Value is such a strong principle, that we see it before we see color. This is where you, as the artist, take these principles and use them to articulate what you want the viewer to see and notice. If you're wanting to make a painting that is all about color, and that is what you want the viewer to experience, then in order for color to be the lead player, you would have to reduce the value contrast between the colors. Understanding these principles allows you to create the paintings that you want, and know exactly how to do that. Some paintings are just about subtlety, and some are just about color. Knowing that the difference in values will always dominate, you can choose to reduce their contrast, to emphasize color. This is why these are called principles, and not rules...because you can use them in ways which allow you to make the art that you want to make.

If there were no color and no value contrast, the painting would be all middle-value grey, or one value. Our eyes would get tired, or we would get bored because we would have no contrast or difference of any kind to look at! But if we have lots of colors to look at that are different from one another, we feel alive and engaged. The most noticeable difference of any kind you can choose, stronger than color, is value contrast. If you want to knock some one’s socks off visually, use value contrast. But you don't always want to do that. Some people want to make paintings that are very quiet and subtle. In fact, they might not use any color, and barely any value, and all they might have is a light pencil drawing on a giant white piece of paper. But that pencil line better be interesting, because there's not a lot to hold the interest of the viewer. As we improve, we learn over time to show less, because we can show so much more by being able to accentuate differences. Those differences can be color, texture or value and design.