Capturing the Right Tone
The tone (or value) of any object is a way of assessing how light or dark it is. Every object has a tonal value, whether it is a mountain, a bird, a wall, or even the sky. Some are light, some medium and some are dark. In fact there will often be a variety of tones within any given object.
Why are tones important? Because they are the main way that we can tell one object from another. Things don't have lines around them even though we may draw them that way. The way we can see one object from the one next to it or behind it is largely due to tonal differences between the two. So a dark object will stand out clearly against a light one. There may also be a colour difference, but tone is by far the most important factor.
If we don't get the tonal structure of a painting right, we will never get a good painting. I can't stress this point too much. Most amateur paintings fail because of a lack of variation in the tones. Too many paintings are pale and 'wishy-washy', and lack any 'ooomph'! By learning how to see and then draw the tonal contrasts accurately we can produce paintings that are eye-catching and have sparkle!
How to see tones
It is often hard to see the difference in tones in a landscape (or a still life, portrait or any other subject), especially when there are lots of colours involved in the scene. So the best way of filtering out the unwanted details is to squint and look at the subject through almost closed eyes. This cuts out all the colours and gives you a simplified and easy to see pattern of black, greys and white.
When you have copied this onto your paper, squint at both the landscape and your drawing and see how they compare. Have you got the tones right?
The section below will show you several other ways of copying tones accurately.
How to copy tones accurately
There are several easy ways of making sure that the tone you sketch is the same as the one you see. Much of the time we will tend to draw and paint objects much lighter than they actually are.
Click on the picture to learn how to paint the correct tones, and download and print off my handy tonal strip.
Find out how to create quick tones with a pen and brush
Click on the picture to see how it's done!
Use just one colour for quick tonal sketches
See how to produce fast two minute sketches with the minimum of fuss!
Click on the picture to find out more.
Use chalk and charcoal to capture lights and darks
You can easily produce a sketch with three tones by drawing onto brown packaging paper (or something similar) with white chalk and charcoal. The brown paper forms a mid-tone.
if you practice doing this you will find that you soon begin to see and recognise tonal difference in the landscape, because you are effectively being forced into putting everything into just one of three categories - light, medium or dark.
This is a really useful exercise that will help you with every painting you do. Can you see from this sketch how the basis for a dramatic painting have already been achieved? If you can manage to keep these tones in a painting based on this sketch, you will produce a succesful picture.
Click on the picture for a larger version.
My quick way to create whites
Do you want to learn a quick and easy way to create white lines against a dark background?
Click on the picture to find out more.