| The second property of color deals with value. Value is the range of light to dark that a color (or hue) possesses. The word Key is used to describe a compositions Value range. A Low Key uses a dark range of Value, where a High Key is a light range of color; a mid-toned piece of work is said to have a Middle Key. What this means is a Low Key is mostly dark with little to no light areas, a High Key is mostly light with little to no dark areas, and a Middle Key has no really light or dark areas ... its just in the middle. In a black and white piece of work any of these can ruin something great by making it appear very flat, the best thing to do is cover all the value ranges. Simultaneous Contrast occurs when colors or values are placed next to each other colors or values. This makes the lights appear lighter and the darks appear darker. Like if you put blue next to green they appear about the same value but, take that same blue and put it next to yellow and it will appear darker (and the yellow lighter then if it were next to say white). There are three ways to achieve Value in line work. Hatching is a form that utilizes a layering of lines that run in the same direction, the more lines on a given space the darker the value. Cross Hatching, like Hatching, also uses lines but, they run in different directions. Stippling is the third, it is a building of dots to darken the value of and area. In any given space that contains a shape there are five forms of Value. The Body Value, or local color, is the overall value an object has or its true color. Shadow occurs in the dark areas where light does not reach. The darkest Value of all is the Cast Shadow, which anchors an object to what it is sitting on. It is the shadow that the object itself creates on another surface. Reflected Light is always within a shadow and is the light reflected from a surface to the object, usually containing the surfaces Body Value. High Lights are the most intense light Values, where light is hitting a given object. There are also different types of Color related to all this. There is Local Color, like Body Value, which determines the over all color of an object. Tonal Color is the color in various values to depict shape and space. Lastly there is Reflected Color, this usually shows up within the reflected light and contains the color of the surface. An example, say you have a red ball sitting on a yellow table. The lightest area will be where the light is hitting it directly. The darkest area will be where the ball is leaving a shadow in the table. There will be value changes on the ball according the balls shape. The shadow on the ball will contain hints of yellow that are being reflected off the table onto the ball. The table in like kind will have some hints of red. A work that contains different values of the same color is said to be Monochromatic. When a color is lightened the new color (or value) is referred to as the original colors Tint. Likewise, darkening a color is referred to as that colors Shade. Changing a colors tint and shade simultaneously will produce a Tone, this will be gray in color. This means if you are messing with paint and add white to it you are creating a tint, add black and you are creating a shade, add both and you have a tone. Value can be both in a gray scale and in color. It is a basic principle that was started in painting during the early Renaissance and has gradually become one of the most useful tools of an artist. The value or color seems to change depending on what might appear lighter or brighter. |