Unknown artist (China), Head of a Luohan, Northern Song, Liao, or Jin dynasty, c. 11th century. Hollow dry lacquer, 28.6 × 18 × 20 cm (11 1/4 × 7 1/16 × 7 7/8 in.). Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of the Orientals. Public domain (CC0).

Head of a Luohan

Unknown artist (China), Northern Song, Liao, or Jin dynasty, c. 11th century. Hollow dry lacquer.

Front view
Soft light
Sculpture

Dry-lacquer head facing front, evenly lit against a pale ground, with clear planes of brow, cheekbones and mouth.

Open in the value study maker

The image is free to use for any purpose: the museum has released it into the public domain.

Value studies

Head of a Luohan as a study in 2 values — **Notan, 2 values.** Split at value 5.9: 30% of the picture is dark and 70% light.

Head of a Luohan as a study in 3 values — **3 values.** 29% dark (values 0 to 5.4), 28% middle (5.4 to 7.9) and 43% light (7.9 to 10).

Head of a Luohan as a study in 5 values — **5 values.** From darkest to lightest: 5%, 18%, 9%, 32% and 35% of the picture.

Split at the picture's natural breaks between light and dark, with Simplify at 5, as in the value study maker. Values run from 0 (black) to 10 (white).

Palette

#D7D7D7Value 8.6, neutral
29%
#C5C5C5Value 8.0, neutral
24%
#B5B5B6Value 7.4, neutral
13%
#725F4CValue 4.2, warm
11%
#8F7C6BValue 5.3, warm
7%
#564536Value 3.1, warm
7%
#201F1FValue 1.2, neutral
6%
#BAA288Value 6.8, warm
3%

The 8 main colors run from value 1.2 to 8.6: 4 warm and 4 neutral. See warm and cool colors for how the labels are worked out.

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