How to See Colour as Value

A simple exercise for oil and acrylic painters that you can do in a few minutes and will develop your ability to see and match value.
Find out more about how I teach colour and get "The Keys to Colour" - a free 6 part email course - here:
www.learning-to...

[@sinda7080]

Extremely value-able demonstration.

[@nerdrum27]

Paul is one of the best if not the best art teacher on the web. You won’t find an atelier that does better. He consistently teaches the details that all artists need to know. Great work Paul

[@PaulFoxton]

Wow, thank you Normand! That's praise indeed!

[@sharonandersen3669]

What a fantastic exercise!

[@anonymousfellowindian]

I just use my 10.5 inch Tab camera in greyscale mode to look at my painting from time to time to make decisions concerning value of the colours that I want to tweak a little to get a better painting. Also, I use a glass with neutral grey 5 painted paper beneath it as palette for mixing my paint. Squinting eyes helps in knowing roughly whether the colour is darker or lighter than neutral grey 5 and roughly how much in either direction. Being too accurate is not necessary for my spontaneity in painting. But it certainly helps to check from time to time the painting in greyscale through tab camera. Making adjustments in value accordingly benefits overall painting outcome. Same thing can be used in mobile phone too, though screen is smaller.

[@lynvy353]

Oh that neutral grey 5 painted paper is such a great tip! thanks a lot I'll definitely start using it

[@ruecarter5344]

This is exactly was i was looking for, thank you

[@meerabakshi2676]

Very nicely explained how to check the value and or match the color shade for your painting. Thanks.

[@vaslot]

Excellent instruction! Thx.

[@tonivanreeth5057]

got a great tip use diaper wipes to clean your knife between color mixes .

[@noiseintheoffice]

and I believe you play finger-style guitar as well. Classical? Thank you for the instruction

[@profoundgreetingsfromneptune]

Paul, Is "chroma" in the Munsell system the equivalent of "tone" in other systems (i.e., in the common parlance of tone, tint, shade, and hue)? Is "chroma" a term really only used in the Munsell system? BTW, you have a lovely blog.

[@nicoletaborcos]

Chroma is the purity of a colour ( a high chroma has no added black, white or grey) Tones are created by adding grey to a colour, making it duller than the original. Hope that helps, I was reading on it on google.

[@lynvy353]

@@nicoletaborcos Thanks! that helps a lot

[@sharonandersen3669]

How do you adjust with acrylics as they tend to darken a bit when they dry?

[@sallyalter864]

Terrific! Thanks.

[@shmebulockfanaccount5407]

this is awesome, thanks!🎉

[@deborahgarretson653]

Helpful. Thanks.

[@stevenallan6515]

Nice to see a color isolator in action.

[@airsolaja]

what colour is the isolator?

[@francoisbothaart]

good info but i allmost fainted when i saw your nails. are those palet knife life hacks?

[@steenystuff1075]

Hmm... Seems good but the paint dries darker, doesn't it? How do you guess the colour/shade/value change for it drying?

[@PaulFoxton]

Acrylic paint dries darker, oils stay the same. So it depends what you're using. It is harder to control value with acrylics for that reason.

[@steenystuff1075]

@@PaulFoxton Oh right. It didn't know oils remained the same. I've just started using acrylics in the last 8 or so months. Used to paint well with water colours years ago. Trying for that realism look with the acrylics that I've really only seen done with oils. So far my paintings look like greetings card images. Tho everyone tells me they look fantastic, to me they're just mediocre. Maybe I'll swap over to oils eventually...

[@GulzarAhmad-sw1kh]

May you upload a video on chroma? It is intrigue...

[@giovannisiano574]

Nice video, how are you Paul??

[@PaulFoxton]

Thanks Giovanni! I'm very well thank you, the country air is doing me much good :)

[@giovannisiano574]

Glad to hear about.

[@harshadk4264]

Amazing

[@ifollettidelbosco]

a cosa serve mettere il colore sulla cartina trasparente?

[@carolynderricks3226]

Why do I notice color hues first but not their values?? Is my brain hard-wired to see this way? I believe it is a female thing, from our hunter-gatherer ancient history times. Most of the sources or videos I’ve seen discussing values are written or done by men, to whom I believe value perception comes more easily. Does anyone else experience this?

[@Zomfoo]

Make a color checker or buy one from GenevaFineArt.com

[@Darkmatter321]

Isn't that how life works? You do 4 samples and they are dark. But once you get the right shade, the camera decides to go out of focus!

[@ifollettidelbosco]

Hai qualche spiegazione scritta dove posso tradurre la spiegazione?. Grazie

[@youtubetv3474]

Final color is too bright, doesn’t match

[@RudyLouie]

play 2X speed... for faster squint!!!!

[@alexanderthefine]

How to see colours as values; become colourblind

[@sandrabiancanelli5727]

Che colori sono

[@ifollettidelbosco]

ce colori sono? non capisco le parole perche sono italiana

[@angelomariano9494]

Cosa significa "ce colori sono?" ? Quello non sembra italiano...

[@shimathesheep9676]

Is that a roblox logo?

[@PaulFoxton]

Yes! I'm a secret Roblox brand ambassador.

[@aydakoprulu1404]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏……….