Value, Tint, and Shade

What Is Color Value?#

Have you ever noticed that some colors look light and bright, while others look dark and deep? This idea in art has a special name. It is called value.

Value tells us how light or dark a color is. Think about the color blue. A very light blue looks like a clear sky on a sunny morning. A very dark blue looks like the deep ocean at night. Both are blue, but they have different values!

Light and Dark#

Every color has many different values. You can make a color lighter or darker. When you make a color lighter, you add white. When you make a color darker, you add black. It is that simple!

Think about it like a dial. If you turn the dial one way, the color gets lighter and lighter until it is almost white. If you turn it the other way, the color gets darker and darker until it is almost black.

Why Dös Value Matter?#

Value is very important in art because it helps make pictures look real and three-dimensional. When light shines on an apple, one side is bright and light. The other side, away from the light, is dark. Artists paint these light and dark areas to make the apple look round, not flat!

Without value, everything in a painting would look flat, like paper cutouts. With value, things look solid and real.

Value Scales#

Artists sometimes make a value scale to practice. A value scale is a row of small squares. The first square is white. The last square is black. The squares in the middle go from very light gray to medium gray to dark gray.

Try making your own value scale! Draw five or six small squares in a row. Leave the first one white. Color the last one as dark as you can. Fill in the middle squares with different shades of gray, getting darker as you go.

This helps your eyes learn to see the differences between light and dark values. And the better you can see value, the better your art will look!