Value

This month the art element I am going to highlight is value.



"Value is simply the artistic term for light and dark.  An area's value is its relative lightness or darkness in a given context.  Only through changes of light and dark can we perceive anything.  Light reveals forms; in a dark room at night we see nothing and bump into furniture and walls. What you are reading now is legible only because the darkness of the type contrasts with the whiteness of the background."


In the example on the right there are 11 values of gray going from white to black.

"The term value-contrast refers to the relationship between areas of dark and light.  Because the scale in the example is arranged in sequential order, the contrast between any two adjoining areas is rather slight and termed low-value contrast."  The crescent shape in the center of each value is the exact same color of gray.  It is interesting to see that this shape seems to change visually depending on the background.  It does make it hard to believe that the crescent shape on the top and on the bottom are precisely the same value.



Quotes taken from Design Basics, fourth edition, pg 212.