Loopgram: What a difference value makes

As I am hooking my stand-up scarecrow - my Scare-Jack - I am taking pictures along the way. This first picture is after a night of hooking. I put him on the ground and looked at him and, even though I had used a number of different colors, I had not used different enough values of the colors. So the collar was not very distinguishable. Value is the intensity of color. What I needed was lighter shades to bring in contrast.

So last night I hooked in lighter shades and I achieved the contrast I am looking for. The collar stands out, as does the pocket housing the little mouse.

Just for the fun of it, I made BWs of the color pictures to really show the contrast that values make. If you are ever unsure about whether or not there is enough value contrast in the rug you are hooking, all you need to do is take a picture and use iphoto or photoshop to make it BW. If you can't see much difference across the strips, the values you are hooking with are too similar. Try pulling out a strip and going with a lighter or darker value to get the contrast you want.

Not sure about the color yet - really want more of a purple than cranberry. So I will probably be fiddling with that before proceeding.