I’ve been thinking about values in painting, and what a profound impact they have. I’m talking cymbals in the orchestra kind of impact. Value means the amount of light or dark of a colour. A strong dark next to a very light area is a biggie. When you do that somewhere on your painting it draws the eye strongly and says to the viewer “this area is very important.” Good idea to plan that placement carefully. Understanding the force of this in a composition is why artists will sometime take a photo of their painting and turn it into black and white on their computer. This allows a much easier analysis of the values. A shortcut to this is to squint at a painting. This removes some of the colour and detail in order to see the value contrast better. Then you can make sure that any cymbals sound at exactly the right spot in your symphony.