Why values are the key to great art work

Have you ever finished a piece, stepped back, and felt something was… off? Perhaps the colours are vibrant, the composition strong, but the piece still lacked depth or impact. The likely culprit? Values.

In the world of art, values (the range of light to dark tones) are the unsung heroes. They’re the foundation upon which art is built, creating the illusion of light, form, and depth. Whether you’re painting or sketching, mastering values can take your art to the next level.

Let’s dive into why values are so crucial—and how stepping back from your work and viewing things in a more basic form can make all the difference.

What Are Values?

At its core, value refers to how light or dark something appears, independent of its color. Imagine looking at your artwork in black and white—how does the balance of light and dark tones look? This is the essence of values. Values give your piece depth, interest and guide the viewer’s eye through the piece and creating a sense of realism and/or drama. You need darker values to make the lighter values work and lighter values to make the darker values work and mid values to bring it all together.

Artists often overlook values in favour of colour, but values are what make the colours work. Without the right contrast between light and dark, even the most vibrant colours can fall flat.

The Power of Monotone

Working in monotone (a single colour tinted with white or shaded with black) is one of the best ways to develop your understanding of values. Without the distraction of color, you’re forced to focus on the tonal range—the subtle shifts from light to dark that give an artwork its structure.

Creating a monotone masterpiece is effective because it:

1. Builds Strong Foundations: It trains your eye to see contrasts and relationships between light and dark, which are essential for creating depth.

2. Enhances Composition: Values guide the viewer’s eye, emphasizing focal points and creating a sense of balance.

3. Simplifies Decision-Making: By stripping away color, you can focus purely on the shapes and forms created by light and shadow.

Why Stepping Back Matters

As artists, it’s easy to get lost in your piece and this is wonderful! But you spend so much time up close with your work that you might miss the bigger picture—literally. That’s where stepping back comes in.

When you step back from your piece, you can see how the values are working (or not working) across the entire composition. Here are some practical tips to make the most of this habit:

1. Pause and Distance: Every 10–15 minutes, take a step back from your artwork and view it from at least 2–3 meters away. This distance helps you see the overall balance of values without getting distracted by small details. Try setting an alarm on your phone to begin with - this will train your brain to get into the habit

2. Turn it upside down: This flips the image and gives you a fresh perspective, helping you spot value imbalances.

3. Squint Your Eyes: Squinting reduces the level of detail you see, allowing you to focus solely on the contrast between light and dark.

Test Your Values

Even if you think your values are on point, it’s always worth double-checking. This is simple to do: Take a photo of your piece and convert it to grayscale/black and white on your phone or computer. This reveals whether your light, mid, and dark tones are balanced.

Practical Exercises to Strengthen Your Value Skills

Try these exercises to strengthen your value skills, training your brain, eyes and muscle memory in art is a very important step:

1. Value Scales: Create a value scale, transitioning from pure white to deep black. This is a great warm-up and helps train your eye.

2. Black and white reference: choose a reference image to work from in greyscale - this will show you exactly where the values lay

3. Monotone Masterpieces: Choose a reference image and recreate it using only black, white and grey - there are many values that can be created using only black and white . Focus on capturing the light and shadows, ignoring the colours.

Value definitions

• Value: The lightness or darkness of a colour, independent of its hue.

• Tint: A lighter version of a colour, created by adding white to it.

• Tone: A muted version of a color, created by adding gray (a mixture of black and white) to it.

• Shade: A darker version of a color, created by adding black.

• Highlight: The lightest area of an artwork, where light directly hits the subject. Save pure white for these parts

• Contrast: The difference in value between light and dark areas. High contrast makes an artwork more dramatic, while low contrast creates a softer, more subtle effect.

• Gradient: A smooth transition from one value to another, often used to create a sense of depth, light, or volume.

• Chiaroscuro: ‘The dance of light and dark’ dramatic use of strong contrasts between light and dark to create a sense of three-dimensionality and mood.

If you want to improve your art, returning to the basics is one of the best ways to train your brain to think like an artist. That’s why I’m always talking about shapes, negative space, and values. These fundamental concepts help you simplify what you see, allowing you to focus on structure and form. Once you’ve mastered that, you can bring your own techniques and skills into your work, making it uniquely yours.

Next time you’re working on a piece, take a step back and focus on the light and dark values rather than the colours. These small but powerful habits can completely transform the way you view your art—and how others experience it as well.

Famous Chiaroscuro painting - girl with a pearl earring | Johannes Vermeer | Oil | 1665

A chiaroscuro sphere with a value scale below it