Side by side: a photograph of shingled buildings in sun, and a sepia watercolor sketch of the same view in a few broad washes of light and dark.

Concept · Light in Painting

Simplifying What You See

Simplifying groups many small values into a few large ones.

Cross set a photograph of shingled buildings beside a sepia sketch of the same view: the shingles are only suggested, while the masses of light and shadow remain.

  • Cross told students to blur their eyes and decide whether each detail reads as part of the light or the dark.
  • For planning a picture in values, see Color Theory and Composition.

Image: Internet Archive · Public domain (published before 1931)

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