Unknown artist (Roman Period), Portrait of a young woman in red, 90–120 CE. Encaustic on limewood with gold leaf, H. 38.1 x W. 18.4 cm (15 x 7 1/4 in.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1909. Public domain (CC0).

Portrait of a young woman in red

Unknown artist (Roman Period), 90–120 CE. Encaustic on limewood with gold leaf.

Front view
Soft light
Painting

Frontal head and shoulders with large eyes on the viewer, softly modeled from the left on a wooden panel with a rounded top.

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

Portrait of a young woman in red as a study in 2 values — **Notan, 2 values.** Split at value 5.2: 52% of the picture is dark and 48% light.

Portrait of a young woman in red as a study in 3 values — **3 values.** 35% dark (values 0 to 4.2), 34% middle (4.2 to 6.3) and 31% light (6.3 to 10).

Portrait of a young woman in red as a study in 5 values — **5 values.** From darkest to lightest: 12%, 24%, 19%, 18% and 27% 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

#B7B6B6Value 7.4, neutral
27%
#69462EValue 3.3, warm
16%
#936E4AValue 4.9, warm
13%
#C07838Value 5.7, warm
12%
#3B3029Value 2.1, neutral
11%
#8B4B25Value 3.9, warm
10%
#7D7876Value 5.1, neutral
6%
#C79963Value 6.6, warm
5%

The 8 main colors run from value 2.1 to 7.4: 5 warm and 3 neutral. See warm and cool colors for how the labels are worked out.

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