However, when students are juggling drawing, color mixing, etc., and I bring up VALUE people's eyes glaze over.
Ok - so it's important, yada, yada, yada. I won't go into a long discussion as to why- if you are at that point as a beginning painter, and you don't know the WHY-just go with me on this one. Drawing, color mixing, composition, all come in second to the importance of values in creating a successful painting.
So where do you start to see and understand it?
First- a disclaimer to my students: this is not a plot to try to sell you on the sketch idea BUT. . . .
The BEST way to begin is to start sketching. Sketch anything; do a quick sketch of your spoon on a napkin, sketch while on the phone, doodle in meetings. It goes with out saying that doing a sketch of what you want to paint is important, so in the next few posts I will show a couple of ways to develop your eye for value by using small sketches.
The photos here show a small still life posted earlier (see Dec 18 post on VALUE) and my original sketch for the same.
Not bad - it covers the basics but communicates almost nothing about the VALUEs (the light in the setup).
What is the light doing?
Where is it coming from?
How does it affect the objects it touches? Are the objects even 3 dimensional?
But it's a start.
Remember: Understanding VALUE in painting means knowing how to explain the LIGHT.
More about seeing Values in Sketches later.