Note: This post contains two videos, the color version above, and a narrated one below.
When trying to create realism, artists often put a lot of effort into color. Sometimes that color does express value, too, especially in some mediums. But many times, not at all.
Let’s start with the basics of these two terms:
Hue is the pure, basic color of the object, like red, blue, or yellow. It's essentially the "color name" we give to something, independent of its saturation or how much white or black is mixed in.
Value is how light or dark a color appears—is it a highlight version of a color, or a shadow?
Many artists consider hue of the highest importance, but I’m not one of them; I’ve always focused heavily on value! The more the range from very light to very dark, the more three-dimensional an object in your painting will appear. If it’s the wrong color, it will still look like the object if it contains a really great range.
Let’s see if the narrated video tutorial convinces you (if you prefer to watch on YouTube directly, click here):
Supplies (may be affiliate links - supporting my work with a percentage paid to me at no cost to you): Daniel Smith brand gouache (Blick) in a Pentalic Aqua Journal (Blick / Amazon) using a Jack Richeson brush set (Blick / Amazon). My mixing palette is an 89 cent tile from the hardware store - these could be $5 by now with tariffs? But they’re great for mixing paints! Colors used: Carbazole Violet, Quin Purple, Olive Green, Hansa Yellow Deep, Hansa Yellow Light, Titanium White.
Interested in gouache courses? Try Gouache Jumpstart to get your feet (brushes!) wet, or Gouache Studies in Green for some intermediate techniques.
This red filter approximates what you can see through the red glasses - just a little color. I did know what the colors on my palette were, and planned on the hues for the jeep, trees, mountains, etc, but once I got painting I almost forgot about that as I focused on value.
The sketch is a loose one when it comes to my brushstrokes….my style sometimes looks best from a foot or more away rather than up close. Ha! (Photo reference for this painting is by Laura Adai and can be seen here.
Purple trees, yellow mountains, orange grass - it didn’t matter what the colors were. The picture still looks like a 4x4 in the mountains! I could easily have stressed over finding just the right colors to make a replica of the original photo, but why do that when this is so much fun? I suspect I’m going to go color-happy for a while now that this proved to be so enjoyable - I just need to learn to do so without the red sunglasses to remind me to pay attention to value!
So tell me….are you a believer about ‘value’ now? *wink*
The best way to learn to “see” value is to spend a good bit of time focusing on value studies. These are black and white drawings or paintings—you can do them in graphite, black colored pencil, grey range of markers, black ink or watercolor. Change your reference photo into black and white to help you find the values!
If you’re out painting or drawing outside, you can take a quick photo of the subject and use settings in your photo library app on your phone to desaturate the photo all the way to black and white. Just be sure to take a color photo so you can finish up the art later from a color photo if needed!
Tuesday I’ll be celebrating my 12th business anniversary! I’ll explain more about how and where I’ll be posting, and what Substack is all about…but for right now, as this gets off the ground, all posts will be 100% non-paywalled so you can see what will be in these posts. Pop back in on August 2 for that discussion…I’m excited to get the party off the ground!
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From value study to finished work
Digging into the archives
As mentioned, studies can be in any medium, whether that’s what you’ll use later or not. I know artists who do a tiny oil study before a bigger painting so they’ll know the mixes of colors they’ll want.
I focus on value studies to work out the lighting - what’s the area with the lightest light next to the darkest dark? Because that’s the focal point, where the eye goes immediately. And I can create that kind of sketch in charcoal, graphite, or anything with black and greys.
The finished piece was in alcohol markers, including a fun airbrushed background. You can see how things changed from one to the other. Watch the video.
Obsession in my art
Storytelling
Light and shadow is the primary obsession I dive into for most of my art pieces. Decades ago I fell in love with the work of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, above all else, due to his masterful use of light in his paintings. On a trip to Italy almost 10 years ago now, I fell more in love than ever with his depiction of the Crucifixion of St Peter painted in 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. I had no idea it was as big as it is — almost 9 feet tall!
Related to simple light and shadow is the delicious complexity of depth of field - where an image becomes soft and blurry in some areas, crisp in others.
With gouache, depth of field (or frankly any soft edges!) are a challenge. The leading edge of a blurry edge is actually a progression of colors in which you can slowly go from the object’s primary hue to lighter colors until meeting up with the hue it blurs into. Note the light colors meeting up with the edges of the trees below. I love trying this mystical, magical look in any medium, and I definitely find gouache the toughest to achieve this. Watch the video.
Baby G
Study of the day
I’ve been playing with the colors from Tuesday’s video - that was an urban sketch with fresh, bright colors added. This one’s my baby boi Giallo, 9 years ago! It’s hard to fathom he’s getting old. Poor guy has a little surgery coming up and hopefully all will go well.
The colors are similar to the ones used in the project shown today, but with big chunky brushstrokes, letting it be loose and mushy.
However, I didn’t pay much attention to values. I was just having a bit of colorplay! But turning it black and white shows what I missed for values…after I realized that I started really making myself think hard about the values, since I hadn’t done any black and white studies before my sketches in the video.
Pop into the comments
Are you a sketcher first….meaning do you do value studies before a finished piece? I don’t do it nearly as often as I ought nowadays but have done so throughout my career. If you’ve not tried value studies before, are you rethinking that?
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