Value

"A lot of attention is given to color, and while of course color is very important, in my opionon, VALUE is even more important. If you composition is working in value, you can use almost any color and it will work reasonably well.  Good color will be icing on the cake."

Maurice Nobel

pg 88 The Nobel Approach

Value - White, Black, Grey

if dealing with color, you also have:
Tints:  colors lightened with white
Shades: Colors darkened with black

"The eye is naturally guided to the area of highest contrast, the area of darkest dark against lightest light.... As designere we can use this fact to make characters READ (made visible to the audience) even in a complex background setup.

"good use of light and dark is the first important step in learning to use color." He cited Rockwell Kent as a great example of how to use value. 

Many have asked... "What exactly does stacking value mean?" In simple terms, it describes the method of putting an element in a picture against something darker or lighter than itself so that it "reads" easily. In these Kent examples, every single element in his picture can be seen clearly in spite of using a limited value range.

Novices will often confuse the viewer by splitting the focus in a design, having too many areas of fucus competinf for the eye's attention. This greatly weakens any design statement they might have.

Make sure you have a strong focus - There is no question where the eye should look.  This is a dramatic high contrast example

Use Value to STRENGTHEN your design

STORY - what values and lighting Strengthens the story of your design

Have a Nice RANGE of Values - No Muddyness - control where the eye is drawn

Use Value to define the dimensionality of forms