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Color concept

Value

The light-dark dimension of color, central to drawing, painting, contrast, and readability.

Core concept Artist and design terminology future

What it is

Value describes how light or dark something appears. Artists often use value to build form and contrast before thinking about hue.

Basics

  • A color can change value while keeping roughly the same hue.
  • Strong value contrast improves readability and structure.
  • Value studies can work entirely in greyscale.

Notes for later expansion

  • Later expansion should link to grey, black, white, contrast, and accessibility.

Tags

GreyBlackWhiteTerminologyPerceptionBasicsPaintingDesign
Color Lore · internal archive prototype · manual tags and final content to follow