Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Boyer Doty
All Illustrations for a theory of light and shade are by Sheri Doty accept for Manet’s painting “The
Railway” showing an undefined light source. Before you undertake your practice of the use of light
and shade in your art you need to understand the significance that light and dark contrast has in
making a painting or drawing visually believable.
Value is the term used to describe light, gray and dark tones.
Johannes Itten wrote “the contrast between light and dark is one of the most expressive and
important means of composition.” Value contrast can be encountered in both colorful and non-
colorful art renderings.” All neutral tones from white, black and all the gray tones between are called
achromatic, meaning having no color. All tones that have some color are call chromatic. When
investigating art in all its components, you must consider the relationship of value to other art
elements, color, line texture and shape. All these elements must exhibit some value contrast in order
to remain visible.
A simple Value Scale shows figure-ground relationships
Figure-Ground is the condition in which
backgrounds tone or hue changes the visual
impact of the figure resting on it. The same hue
or value appears to be a different depending
upon the contrast of tone or hue of the
background upon which it is placed. Conversely,
two different tones or hues appear to be the
same when placed on contrasting grounds.
Each will have an impact on how believable your Click Image For Larger View
art will be perceived by the viewer. Most people
have difficulty perceiving “figure-ground”
relationships. When the same medium toned
figure is placed on varied light and dark
backgrounds, it will be perceived to be as a
different value.
Example: When a medium gray is placed on a
near black background, the mid-gray tone
appears very light. When the same gray tone is
placed on a near white background, it is
perceived to be very dark. But when a mid gray
tone is placed on a similar value background,
the contrast is minimal. Note how the same mid-
tone value patch looks different when placed on
backgrounds of contrasting values.
Chiaroscuro
Value describes volume and depth of space In Europe artists of the Renaissance were concerned
with showing depth and volume in opposition to the artists of the Middle or “Dark Ages.” Men of the
Renaissance considered their time period to be the Age of Reason and rebirth of artistic and
mathematical achievements. Renaissance artists manufactured the term “Chiaroscuro” to describe
how light and dark can imply depth and volume. The word Chiaroscuro is a combination of two
Italian words that mean light and dark. (chiaro (clear, light) + oscuro (obscure, dark) Atmospheric or
Ariel perspective was one of the artistic strategies used in the study of Chiaroscuro during the
Renaissance. (Atmospheric or Ariel perspective is covered in depth in the section “Objective Color
Harmony”.)
Chiaroscuro and the Illusion of creating intuitive space.
One of the most used and useful applications of value is creating the illusion of volume and mass on
a two dimensional surface. When a mass is exposed to light, a solid object will receive more light
from one side than another when that side is closer to the light source. A spherical surface
demonstrates this as an even flow tone from light to dark. A cast shadow is created when the source
of light is obstructed by the sphere. An angular surface shows sudden contrast of light and dark.
Reflected light
If the object being painted is sitting on a white table, the light from the table reflects back onto the
object and makes the shadow side lighter. If the object of the painting is resting by something black
or dark, the middle values will become a dark reflection. The concept also holds true when the object
of the painting is sitting on a colored surface. If the reflected light is reobject.
Cast Shadows
When the source of light is blocked by an object it
casts a shadow. The length and shape of the cast
shadow depends on the placement of the light
source. Long shadows are cast from a side light Click Image For Larger View
source (as from the sun in late afternoon or early
evening), and short cast shadows are cast from
over head (as from a noonday sun). The shape a
shadow casts depends on the shape of the object
casting it and how closource is to the object.
Manet’s Painting, “The Railway” shows value contrast in composition, but the sense of shallow
space is emphasized by a lack of a single light source.
Value as Pattern
Controlled shallow space is
illustrated by the early cubists
such as Picasso and Braques.
Their paintings are taken from
realistic subject matter and
abstracted into unified flat tonal
planes. The planes are shaded
individually with the semi-illusion
of space with no light
source. Later, each plane takes
on characteristic value combined
with other planes with the same Click Image For Larger View
style of value pattern. This
produces a carefully conceived
two dimensional pattern of light
and dark values. The shallow
space develops a three
dimensional effect through the
characteristics of the advancing
and receding values.