@Stan Prokopenko Hey! So to get rid of the slight gradation, there's no need to create a new transition point. Instead, just drag that already existing back colour handle alllllll the way over to the right, and nestle it up against the white, as far as it will go without taking over the white Value handle. Annnnnd BOOM! What's happening is that the range of goes from 5 to 95% of the distance between the two handles, so there's always that 5% that will exist between the two values. By moving the black colour handle all the way over to be as close to the white one, it makes the range of values it's compressing into between the white and black soooo small, that that 5%, is %5 of something super small. Imperceptible! (In Vizzini's voice of course.) If you want 3 values, you do have to make another handle for the mid-tone (I used 50% neutral grey), but by doing the same this as above, and moving the black over to the grey, you get the same effect. Since there will still be that 5% of the range that's given over to the blended edge, but as there is also much less of a contrast between the 50% grey and the pure white, it doesn't make a big impact on our perception. Hope that helps! Your friend Josh, (AKA @The.Y.Method)

Love what you said about the cheating part Stan. I tattoo for a living, and this is a big part of the industry ever since IPads came out. Lots of tattooers rely on these simple quick cheats, but have no idea how to draw. They’re fantastic to save time and be efficient, but too many people rely on them as a crutch to carry them, and not a tool to help them.

That's a great tip, I can see the value in it's use to check the tone values just as you explain. Brilliant. I can see that you could also just look at paintings and first work through just outlines of value changes to see if I can determine the different value areas then use the tool to check. Thanks.. :) Off Topic At this time I would only be using photoshop as you suggest because I'd like to work through the course in pencil. I've always been overwhelmed by Photoshop. Could you advise on a constructive Photoshop course that would get you up to speed with photoshop in a logical manner. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

If I'm not mistaken, adjusting the smoothness % will adjust the gradation steps, if you take that to 0% it should be a hard step between selected values or colors.

Does someone here know how to do this in clip studio paint?

I may be stepping too many steps here but I saw that new video as I've been stuck at "Simplify from observation" lesson struggling with the concept of core shadow, which doesn't seem to be accounted for when I split my 5 values. All I see - visually and what my paint program shows - are stepped values from clearer to darker without the hard band in the middle as explained in the pear demo.