Using value in practice
How do we use value in practice? How do we learn how to use the full range of value?
We start by setting 3 points: light, medium, dark. We identify where the extremes will be first, the lightest light and the darkest dark. Then we decide on the middle value in the same way. Finally, we add the values we decided to our sketch or line art.
Example of a white cat with patches of darker fur
How light or dark these 3 points are will be up to you and the story you want to tell.
Example of a human and a house using different values than the previous example
Exercise: Create a drawing with 3 values
As an exercise, take one of your subjects and draw it with 3 values.
Start with what your idea is, what story you want to tell
Use basic shapes to build up your subject
Add details to complete the lines of your sketch
Decide on how dark your 3 levels of value will be, start with the extremes first, then the value in between
Decide what parts of your drawing will be shown as which of these 3 values
Start by adding the lightest or the darkest value first
Then add the other extreme
Then add the value in between
Step by step breakdown of value drawing
But what if your subject is completely white, or black? How will we use 3 values? Well, that's a fair enough question. Let's say we want to draw a dog with white fur, and the special thing about this dog is that his fur is super white, bright and shiny. Maybe his eyes are dark, but the rest of him is...well, completely white. Where do we use the middle value? References of the dog can help. Maybe not everything is what you remember or think it is.
A white dog with 3 values
But what if you checked your references and you don't have or don't want to use a middle value on your subject? What can you do with the middle value?
In that case, you don't actually need to use the middle value. As we've mentioned throughout this series:
What you do with your art depends on the story you want to tell.
However, if you still want to use the middle value, you could do something like this.
A white dog with a simple shape background
Adding value as a simple background can make your drawing pop out even more.
3 points to 5
After a bunch of drawings you may feel limited by 3 values. We can take this 3-point method a step further and break down value into 5 points instead.
Example of a cat in armour and weapon
As with the rest of this tutorial series, references are your friend. In this case, high quality greyscale (black and white) photos can be very helpful. If your reference photos are in colour, there are many ways to turn them grayscale without any online tools.
For example, Windows 11 computers come with the Photos app for free. You can use this app to do some basic photo editing.
4 Step guide to removing the colour from photos on Windows 11 (arrows on the right and left to navigate the 4 images)
By reducing the saturation of your reference photo to 0, you can turn a colour image into a grayscale (or black and white) image. The general approach shown in the slideshow above also applies to editing photos directly on your phone, be it Google Photos, Samsung Gallery, Apple Photos, or any other similar default app on your device.
Exercise: Create a drawing with 5 values
Repeat the previous exercise, except instead of 3 points of value, use 5. You can pick a different subject compared to the previous exercise if you want.
Start with what your idea is, what story you want to tell
Use basic shapes to build up your subject
Add details to complete the lines of your sketch
Decide on how dark your 5 levels of value will be,
Start with the extremes first
Then the middle value
Then the values in between
Also decide which parts of your drawing will be shown as which of these 5 values
Start by adding the lightest or the darkest value first
Then add the other extreme
Then add the middle value
Then add an in-between value
Then add the other in-between value
Step by step breakdown of value drawing with 5 value points
As you make more drawings with value, you can begin to experiment with the order in which you add the value. Depending on what tools are you using to make your drawing, you may want to follow a different approach to adding the value (steps 4 - 9 above).
After more drawings you may find that generally it is good practice to move from larger details to smaller ones in your drawings. Similarly you may find that for value, it is good practice to try to decide on the darkest and lightest spots first.
The 80/20 ratio
The exact numbers for this ratio are not what is important; some artists tend to use 70/30% or a different ratio. The ratio means that 80% of the drawing tends to be one type while 20% is another.
For example, 80% of the drawing would be less detail vs 20% being more detail. This sort of proportion tends to be more visually appealing, but we can use this proportion to help with our storytelling by drawing the eyes of our audience. The reason for this type of ratio is so that the audience can spend more time around the area with the higher level of detail, while the rest of the drawing can allow their eyes a break.
Warrior cats with different focal points
 | This idea of drawing the audience's eye also works with value in terms of highest contrast, the part of the painting or drawing where the difference between light and dark is the largest.
At higher levels of mastery, you can also guide the audience's eyes throughout the drawing or painting, using these techniques to have the audience's attention move through your art piece the way you want them to. |
Instead of or in addition to applying the 80/20 ratio to the level of detail, you can also apply the ratio to how you use different values.
Person walking in a park on a sunny day
However, what exact ratio you ultimately use depends on your tastes and the story you want to tell.
Life and Death
5 points and beyond
How do we move from 5 points of value to more? Well, we could repeat the steps we took moving from 3 points to 5, except we would be moving from 5 points to 7.
Having more values can be helpful when trying to account for a new dimension, light.
(Here we mean light from a light source, not necessarily light vs dark values.)
How does light work?
Light moves in straight lines and bounces off things it hits.
A lightbulb lighting 3 basic shapes
Where the source of light is coming from and how strong the light is affects where and how strong the shadows in your drawing will be.
How do we use this knowledge in our drawings?
We identify our light source. This could be the sun (if we're outside it's usually the sun or the moon), a lightbulb, a torch. Everything the light doesn't touch will be in shadow. Everything that faces the light directly will be in the most light.
Examples of different subject being lit in different directions
How do we figure out what parts of objects will be in shadow, and what those shadows will look like?
One way is to look at lots of references of photos that inspire us, and learn through examples.
Sketch of Titanic characters with reference photo
There is another way, but I would not quite consider it for absolute beginners. It is something we will cover in the next series of art tutorials.
Exercise: Draw value based on reference
Find a reference of your subject or type of subject. Ideally find a photo reference or draw from real life. If that is not possible due to the nature of your subject, a 3D render will do, say from a movie or in-game screenshot. Otherwise, lastly a painting or drawing based on top tier artists' work.
Use basic shapes to build up your subject based onf the reference. Turn the basic shapes into a sketch. Add values according to the reference. Identify the main light source, and based on that, where the shadows and highlights will be.
Breakdown of Gandalf in battle mode
Be aware there are now two ways for something to be dark, due to being in shadow or naturally being dark (eg a black cat). Similarly there are two ways of being light.
After practicing this exercise enough times, you can move on to repeating it for whole scenes when you feel ready.
Gandalf the White in epic battle
Now, that tells a story! All that's missing in this scene is a bit of colour! Luckily that's the next lesson!
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