{"id":960,"date":"2017-06-29T23:36:05","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T06:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/?p=960"},"modified":"2017-06-29T23:36:05","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T06:36:05","slug":"value-the-drama-queen-in-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/29\/value-the-drama-queen-in-painting\/","title":{"rendered":"Value: The Drama Queen in Painting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Portrait
Rembrandt achieves maximum drama in a static pose, in “Portrait of Joris de Caullery,” through contrasting light and dark values.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a couple of past posts, Got Color! – Part 1<\/em><\/a> and Part 2<\/em><\/a>, I spoke of\u00a0how your\u00a0use of color controls the life<\/em> of your painting. Well, if color controls life,<\/em> your use of value determines the level of drama<\/em> in your paintings.<\/p>\n

For those of you non-painters out there, value,<\/em> in painting, refers to the gray scale levels in a painting: what’s left when you strip a painting of its color or hue, similar to what you’d see in a black and white photograph of a full color painting.<\/p>\n

\"Value
9 step value guide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most painters work with 9 values: 9 even incremental stages of gray from pure white to pure black. There are some painters out there who believe in reducing this spread, limiting their paintings to only 4 values. They believe the 4 value limit increases unity and cohesiveness in a painting.\u00a0You’ll have to decide for yourself in which camp to pitch your tent.<\/p>\n

\"Rouen
Light, tint values make for the serene in Monet’s “Rouen Cathedral.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Colors with values at the light, white side of the scale are referred to as Tint<\/em>. Colors with values at the dark side of the scale, towards black, are referred to as Shade<\/em>. The more contrast you\u00a0provide between your light values and your dark values (see Rembrandt’s, “Portrait of Joris de Caullery,” at the top of this post), the more tension, drama your painting will communicate. Paintings with all their values at the shade end of the value scale, exude a dark, melancholy feeling. Paintings with all their values on the light, tint end of the value scale, tend to be serene\u00a0in mood.<\/p>\n

\"Black
Dark, shade values communicate melancholy in Mark Rothko’s “Black in Deep Red.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Additionally, the darks in a painting act as a kind of armature or foundation, supporting the entire composition,\u00a0as\u00a0they weave in and out of background, mid ground and foreground.<\/p>\n

\"Rubens
Underpainted in uncharacteristic red, Rubens binds his image together with darks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you determine\u00a0how values will be used in your paintings, you are determining the drama to be communicated by your canvas, as surely as if you were a\u00a0lighting director, lighting a set\u00a0for a play or film.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a couple of past posts, Got Color! – Part 1 and Part 2, I spoke of\u00a0how your\u00a0use of color controls the life of your painting. Well, if color controls life, your use of value determines the level of drama in your paintings. For those of you non-painters out there, value, in painting, refers to … Continue reading “Value: The Drama Queen in Painting”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[4,75,8,74],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987,"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions\/987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trowzersakimbo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}