Value Structure

I think we know at this point that it’s important to plan a piece, at least a little bit, before diving into realizing it. An important aspect to visual language is the value of different areas of the piece. We know that value refers to how dark or how light something is. We can use this to our advantage to bring emphasis on certain subjects or certain, for lack of a better term, “grounds” (e.g. foreground). I was directed to this blog post from 2012, which highlights some simple ways using basic value structures can bring about different forms of emphasis.

Value Structure by Dan dos Santos
and subsequently:
Loomis’s Scheme for Tonal Organization