The nine-step value scale

Value means how light or dark something is, independent of its colour. Everything in a drawing is a value decision, and the nine-step scale is the vocabulary. Make one: nine boxes in a row, the first left as bare paper, the last as dark as your softest pencil will go, and seven even steps between. It will take several attempts to get the steps even. Keep the best one pinned beside your board for the rest of the course.

Then group it. Values 1 to 3 are the lights, 4 to 6 the halftones, 7 to 9 the darks. Most beginners draw everything in 1 to 4, which is why their work looks faded. Corot lives mostly in 2 to 6 with a few accents at 8. An etching lives in 1, 5 and 8 with little between. Knowing where a master's drawing sits on the scale tells you how to copy it.

When you look at a subject, name the value of each big area aloud: sky 1, far hill 3, lit wall 2, shadow wall 6, doorway 9. Then draw those numbers. This single habit does more for a beginner than any other.