters as our paints, so there isn't the opportunity to observe and interpret in the same sort of way. The artists I admire and study have all made a personal journey out of trying to discover more effective ways to capture this expansive value range that our eyes take in from the world around us. There are any number of ways to attempt to pull off this magic trick and since they can involve almost every other avenue of painting I can think of, the complexity can be all consuming. To give an idea of what I'm talking about, below I've posted an example to illustrate a couple of techniques commonly used to try to pull a little more power from the value range of oil paints.

 

                                                 

                                                 This is an example of practicing what is aptly called 'Conservation of Values'  ----

                                                 simplifying the large value patterns in this teapot to preserve a strong feeling of

                                                 form and light. Subtle color shifts are emphasized instead of using value differences

                                                 alone to indicate the changes in planes. The color interest can be an added bonus

                                                 although the objective isn't to create a more colorful effect but to make the form turn.

                                                 By substituting high value tints in place of value gradations, it's possible to compensate

                                                 to some degree  for limitations in value. Another value sparing technique can be

                                                 observed in the highlight area, where the heavier, opaque knife stroke makes it appear

                                                 lighter, while also catching the illumination falling on the painting itself and enhancing

                                                 the impression of light reflecting off of a shiny surface.

                                                 (Please note that if your screen is set to shift to a warmer tone at night, the subtle color

                                                  differences in this example will be easier for you to observe during the day.)

 

Learning to make value changes only when absolutely necessary frees up our limited and precious value range for the areas where it will count the most. When you can see values well and come to accept the limits of our pigments in this regard, it becomes second nature to always be searching in any way possible to make the most of the range we have and use it to it's best advantage. Nothing you can buy and nothing you can do will make as much difference as this in terms of capturing an illusion of light and form in your work. It almost feels like being a whistleblower to point this out since a huge industry is built around convincing people that the next brush, the next medium, the next class, the next tube of paint or canvas or whatever will be the breakthrough. Spending a few dollars and a couple minutes of time making a low tech black mirror and then learning to use it will get you further. The rest isn't necessarily fluff, but not really all that useful either without the context of solid values. Those aren't just my words though. If you do the research on artists whose work speaks to you and are lucky enough to find some of their quotes on painting or teaching, you will likely find this same theme on 'seeing' running through their advice. It's that simple and that difficult. Seeing as an artist does is a long process and most people need some help getting started. Often the most accessible solution is to find a classical-traditional atelier type of school with a good instructor ---even if that style of painting isn't where one wants to end up. Once you get the hang of paying attention to the way things come together, and the kind of focus required to do that, that same careful attention can be applied to other disciplines of the painting process and you can begin the journey of teaching yourself, which is the whole point. In other words, begin at the beginning and stay at the beginning. Give up looking for a shortcut even if that's the direction the entire rest of the world is going. I can't promise that financial success will follow or that you will feel welcomed into the artist's club, but it will help answer the question we all have when looking at an amazing work of art ---"How did they do that?"

 

"Only after you have the spots of color true and in their proper relations do you have something to draw with and you can then consider it (drawing). No amount of good drawing will pull you out if your colors are not true. Get them true and you will be surprised how little else you need."  --- Charles Hawthorne from Hawthorne on Painting

 

"Simplify, omit all but the most essential elements --- values, especially the values." --- John Singer Sargent

 

"The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you."   -- B.B King

 

 

 

 

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