Values, not lines: the secret of volume
Why the real world has no outlines, and how light and dark build form.
February 2026 · 1 min read
Look at someone’s face: there is no line around the cheek. What makes the edge of the face is a difference of light and dark, not a line. Artists call this light and dark "value".
A good exercise: turn a photo to black and white and squint until it blurs. Now you see only a few patches of light and dark, no detail. If you place those patches correctly, the form appears.
