Representational paintings rely on building an illusion of space, depth and form. All rely in large measure on placement of contrasting of tonal values. This principle holds true in watercolor and every other medium one might work in.

Recognizing value differences - especially in the value of color - is a skill that takes time to develop. One of the most effective tools for nuturing and grown your tonal skill is the simple, humble value scale. It is also an essential tool for assistance in getting darks dark enough and lights bright enough.

Darks that are not dark enough is a common problem in watercolor since the medium - water - is also the 'white'. Using the amount of water needed for loose, expressive, luminous washes means that the colors will necessarily be lightened. Often this results in a 'washed-out' looking painting. The problem is color that is too light and lowered in intensity.

Let's take a look at the benefits of using a value scale, how to create one, and how to use it in your everyday art practice.

What Is A Value Scale?

A value scale is linear presentation of tones (another word for value) organized in order from lightest (white) to darkest (black) with steps of gray in between. Each step represents a distinct level of lightness or darkness. Value scales can contain any number of steps but two sizes appear most often : the 5-step and 9-step scale.

5-step scale: This scale includes white, three grays - light gray, mid-tone gray, dark gray, and black. Though abbreviated, this scale is more helpful that might seem possible. When creating your own value scale - this one is easy to create.

9-step scale: This is a more advance and more useful scale. There are seven steps of gray between white and black. They are finer gradations that are more difficult to manage and create when building a scale for yourself.

You can easily buy a pre-made plastic or paper value scale. But! Going through the exercise of creating your own scale is worthwhile : it will help you develop your eye for tonal value as you work on building the steps of gray.

Artists Really Need A Value Scale

As mentioned, a value scale is an essential tool with two main benefits when employed :

Value Comparison - Its most basic function is as an objective measure of actual value in your drawing or painting. Instead of guessing, you match it against your scale.
Training Your Eye
Regular use of a value scale for evaluating passages in your paintings will also help train your eye to recognize value and color value. Eventually, you'll be seeing and recognizing value without the help of a value scale.

Creating Your Own Value Scale With Watercolor

It is easy to find pre-made, pre-printed value scales in any art supply store or website. Creating one of your own actually has two benefits : you end up with a useful painting tool, and you will have begun the process of training your own eye to see and evaluate value without using the value scale.

There are two tutorial videos below. Each steps through the process of creating a value scale using watercolor.

One is a 5-step scale. If this is your first attempt at creating a value scale, do this one first since it is pretty easy to get a good result. It's an abbreviated scale but is more than adequate as an evaluation tool.

The other is a 9-step scale. You'll find this one is quite a challenge, even if your eye for value is pretty well developed. Nevertheless, the exercise is worthwhile and the resulting scale even more useful than the 5-step version.

Supplies

For eithe version you'll need these tools and supplies.

A piece of watercolor paper - one end 5" wide for the 5-step scale or 9" wide for the 9-step scale.
Ivory Black or a combination of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna watercolor paint
Watercolor brush - a 1/2" or 3/4" Flat is a good choice, a medium sizepointy round works as well
A Pencil to mark scale steps on the paper
A ruler

General Procedure

Draw Scale Steps - Mark off rectangles that are 1" wide and 1 1/2" high along the edge of the scale (the 5" edge for 5-steps, 9"edge for 9-steps). Note the value #/value step along the top edge of the rectangles : 0 or 1 (for the least amount of light) at far right for black, 4 or 8(for the most light) at far left for white and consecutive numbers in between for steps of gray (1, 2 & 3 or 1 - 7)
Place The Extreme Values - The first square remains white (paper color); the last square is as dark as you can make it (solid 6B shading or black paint)
Fill the Middle - this is the difficult part, especially on the 9-step scale! The ideal is to have evenly spaced steps of value between white and black. The 5-step scale is more forgiving - the 9-step scale more difficult. I find it easiest to start with the middle gray - halfway between white and black. From there it is a bit easier to fill in the narrower interval between white and mid-value gray or mid-value gray to black.
Refine - Compare adjacent values to make sure there is a visible difference. This is easy on the 5-step scale, much more difficult on the 9-step scale.

Make A 5-Step Value Scale

This tutorial shows how to make a 5-step Value Scale using watercolor paint. This scale is easy to make and is useful even though it is abbreviated. The biggest caution - make sure the black step is truly black! If not, it will through off the other grays, especially the dark grays.

Video tutorial on making a 5-step Value Scale

Make A 9-Step Value Scale

This tutorial shows how to make a 9-step Value Scale using watercolor paint. This one is a challenge! If this is your first attempt at creating a value scale, go through the previous tutorial on the 5-step scale first!

Take your time, starting and stopping the video or even stepping away as needed. Once the white step and black step have been added, I recommend adding the middle-gray value first. It reduces the intermediate steps between the extremes.

Video tutorial on making a 9-step value scale

It is surprising how few artists have or use this essential painting tool. A value scale really is an essential tool for the artist. The are definitely low-tech but indispensable for getting value right.

Learning to evaluate comparative values with accuracy will greatly enhance the sense of space, depth and form in your work.

Consistent use of a value scale over time will refine your own visual skill and develop artistic important instincts.

Create And Use A Value Scale For Better Watercolor Paintings