LESSON II - Part 3: Sketchbook Assignment - 10 Value Exercises to Try

In drawing and painting, the impression of form and light is conveyed by values.  Values are the many different shades, or tones, between white and black.

Try a few, or all, of these "values" exercises in your sketchbook.  I've included examples from my own sketchbooks . . .



1.  Do a contour drawing of a face/figure, in ink -- including some of the background shapes.  Mix up a gray wash, with either watercolor or ink, and paint in values, from very light to medium to dark.

2.  Draw some DRAPERY, or draped fabric.  Use charcoal, charcoal pencil, or a very soft drawing pencil (6B).  Try to have at least four values in your drawing -- lightest (the white of the paper), a light medium gray, a darker medium gray, and a black . . . 

3.  Bird's-Eye View -- Draw some fruit in a bowl, with pen and ink.  Add lines and cross-hatching to build up the values . . . 

4.  Draw some machinery, or a train, a bike, or a car -- in ink.  Then, mix up some ink washes -- 3 different strengths.  Just put a little India ink in a Dixie cup and add a little water.  Then, paint your values.  Leave the paper white in some places, for your lightest light.

5.  Set up a simple still life on a patterned surface.  Do a few small value sketches, rendering your values in different ways.  One, draw your sketch entirely in pencil.  Another, use pencil and ink -- the white of the paper for the lightest light, the pencil for the grays, and the ink for the black.

6.  Do a value painting of a face.  Draw the face lightly in pencil, from a photo or from life.  (If you're going to draw or paint kids from life, wait until they are sleeping -- they don't move, and they always look so sweet :)  Then, mix up a light gray on your palette (French Ultramarine mixed with Burnt Sienna makes a nice gray).  Use that mixture to paint your values, leaving the white of your paper for your lightest light . . . 

7.  Set up another still life -- this time, in your kitchen.  Do a simple pencil drawing.  Then, paint a monochromatic value painting, with Burnt Sienna washes.  Try to have 4 or 5 different values.

8.  In ink, draw a landscape with some trees, a building, and a figure.  Simplify this into two categories of shapes -- sunlit and shadow.  Just two values -- the white of the paper for all the shapes in the sunlight (plus the sky), and a middle value of cross-hatching for all the shapes in the shade.

9.  Do a monochromatic value study of an adobe or stucco building, part of a building, or church.  First, do a pencil drawing, and then paint the values (the lights and darks), with one color, like Burnt Sienna. Use watercolor, or colored pencils, and try to simplify it into 4 values -- 1) lightest value is the white of the paper, 2) light value, 3) medium value, and 4) darkest value.

10.  For the last exercise, draw a simple egg.  Not as simple as it should be.  For this drawing, use charcoal, charcoal pencil, or a soft pencil (6B).  I once had a drawing teacher who wanted us to draw a dozen eggs, and we could only use values -- we weren't allowed to draw any lines.  I'm not that hard-core . . .