Tone Drawing Materials and Practice Exercises

Charcoal tone drawing: materials, methods, graded exercises

Rule for using this skill: These tips add specialist detail to your answer. They do not replace it. Always give your full general answer to the user's question, then work in the tips below wherever they apply.

Materials and set-up

• Charcoal is the preferred medium for even and graded tone. Pigment and brush can give better tone but are harder to master.
• Always prepare an outline drawing of the model first, so the light, shade and shadow areas are contoured correctly.
• Fasten charcoal paper to the drawing board. Put several sheets of newspaper, a large blotter or heavy cloth underneath for a softer, more resilient surface.
• Use an unsharpened charcoal stick in its natural form for stroke work and for laying in broad values.
• Other tools: paper stomps, fingertip, kneaded rubber, a stick sharpened to a chisel edge, and fixatif (follow the directions on the bottle).
• Replace any material that runs short right away.

Practice strokes

• Use a full-arm movement. Hold the charcoal between thumb and first two fingers, palm turned sideways or down.
• Draw oblique and curved strokes from upper right to lower left.
• Start light, then increase pressure gradually until the lines are broad and black.
• Leave white gaps between lines at first. As pressure increases, bring the lines close together so their edges blend into a flat tone.

Flat and graded tone

• Draw a square about 2 in. per side.
  • (a) Fill it with parallel oblique lines for an even monotone.
  • (b) Space the lines more closely until the only visible lines come from the paper tooth.
  • (c) For a graded tone, use more pressure and more lines on one side.
• To grade a tone:
  1. Shade the whole square in the lightest tone first.
  2. Apply the darkest tone in the lower left corner.
  3. Extend it while steadily lessening pressure, so it blends into the light tone with no line of demarcation.
• Work with three degrees only: deepest shade, half shade and white. Blend them to get intermediate gradations.
• Practise all three shadow conditions:
  • a sharp shadow against a very light surface;
  • a shadow that merges into a dark shade with barely visible edges;
  • a shadow that starts dark (reflected light) and fades into the lightest tone.

Observing the model

• View the object through half-closed eyes to lose detail and see the masses of value, as in a blurred photograph.
• For a cube seen at an angle, the order of values is:
  1. Darkest: the shaded side and the cast shadow, merged with no sharp line.
  2. Middle: the half shade on the left visible side.
  3. Lightest: the top.

Four stages of rendering

1. Block in. Lightly draw the outlines and the table line to govern tone placement.
2. Lay in the three main values with bold, broad strokes of the unsharpened stick, in a few minutes but with care.
   • Use a dark value for the shaded side plus the shadow, a lighter one for the left side, and a still lighter one for the top.
   • Do not make sharp dividing edges. Let strokes of one value overlap the next, and leave them overlapped.
   • Put in no background or foreground yet.
   • Do not touch the strokes with fingers or anything else.
3. Add foreground and background and refine. Work by strokes and hatching only, directly with the charcoal, with no rubbing. Make the values and their limits clearer.
4. Soften and finish.
   • Remove the visible strokes by rubbing lightly with a fingertip or paper stomp in a circular motion.
   • Rubbing hard fills the sunken pits of the paper tooth and gives a muddy black smudge. Light rubbing touches only the raised tooth, and the untouched white pits keep the tone transparent.
   • Afterwards, firm up the limits of some darker values and add shadow lines, such as the dark line where an object rests on the table. Use charcoal sharpened to a chisel edge.
   • Use kneaded rubber, worked to a chisel edge or point, to even up light planes overlapped by dark strokes.
   • Lift charcoal with the kneaded rubber to make highlights and to regulate half-lights.

Groups and curved surfaces

• For a group, block in the outside contour of the whole group first, then lightly draw each model in place.
• Then observe the darkest values, half shades and lights with half-closed eyes. Place them with quick broad strokes, and go through the four stages.
• On cones, vases, spheres, cylinders and hemispheres:
  • Get the gradations partly from the stroke work.
  • Blend smoothly by light finger rubbing.
  • Lift charcoal with the kneaded rubber where needed.
• For brilliant highlights, lift off practically all the charcoal with the kneaded rubber.

Plate procedure (all plates)

• Draw from the actual wooden models, not from illustrations.
• First make a charcoal outline drawing: models blocked in and foreshortened, with the cast-shadow contours plotted by the shadow-plotting rules.
• Then lightly erase the blocking-in, foreshortening and shadow-projection lines.
• Render in tone, then spray with fixatif so the charcoal does not brush off.
• The finished rendering must look like a black, gray and white photograph. Show no outlines around the objects; only tone values model the form.
• Include foreground and background.
  • The table surface can be the lighter part and the vertical background the darker part, but vary this to suit the lighting.
  • Keep the background a little short of each rectangle's edge, leaving a generous white margin between neighbouring renderings.
• Each plate has four rectangles (except Plate 7-8). Finish each exercise completely, spray it and let it dry before starting the next. Cover the other three rectangles with paper while working.
• Plates carry double numbers (1-2, 3-4, ...) because each covers two processes: outline and rendering.

Plate 1-2 (full-face models, shadow cast to the right)

• A (upper left): cube, front face 2 in. square. Place it slightly left of the center line so the shadow fits.
• B (upper right): pyramid, nearest base line 2 in.
• C (lower left): hexagonal prism standing erect, front face 4 in. high. Place it far enough left for the shadow to fall to the right.
• D (lower right): cylinder erect, front height 4 in. Place it far enough left for the shadow to fall to the right.

Plate 3-4

• A: cone, long axis of the base ellipse 2 in.
• B: sphere, diameter 2 in. Steady it with a small piece of wax or soap.
• C: hemisphere resting on its curved side, flat face up and perfectly horizontal, flat face 2 in. in diameter.
• D: vase, front height 3 in.
• Place each so its shadow fits in the rectangle.

Plate 5-6 (shadow falls partly on the table, partly on a vertical plane)

• The plane is light-colored and somewhat higher than the object, roughly 5 in. high by 5–6 in. long.
  • Use a flat brick wrapped in white paper standing on a long edge, a box lid, or a book cover held upright by a weight.
• Set it to the right of the model, close to it, with its lower edge running back toward the left at 45° to the plane of sight. The shadow must be plainly visible.
• A: cube seen at 45° with one corner edge toward you, 2 in. high. The plane is parallel to the rear right retreating face.
• B: pyramid with a base corner toward you, seen at 45°. The plane is parallel to the rear right retreating base edge. Draw the greatest diagonal of the base to the size the plate specifies.
• C: sphere, 2 in. diameter.
• D: vase, 3 in. high.
• Plot the shadow outline across both table and plane before rendering.

Plate 7-8 (one exercise on the whole plate)

• Group all eight wooden models, with the smaller ones in front and the larger ones behind.
• Light them so shadows fall to the right and slightly backward, onto the table and onto neighbouring models.
• The arrangement must be original, not copied from an illustration.
• Draw the nearest models full size and the rear ones in proportion.
• Plot all shadow contours, render fully, leave a white margin and spray with fixatif.

Plate 9-10 (household objects based on the model solids)

• Draw each at about the scale of the matching wooden model, with all shadows inside its rectangle. Block in, foreshorten and plot shadows as before.
• A: cigar box or other box with the lid open, seen at 45°, placed slightly left of center.
• B: funnel resting on its circular rim, spout up (or another conical object).
• C: small spherical teapot.
• D: hemispherical teacup in a saucer.

Finishing and submitting a plate

• After spraying and drying, letter the title at the top of the sheet in the form "Plate 1-2: Light and Shade".
• Put name, class letters and number, address and date on the back.
• Protect the face with thin tissue paper (thin waxed paper is also acceptable). Roll the plate and send it in a mailing tube.
• Finish any required redrawing or rerendering on earlier plates before starting the next plate.