Value is one of the most important elements in art. It's also one of the hardest to master. This lesson prepares students to think about and execute a full range of values.
We only need around five values to create all the lights and darks in a drawing. In practice, we might want more, but it's very difficult to get more than nine or so values out of our drawing and painting media. Five is a good start because we can assign one value each to highlights, lights, midtones, reflected lights/form shadows, and core shadows/dark accents.
I have my students find as many ways as they can to make five values with the media at their disposal. Each row has to be the same type of media and normally (but not necessarily) the same process. I tell them it's okay to get ideas from each other.
The final product is a good reference for them to keep next to them when they do a drawing.
