I wrote in my Valentine post that I’d exaggerated the values in that drawing. Drawing in gray scale requires you to manipulate reality sometimes, because many colors are the same value. For example, red and green are often the same value. (Value means lightness or darkness.)
One summer morning a few years ago, I looked out our kitchen window, and my eyes scanned the green scene with pleasure. Then I did a double take. Standing there in the middle of our lawn was our neighbor’s horse! He’d escaped from his field and was happily munching away at the clover in our yard. I didn’t see him at first because his red coat was the same value as the green lawn and foliage that surrounded him. I’m sure that particular shade of red evolved to help horses blend into the scenery, and it works!
Anyway, when drawing in grayscale, we can’t draw a red horse standing in a green field exactly as it looks or the horse would disappear into the value of the field. The solution to this knotty problem is to lie. Well, just a little bit. Depending on the mood I wanted to create, I’d draw the horse lighter or darker than the field. To do that, I’d need to adjust the “key” or the value scene.
And since this post is leading me into pastures I didn’t intend to graze, I’ll talk about what “key” is and how to manipulate it in a future post. :)