Value Plan - Light, Mid-Value, and Dark

Most value plans are done in black, gray, and white. It is important to understand that value is the lightness or darkness of any color.  Color and value occur simultaneously; value is one of the three dimensions of color. Placing the light, dark, and mid-value ranges of colors in your painting is an important concept to learn.

The first step is to organize the shapes of your painting and place them in a pattern.   The value pattern (or Value Plan) organizes the painting according to value and creates order from chaos.  The Value Plan guarantees you won't lose a shape because you painted it over or next to another shape of the same value.

The three (3) value plans shown above are:

• Dark building in front of light background
• Mid-value building in front of light or dark background
• Light building in front of dark background

A value plan starts with a small (5" x 7") sketch and then locate the negative and positive shapes.  Then decide which of the positive shapes are important ( something that tells the story or mood of the painting.) Next darken in those positive or negative shapes and create a connected pattern.

Creating a Value Plan will be covered in the next report .......................