Featured exemplar artists: Rembrandt, Whistler, Homer, Vermeer.
No formal prerequisite. The lesson assumes the painter has worked in some medium and is ready to think about value as a structural principle. Pair the reading with one of: value_scale_study or notan_study.
How light reveals form. The form principle — light, halftone, core shadow, reflected light, cast shadow — is the bridge between drawing and convincing three-dimensionality.
The Japanese-rooted concept of designing pure light-and-dark pattern, independent of subject. A specialized framework for value composition: reduce the painting to 3–4 masses and check whether the design works.
The diagnostic skill of looking at one's own work systematically — the meta-skill that turns practice into improvement. Central to the app's purpose.
The skill of reducing visual information to its essential design — knowing what to leave out is often more important than knowing what to put in.
The lightness or darkness of tones, independent of color — the structural backbone of any painting that reads at a distance. Often called the single most important principle in painting.