Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 8.6

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 63.6
Drawspace Curriculum 8.2.R3 - 8 Pages and 19 Illustrations

Seeing the
Values of Colors
A richly-illustrated introduction to the most important
skill for painting or drawing in color

This tutorial has three sections:

Identifying the Values of Basic
Colors
Examining Values in Single
Colors
Exploring Values in a Realistic
Painting

Identifying the Values

of Basic Colors
You can paint or draw a subject
with hundreds of different colors,
but without an intrinsic or learned
understanding of values, your
artwork cant look realistic.
Realism in a color medium demands
a wide range of values from light to
dark.
The different values of the colors
within the light and shadow sections
of an object visually define its shapes
and forms.

ArtSpeak
Color: The visual qualities of objects based on
individual perceptions of their hues and values.
Basic colors include: yellow, orange, red, purple,
blue, and green.
Realism: A style of art in which living beings and
objects are represented in an artwork as they appear
in real life without stylization or distortion.
Values of colors: The intrinsic lightness or darkness
of a specific color. For example, a soft pastel yellow
has a light value and a deep midnight blue has a
dark value. In painting, dark colors can be mixed
with white to create lighter values (colors).
Value scale: A range of different values that are
rendered in order from light to dark or from dark to
light.
Highlight: A small section of a drawing subject
that is rendered with white or a very light value to
identify the brightest area where light bounces off its
surface. Highlights are more pronounced on shiny or
glistening surfaces than dull or matte surfaces.
Shadow: A dark area on an object or living being
that receives little to no light.
Low contrast: A drawing or painting created with a
limited range of values.

ISBN: 978-1-77193-150-2
Copyright 2015 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the purchase of a licence from drawspace.com or the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

Drawspace Curriculum 8.2.R3: Seeing the Values of Colors

Youre likely already familiar with a grayscale value scale (Figure 1). The next step is to
recognize values in colors.
Figure 1

ArtSpeak

Challenge!

Values: The various shades of gray in an artwork.

A broad range of values can be achieved by using
various grades of a medium and by varying the
density of the shading lines and the pressure used
when applying the medium to a surface.

Examine ten different colors (Figure 2) and

identify which color is the lightest in value
and which is the darkest. Then arrange all
ten colors by value, from the lightest to the
darkest.

Complementary colors: A set of two colors that are

directly opposite one another on a color wheel (such
as red and green, yellow and purple, and orange
and blue.) When placed beside one other, these
colors seem brighter and more vibrant.

You may want to assign each color a letter

or number so you can write down your
answers. If you need a little help, Figure
3 illustrates the same ten colors when
translated into grayscale.

Key: The overall amount of light and dark values in

an artwork.

When you are done, check out Figure 4

(on the next page) to find out which colors
are actually darker or lighter than others.

Low-key: An artwork with a range of mostly medium

and dark values that often appears ominous or
moody (think of low levels of light).
High-key: An artwork with a limited range of values
that are mostly medium and light (think of high levels
of light). Even the shadows and dark areas are often
shaded with medium values rather than dark.

As you might have guessed, yellow is the

lightest, and royal blue is the darkest.
Surprisingly, some colors are almost
identical in value when used beside one
another in a painting, their values appear
similar.

Figure 2

Figure 3

ISBN: 978-1-77193-150-2
Copyright 2015 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the purchase of a licence from drawspace.com or the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

Drawspace Curriculum 8.2.R3: Seeing the Values of Colors

Figure 4

Seeing the values of colors is much more challenging than seeing values in grayscale.
The only way to train your eye to recognize the values of colors is to practice drawing or
painting with color. In the beginning, its mostly guesswork.

Examining Values in Single Colors

Every color in the universe (except white) can become either a light, medium, or dark
value in a value scale. For example, Figure 5 shows a value scale of all light values. The
yellow from Figure 4 (on the far right) is now the darkest in a scale of nine different values.
However, the values/colors are very similar.
Figure 5

Conversely, if you take the royal blue (the darkest value in Figure 4) and make it the lightest
color in a value scale, many of the resulting colors are also similar (Figure 6).
Figure 6

Technically, any color can be broken down into an infinite range of values from very light to
almost black. However, theres little point in using colors that are so similar that the human
eye cannot discern one from another.

ISBN: 978-1-77193-150-2
Copyright 2015 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the purchase of a licence from drawspace.com or the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

Drawspace Curriculum 8.2.R3: Seeing the Values of Colors

The key to drawing realistically with color is to use a full range of values from very light to
very dark, as with the greens in Figure 7.
Figure 7

Compare Figures 8 and 9. A full value scale of any color (plus black and white) can achieve
the illusion of three-dimensional reality as well as a full value scale of black (called a
grayscale).
Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

When drawing
with color, values
are definitely more
important than the
chosen colors.
Examine variations
of the same dagger
drawing with limited
ranges of values
(Figure 10).
Each still looks like
a dagger just not
quite as realistic or
three-dimensional
as those in Figures 8
and 9.

ISBN: 978-1-77193-150-2
Copyright 2015 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the purchase of a licence from drawspace.com or the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

Drawspace Curriculum 8.2.R3: Seeing the Values of Colors

In addition to using a full range

of values from light to dark, you
can create a less dramatic, threedimensional reality using a range of:

Caution!

all light values plus medium values

(high-key).

If you try to render a realistic color artwork with

a range of values that are all light, all medium,
or all dark, you might be disappointed.

all dark values plus medium

values (low-key).

A very limited range of values cant create the

illusion of a realistic three-dimensional reality.

Exploring Values in a Realistic Painting

In this section, a few areas of a photo-realistic oil painting (Figure 11) show how a full range
of values in mixed colors can create the illusion of a three-dimensional reality.
Figure 11

Most color media

requires some colors
to be mixed together in
order to create a realistic
artwork.
Wet media, such as
acrylic or oil paint, are
usually mixed with a
brush or palette knife
before they are applied
to the surface.
Dry media, such as
chalk pastels or colored
pencils, are usually
applied to the surface in
layers to mix the colors.
No matter which medium
or colors you choose,
you still need to use a
range of values from light
to dark.

ISBN: 978-1-77193-150-2
Copyright 2015 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the purchase of a licence from drawspace.com or the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

Drawspace Curriculum 8.2.R3: Seeing the Values of Colors

The skin colors in Figure 12 are a value scale of ten different mixed colors, from very light
to very dark. Each skin tone has been assigned a number from 1 to 10.
Examine the close up view of a section of the painting (Figure 13) and then compare each
value to its corresponding number in Figure 12.
As most of the arm is in sunlight, the values range from light to medium (1 to 6). The
section of her upper leg thats in shadow is painted with darker values (7 to 10).
Figure 12

Figure 13

1
1

7
7

9
10

10

Heres a trick question: what color are the white

polka dots in her bathing suit?

As an Aside
I rarely use pure white in my paintings
and never use black (I dont even own
a tube of black paint).

Hint: not white!

The dots that are in the bright sunlight are light
in value but not white. Those in shadow sections
are made up of light to medium values.

ISBN: 978-1-77193-150-2
Copyright 2015 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the purchase of a licence from drawspace.com or the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

Drawspace Curriculum 8.2.R3: Seeing the Values of Colors

Compare the numbered

sections in the close
up of the bathing suit
(Figure 14) to a value
scale of the colors
used for the polka dots
(Figure 15).
As you can see, the
polka dot colors are
mostly a mixture of
white and a little yellow,
red, and/or blue.
Even the lightest value
(1) is very light but not
white.
The other three values
have identifiable colors,
yellow (2), pink (3), and
light brown (4).
As a final demonstration
of values in color,
examine the pink
bathing suit.
Most of the colors
used are not actually
pink yet, if you look at
the complete painting
(Figures 11 and 18),
the full visual effect
is a bathing suit that
appears pink.
The nine bathing suit
colors (created with
three primary colors
plus white) range in
value from light to dark
(Figure 16).

Figure 14

Figure 15

2
3

Figure 16

Figure 17

4
5

5
6

Compare the value

scale of colors to the
close-up section of the
bathing suit (Figure 17).
ISBN: 978-1-77193-150-2
Copyright 2015 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the purchase of a licence from drawspace.com or the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.

Drawspace Curriculum 8.2.R3: Seeing the Values of Colors

Figure 18

Tip!
To make good use of the values of colors,
take black-and-white photos or scans
of your color artworks in progress, and
assess how your values are working.
For example, compare the original
painting in color (Figure 18) to the version
in grayscale (Figure 19).
As you can see, the subject appears
three-dimensional in both versions.

The two most important things to

remember when creating color in art
are:
1. Colors are not always simple. If
you use pure colors just as they
are either in a tube of paint or in
a colored pencil then youll be
very disappointed with the resulting
work. Colors need to be mixed
with one other to achieve realistic
colors/values.

Figure 19

2. Values are much more important

than color. Whether a bathing suit
is blue, purple, or pink, you need to
focus more on values than colors.

Tip!
A highlight appears brighter when
contrasted with the color thats opposite it
on the color wheel (complementary).
For example, if the iris of an eye is blue,
a very tiny bit of orange (complementary
to blue) added to the white makes the
highlight appear brighter.

ISBN: 978-1-77193-150-2
Copyright 2015 Drawspace Publishing and Brenda Hoddinott. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the purchase of a licence from drawspace.com or the prior written consent of Brenda Hoddinott and Drawspace Publishing.