Color and Its Components
Color consists of three primary attributes: hue, saturation, and value. Value refers to the relative lightness or darkness of a color, indicating the amount of light reflected by it. When the color is stripped from an image, values are what remain, appearing as variations in brightness, ranging from pure white through multiple shades of gray to solid black.
Examples of Values in Images
In a black-and-white photograph, only the values—the gradations of light and dark—are visible.
Techniques for Evaluating Values
To identify values, you can apply two methods:
- Observing natural reference points.
- Comparing using a value scale or finder.
A black mirror can also be useful for accurately perceiving values.
Importance of Values
Realism in Art
Achieving realism in your artwork heavily depends on selecting the correct values—around 80% of realism stems from this aspect. The remaining 20% is primarily influenced by saturation, rather than hue. Interestingly, some Fauvist artists, like Matisse and Derain, intentionally used unconventional hues (e.g., a yellow sky) while focusing on values to create expressive and imaginative works.
It’s crucial to understand values because the human eye can misinterpret the brightness or darkness of certain colors. For instance, people often assume reds and oranges are lighter than they actually are, while they typically belong to mid-tone ranges.
Impact on Design
Values don’t just contribute to realism; they are fundamental to the structural design of a painting. The interplay of light and dark areas, often referred to as notan, enhances the visual appeal and balance of an artwork.
Using Values in Paintings
Values serve multiple purposes:
Organizing a composition and establishing focal points.
Guiding the viewer’s attention across the painting.
Artists like Rembrandt and Caravaggio utilized dramatic contrasts in values to highlight the main subjects of their works. Additionally, values describe the shape of objects, indicate light direction, and help create depth through atmospheric perspective, as seen in Bierstadt’s landscapes.
