Value: refers to the relative lightness or darkness of a surface.

basic elements

There are so many important elements that help a piece of art work. Value is one of the most important because it controls how dark or how light the area is. Value can control the emotion and the feel of the artwork. By making the area dark the mood could be more depressed or mysterious. But, if the value is light the mood would be more open or clear.

Although value is very important there are components to creating value and still making it work. You have to be very aware of the space around the value in order for the value to look correct in a piece. For example in a cave where the sun hits the walls and where it doesn’t. You have to make sure to have the part where the sun hits the cave walls to be lighter value than where the sun doesn’t hit will be a darker value. Lighting in value can also be a major deal. The way the light hits a person could reshape the way that they look or could distort the picture.

Value is something I also incorporate in to my art whenever I can. I love the way that it makes the objects look rounded or more realistic.