Tone is one of the most vexing elements of portraiture. The majority of artists are very tentative about tone and do not push the darks far enough. This is often because:
1. Their eyes are not yet coached to see the subtle gradations.
2. The fear of losing a drawing.
Beginning artists can see big lights and big darks and half-tones easily enough but it takes eye-teaching to see the finer gradations in value.
In this article we will focus on the interplay of strong irregular lights and darks that are cast upon the subject's skull, i.e., light-dappled patterns.
As usual, we first strike the arabesque and place the facial features (brow line and base of the nose).
When working with a intricate tonal pattern the chief task is striving to simplify the patterns. Drawing, in general, is always an exercise in simplification, i.e., making choices.
The next step consists of hatching-in the overall dark/light pattern with single tones. At this stage do not yet refine the values because doing so will surely lead to failure.
Using a paper or your fingers, blend the pencil dust. If you use a paper stump be careful not to dull the values. The lights can be added, corrected, and refined with your putty eraser.
The facial features and the hair are now carefully plotted in.
Keep these structural lines very soft. Also, continue constructing the tonal forms keeping in mind that, except for the sun-dappled pattern, the tone must be suppressed, i.e., nothing in the darks must pop out.
This is a delicate balancing act. Value must be added and then delicately modeled and/or taken away. This requires you to constantly going back and forth.
Also, do not be tempted to finish the facial features but be sure that the likeness is already there and that the proportions are accurate. That is, at this stage, your drawing should look like an under-painting.
Like color, tone is affected by the surrounding value. You can see, for instance, that once the hair is hatched-in and somewhat refined that the facial area now looks lighter than before.
Now, you can return to the facial features and break down the big value masses into their various shapes and relationships by employing hatching, stumping and delicate eraser work.
The challenge with dappled light is to construct the delicate patterns while still keeping a coherent total. As a general rule, cast shadows have hard edges while form shadows have soft edges of changing degrees. When using a stump, you should barely touch the paper. This allows you to maintain the small lights that bounce off the paper thereby keeping the image alive and vibrating with light.
To lay down the most fragile values make use of the blackest, hardest pieces of putty eraser you can find.
As is the case with the facial features, the values of the hair must be subordinated to the overall light and must harmonize with the face both physically and emotionally.
Finally, at this stage you can leave the sketch as is or you can push it further by adding more detail. That is an artistic decision left to you.
1. Their eyes are not yet coached to see the subtle gradations.
2. The fear of losing a drawing.
Beginning artists can see big lights and big darks and half-tones easily enough but it takes eye-teaching to see the finer gradations in value.
In this article we will focus on the interplay of strong irregular lights and darks that are cast upon the subject's skull, i.e., light-dappled patterns.
As usual, we first strike the arabesque and place the facial features (brow line and base of the nose).
When working with a intricate tonal pattern the chief task is striving to simplify the patterns. Drawing, in general, is always an exercise in simplification, i.e., making choices.
The next step consists of hatching-in the overall dark/light pattern with single tones. At this stage do not yet refine the values because doing so will surely lead to failure.
Using a paper or your fingers, blend the pencil dust. If you use a paper stump be careful not to dull the values. The lights can be added, corrected, and refined with your putty eraser.
The facial features and the hair are now carefully plotted in.
Keep these structural lines very soft. Also, continue constructing the tonal forms keeping in mind that, except for the sun-dappled pattern, the tone must be suppressed, i.e., nothing in the darks must pop out.
This is a delicate balancing act. Value must be added and then delicately modeled and/or taken away. This requires you to constantly going back and forth.
Also, do not be tempted to finish the facial features but be sure that the likeness is already there and that the proportions are accurate. That is, at this stage, your drawing should look like an under-painting.
Like color, tone is affected by the surrounding value. You can see, for instance, that once the hair is hatched-in and somewhat refined that the facial area now looks lighter than before.
Now, you can return to the facial features and break down the big value masses into their various shapes and relationships by employing hatching, stumping and delicate eraser work.
The challenge with dappled light is to construct the delicate patterns while still keeping a coherent total. As a general rule, cast shadows have hard edges while form shadows have soft edges of changing degrees. When using a stump, you should barely touch the paper. This allows you to maintain the small lights that bounce off the paper thereby keeping the image alive and vibrating with light.
To lay down the most fragile values make use of the blackest, hardest pieces of putty eraser you can find.
As is the case with the facial features, the values of the hair must be subordinated to the overall light and must harmonize with the face both physically and emotionally.
Finally, at this stage you can leave the sketch as is or you can push it further by adding more detail. That is an artistic decision left to you.
SHARE
