The Shading Course

Practice: 5-Tone Value Study

Lesson by

591

Mark as Completed

Assignments 59Lesson NotesDownloads 2

Practice: 5-Tone Value Study

Lesson by

Dorian Iten

in The Shading Course

591

Mark as Completed

Assignments 59Lesson NotesDownloads 2

Overview

Now you'll organize more complex images into up to 5 value groups. You might find the Median Filter in Photoshop quite helpful to see the "effect" of an image. This website will also apply the median filter to any image you upload: https://fiveko.com/online-tools/median-filter-demo.

Materials Needed

The project image in the downloads section.
You can do the value study in any medium, drawing or painting, digital or traditional. Choose the medium you are most comfortable with. If you work in pencil, use some softer grades like 4B. I also like the newer matte pencils like Faber Castell Pitt Graphite Matt or Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black.

Steps

Downloading Project File: Download the project image below and print it or open it in your digital painting application.
Keying: Identify and place the lightest and darkest value groups. This is called "keying". Do not choose black or white. Instead, pick average values for the lightest and darkest regions of the image. Place these values in the palettes next to your drawing.
Developing Value Groups: Add the third, fourth, and fifth value groups. Balance all groups in such a way that you match the effect of your value study to the effect of the original as much as possible. You can decide how many value groups you need for each image. Some images will not require five value groups to represent well.
Strategic Gradating: Include gradients in areas where the original has very soft transitions. Do so carefully, always maintaining clear value groups.
Uploading: Share your studies in our community.

Duration

This project should take 1–4 hours to complete.

⚠️ Important: Each value study should take no more than 15–30 minutes. Keep your images simple. You may be tempted to add details to your value study. We don't need details in this image, they are a waste of time in a value study. The purpose of a value study is to establish the correct tonal relationships between your value groups. That's all.

Proportions can be off, but keep your tones clean. You should be able to do one value study in 15–30 minutes. If it takes longer, it probably means you are putting in too many details. Set a hard time limit of 30 minutes per study. Do multiple rounds until you get to a good, simple value study in 30 minutes. Keep your images simple.

Tip: Keep your value study simple

@tonyhcf

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@rfeistauer

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6mo

Hi, I wasn't sure if all the values should be grayscale or not. Very good exercise, I learned a lot identifying the dark and light tones!

Martha Muniz

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4mo

Yeah, this assignment can be kept to grayscale, since the focus is on practicing light & shadow without introducing color just yet. But you show a lot of solid choices and understanding of the values in your studies, great job! :)

@rfrimpong3

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7mo

It took me quite a long time to complete this 😭 when I started tracing it became even harder.

Martha Muniz

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7mo

Kudos to you for following through! I know it can be quite challenging to get through all the levels, especially as they get more complex. Something quick to note though would be to keep an eye out for the more saturated colors -- these can throw people off a bit, as they appear darker than we would think when converted to grayscale. The green scarf and the red background in the middle Level 2 picture and the clothing in the middle Level 3 picture serve as examples for this. Hope this helps, keep up the good work!

@marq777

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7mo

Difficult to get all of it with a 30 minute time limit but it's completed. Really had to force myself to not get too bogged down with the detail.

@kotka

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8mo

I have some regrets in these ones. The hardest for me was bottom Lvl 1 and Top Lvl 3. I started with the darkest, and then the next darkest, all the way towards the lightest. Though my instinct tells me to do 1. Darkest 3. Lightest then 2. Middle/halftone in between.

Vin

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9mo

Here is my another 5-Tone Value study, the value on the face and neck are hard to draw, my gradiention seems too much, make them look weird...

Vin

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9mo

Hello, here are my 5-Tone Value assignments. I painted the darkest tone first and then the lightest one, followed by the cast shadow, the dark halftone, and final one. The last one is hard for me to decide, because at this point, I am not always sure which value I should put it in. Sometimes it is light halftone, sometimes it is dark than my dark halftone. hmm, I am not sure if I am doing it right or wrong. I would appreciate for some feedback.

Derek Adams

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9mo

Derek Adams

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9mo

Getting frustrated, with not seeing results; moved to 3 tonal studies with marker…..? A little more improvement. It seems photographing your art work really highlights it's flaus.

Derek Adams

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10mo

Samuel Sanjaya

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1yr

My assignmentment for 5 value studies, and did some more traditionally. Any feedbacks will be greatly appreciated..

Martha Muniz

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1yr

Hi Samuel! For the digital version, it seems your value steps could be more evenly distributed. It's mostly the 3 midtones that seem almost identical, so I would recommend darkening the 2nd one (counting left to right) and lightening the 4th. In the study, the placement of values also seems to skew towards a darker image--I think you can expand the lighter areas. If you squint at the original image, you'll notice a large mass of light value across her front face plane and a large mass for her hair, these can be simplified into singular groups rather than poking through the shadows. For the traditional drawings, they're very cool--you've got proportion and good attention to shadow, but they seem more rendered than broken into steps. Try having sharper edges between the groups so the 5 values are more distinct. I hope this helps. Good work, I always admire the dedication. Keep at it! :)

@cindygs

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2yr

Romain Decotte

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2yr

Here’s my 5-tone value study. Took a tad longer than anticipated 😅!

Derek Adams

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9mo

I Think it looks good. I have trouble in my own studies, making the five value examples and then sticking to those and only those, which I think is Th he lesson; isolating those in our images. Any feedback with how you've incorporated this?

Karlo H.

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2yr

I think I should have worked with a smaller drawing, it would have been easier to keep it clean.

@biancaesteban

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2yr

Kwame Alexander

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2yr

I decided to challenge myself and do this in graphite. It's clear that it got away from me pretty early on (stupid proportions!), but this is actually much better than I expected. I'll probably take another try at it.

@selenitis

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2yr

Bradley Forbush

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2yr

I admire the smooth value tones acquired with photoshop, but I chose to use charcoal pencil on smooth newsprint for this assignment b/c I work with this medium a lot. Consequently it took a long while, and though accuracy wasn't important I tried to maintain some. It challenged me very much to try and keep the 5 values consistent & even. Because the paper value is dark my #2 barely shows. I was tempted to darken all the values accordingly but didn't. I especially struggled with translating & assigning values #3, #4, and #5 in the dark section of the image on the left. All of that said, I learned a lot from this study. (I can't identify the charcoal pencil b/c it was worn down to the nub, and I didn't have another like it in my supply kit.) Comments appreciated and thanks for those of you who give feedback.