This is a lesson usually given in a drawing class but it relates to painting as well. This is the basis for creating the illusion of form on a two dimensional surface. There are three basic tools for creating form, line, color and tone. These are really the only things that we have to work with in painting. We've discussed color and I'll save line for a future post, so today we'll be talking about tone or tone value.
Think Grey As a Tone Not a Color
Tone values are just different values of light and dark. A typical painting (as if such a thing were possible) will have a black, a white and an infinite number of greys. I'm not talking about the color grey but the tone. An example would be the paint color Cadmium Red Light being a grey-tone (see the previous lesson Color Mixing Part 4: The Quirks). Most students have little trouble identifying and placing the blacks and the whites. It's the grey tones that give them the most trouble. Commonly, the trouble arises when dealing with the lightest darks and the darkest lights. Huh? I'll explain. First let's define light and dark. We commonly use a single light source so anything that is being hit directly from this light source is considered a light. Conversely, anything not being hit by this light source is a dark. Here's a tip: Sometimes it is unclear which is a dark and which is a secondary light. Pass a paint brush or pencil across the area in question. Whatever area that the pencil casts a shadow over is a light and everything else is a dark.
The Five Areas
There are five basic areas of light and dark. On the light side we have light and secondary light. On the dark side we have dark, reflected light and cast shadow. See the illustration below:
The Five Areas
There are five basic areas of light and dark. On the light side we have light and secondary light. On the dark side we have dark, reflected light and cast shadow. See the illustration below:
The two rules concerning these areas are simple:
1. Nothing in the dark side should ever be as light as anything in the light side.
2. Nothing in the light side should ever be as dark as anything in the dark side.
Jerry Luisi, my college sculpture professor explained these rules to me some 30 odd years ago. So to cop a line from one of my favorite TV shows, "Thank you very much, Jerry." These rules may sound like a given but while looking at different areas it may get a bit confusing, particularly the secondary lights and the reflected lights. In fact it is for these two areas that the rules were written. Here's what happens. You see an object, let's say a vase. The light is shining on the left side. The light is fairly low which creates a secondary light on the shoulder of the vase. You may mistakenly identify the secondary light as a dark. Why not, it's darker than the light area next to it. Next, within the dark side of the vase you see a reflected light. Next to the vase is a white bowl which makes that reflected light appear to be a light area. It is therefore rendered as a light. Again, why not, it's lighter than the dark area next to it. The result is a vase which has a form like a washcloth. Specifically, the dark where the secondary light should be flips the edge forward instead of backward and the same thing is true of the light area where the reflected light should be. In all fairness, the secondary light might be pretty dark and I've seen reflected light that was blinding. But there is a saying in art "if you only draw what you see, wait 'til you see what you draw." Artists need to use not just their eyes but their brains as well.
1. Nothing in the dark side should ever be as light as anything in the light side.
2. Nothing in the light side should ever be as dark as anything in the dark side.
Jerry Luisi, my college sculpture professor explained these rules to me some 30 odd years ago. So to cop a line from one of my favorite TV shows, "Thank you very much, Jerry." These rules may sound like a given but while looking at different areas it may get a bit confusing, particularly the secondary lights and the reflected lights. In fact it is for these two areas that the rules were written. Here's what happens. You see an object, let's say a vase. The light is shining on the left side. The light is fairly low which creates a secondary light on the shoulder of the vase. You may mistakenly identify the secondary light as a dark. Why not, it's darker than the light area next to it. Next, within the dark side of the vase you see a reflected light. Next to the vase is a white bowl which makes that reflected light appear to be a light area. It is therefore rendered as a light. Again, why not, it's lighter than the dark area next to it. The result is a vase which has a form like a washcloth. Specifically, the dark where the secondary light should be flips the edge forward instead of backward and the same thing is true of the light area where the reflected light should be. In all fairness, the secondary light might be pretty dark and I've seen reflected light that was blinding. But there is a saying in art "if you only draw what you see, wait 'til you see what you draw." Artists need to use not just their eyes but their brains as well.
Look At The Whole Form
Sometimes this scenario can be avoided by looking a little wider. Instead of looking only at the area next to it, look at some of the other areas. When working on a secondary light don't compare it to the light side, compare it to the reflected light. And, when working on the reflected light don't compare it to the dark area, compare it to the secondary light. An easy way to think about this is as a grey scale from one to ten, one being the lightest tone and ten being the darkest. Let's look at the illustration below:
Follow these rules: The darkest light-area is the darkest of the secondary-lights. This should never be any darker than a 5. The lightest dark-area is the lightest of the reflected-lights. This should never be any lighter than a 6.
The Five (or 6) Forms
As I've mentioned, the lights and darks can become a little confusing so it is important to know how a form is supposed to act in all light conditions. I'm not sure how many times I've had the conversation but, when light is coming from above, the bottom of a bowl is a dark. I don't even need to look at it because I know how a sphere is supposed to behave in any given situation. This is important for the simple reason that you can't always trust what you're seeing. As I've mentioned, some dark areas look remarkably like a light. Here are the five official forms and one rather unofficial form:
Now, Look At The Whole Picture
Now that we've learned how to give form to an object let's talk about tone values across the entire picture plane. What I'm getting at is that each object or form has its own tonal range. A white bowl, for instance has a lighter overall range than a red vase might have. The same might be said of a willow tree and a red Japanese maple. Let's look at the portrait below. The painting as a whole will have a tonal scale from 1 to 10 but each area has its own scale within that range. For instance, the shirt is 1-3, the face is 2-6, the background is 3-4, the drapery on the seat is 7-9 and the pants are 8-10. The thing to remember is not to go too far out of each object's/area's tonal range.
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| Full Circle (Portrait of My Father at 38) 2003, Oil on Canvas, 34"x 30"Series: Full Circle |
Lastly, let's compare and contrast. First we'll look at the differences between the shirt and the pants. These two areas are on the opposite ends of the tonal scale even though the colors are in the same area of the color wheel (Violet). Now, let’s look at the background and the flesh. Notice how similar they are in tone and that they are actually complimentary colors (Red and Green). What we should take away from this observation is that even though the colors are similar the tones can be vastly dissimilar. Conversely, you may find similar tonal ranges even in very different colors. If any rule comes from this it should be that each area should be evaluated on its own and that all tone values are relative.
(c) 2010 Holm. All Rights Reserved.
