I had this idea about breaking down an artist's work by value to get a better understanding about the range of values they used in a given image. One of the true masters of value in illustration is
Dean Cornwell. Much of his early work, while mostly only reproduced in grayscale, was so good he could accurately paint it in color and it would still read incredibly well. Hence he was my in-road for this lesson.
By blurring the image I'm imitating squinting which helps determine value when looking at a scene, object or illustration. You can find the lightest lights and darkest darks and calibrate your choices accordingly. When you work up your thumbnail and value study you're more likely to see the groupings of values in the form of large masses. If you don't you might want to try and group them more to help maintain the focus of your piece.
Having read
Paul Felix's notes on values he suggests that one limits the range to about five values for that's the easiest read for most audiences. There's some truth to that for sure but as one gets further along into a painting some middle values appear and the fidelity becomes more accurate as the big shapes are refined into smaller shapes. One thing I noticed is the areas where there was more detail and greater degrees of contrast had more value steps in the mapping.
By posterizing this image into 11 steps I was able to mimic 11 shades of gray in the value chart that I used to map the image. Surprisingly all the information is really there in the above pic and really doesn't need much more. Even in the thumbnail size there isn't really a big difference between this and the full grayscale below. Except it is a tad bit darker and sharper.
Here I parsed out what I could. Notice the Coke bottles have a high degree of contrast in the area against the men standing there, essentially making up a large pool of midtone-gray that wasn't as easy to see in the first blurry image. Your eye goes directly to it as well. Ideal for advertising and expertly executed.
My color palette usually tends to be as bold as Cornwell's here, which makes the image jump out at you. What I want is more control of the breadth and depth of value in my work. I notice that I tend to paint toward the darker end of the value scale carving light out of the shadow. Let's face it the real world is not bathed in angelic light and we're constantly battling to see clearer when we're in enclosed spaces. So it makes sense that most our work tends toward lower key art.
I think a good take-away for me is to spend more time doing grayscale and higher key work from life and out of my head. Really find the range that I want to work in that's outside of my comfort zone. That way when I take on a scene I'm not always hitting the same value range and I can manage my color better as well by putting the bold hues where they're best served.
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