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Shading and Tonal ValuesPart One: Identifying and Seeing Tonal Values
Shading is simply using colour and/or tone to create depth and three dimensional illusion. The terms 'tone' or 'tonal values' or even just 'values' in art all refer simply to the relative lightness or darkness of objects in relation to each other, regardless of their colours. When we look out at the world, we don't see lines (obviously) we see areas of lighter or darker tone and different colours. When we draw, we might use lines to divide those different areas, or we might use shading or other marks to describe the various areas of colour and tone. Most people feel more comfortable making continuous tonal gradations when they first begin drawing, than they do using hatching and other mark making. And learning how to create the illusion of a three dimensional object on a two dimensional piece of paper through the use of shading is an essential skill, which will serve you well even if your style changes to a much less realistic one as you develop as an artist. This is because learning to create the illusions of three dimensional form helps us to see the objects we are drawing, more fully. And the more we learn about what we are drawing, the easier we will find it to learn to suggest form in drawings which don't use fully modelled realism.
Seeing ToneLearning to recognise and replicate tonal values is also vital to learning how to use colour. Sometimes, though, people can have difficulty recognising tonal variations - I hold my hand up here. I found it very difficult at first to even see variations in tone unless they were very clear, let alone to try to replicate them. But I have learned how to see them, so if you are also someone who struggles with this, don't worry - you too will be able to learn.One of the most common problems that people like me struggle with is confusing tone with brightness. For example a bright red object will tend to seem lighter in tone that it actually is because it's brightness will make it leap forward. If we then replicate this mistake in seeing when we are shading, our drawing will look wrong - but it is difficult to see where we made the mistake in the first place! Fortunately, there are a few ways of making tonal variations easier to see: Buy yourself a sheet of yellow acetate - hold this up in front of whatever you are drawing, and it will help you to see the tonal variations more clearly. Try too, squinting your eyes - this will make tones easier to see. If you have a digital camera and some image editing software try this: take some photographs in good light of a range of subjects. Make a copy of the image on your computer and then change it to greyscale. Red, for example, is actually quite dark in tonal value, even though it is bright in colour. Do this with a few subjects - it will help you begin to see values more clearly. Create a small tonal scale (see part two for how to make tonal scales) containing values from very light to very dark - you can number them if it helps: make 1 the lightest and 10 the darkest. This can be kept in your sketchbook so you can use it wherever you are. As you are drawing hold up the scale and try to match the tones of your subject to values on your scale, then recreate these values as you use shading to develop your drawing.
Creating Tone on the PaperBefore we move on to creating tonal scales, I'd just like to show you some ways to apply shading.When I'm working with a pencil, or the end of a pastel or piece of charcoal or chalk I use two basic methods of applying shading: either soft hatching strokes very close together - like the example on the right, below, or small circular movements like the example on the left:
I hold my pencil at a shallow angle, with a relaxed grip, as I'm doing below:
To create deeper tones I just add more layers. In the examples below I've numbered them so you can see what a difference it makes with two or three layers of the same grade of pencil:
If you are using graphite sticks, pastels or charcoal you can use the side, or part of the side to shade larger areas. In the illustration below I've used the side of the point of a graphite stick.
I use layers because pressing hard tends to flatten the grain of the paper and create a laboured, unattractive finish. You might want to try using both circular strokes and hatchings to see which you like best. Onece you feel comfortable shading try creating the tonal scales in part two, then, to complete the tutorial work through part three where you'll be putting your skills and knowledge into practise. Where would you like to go now?To the top of Shading and Tonal Values: Part One To Part Two To Part Three Back to the Drawing Lessons Page To the Home Page
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