|
|
ARTCLASS
LIGHT AND TONE
This article is presented as one long page, for printing purposes.
It seems to me that most students have difficulty with the problem of capturing LIGHT in their images. I can understand their frustration, since a painting without light can sometimes look flat, or somewhat lifeless.
So how to create light from paint? After all, light is completely intangible; you can't touch it, and it's even difficult to describe in words. Is it really so important? In my opinion, for the representational painter, light is probably the most important element in his or her work. Put in simple terms, light enables us to see and recognise forms, shapes, colours, tones and textures. Going one step further, I would suggest that when we look at a scene or an object, our responses are conditioned by what is happening as a result of the strength, or direction, of the prevailing light. Also, when we design a painting, the arrangement of light and dark shapes within the rectangle is an important compositional element.
Given that all of this is reasonably easy to comprehend, why is there a "light problem" in so many amateur painters' works?
Well, I believe that it is because those students lack the ability to see and depict TONE accurately. (I think my American visitors call this VALUE?) Students are also often nervous about using a full range of tones/values in their work, from light to dark. This is understandable, since most amateur painters begin with watercolours, and are taught to work from light to dark. It takes a brave soul to use really dark darks, for fear of ruining what has been so painstakingly achieved so far! Often when I have pointed out to students that the contrasts really aren't strong enough in their work, and demonstrate the appropriate tones on a piece of paper, the result is often, initially, a gasp of disbelief, and horror, and finally a reluctant admission that yes, the picture IS rather pale! What happens next (as soon as I move away) is that the student begins to use darks - but the transitions from light to dark lack the subtleties which occur in nature and the picture then has lots of light areas, with blobs of dark which leap out visually!
What you see, not what you know.
Learning to see tones accurately means putting aside what you KNOW, and really concentrating hard on what you SEE. This means hard work, and no generalisations and guesses. For example, a white wall, in full sunlight, will possibly the lightest part of a painting. However, that same wall, if shadowed by a large clump of foliage, will certainly not be white - and yet I have seen many a student paint it thus, claiming steadfastly that the wall IS white. Well, it might have white paint all over it, but that's not the whole story. You have to find an equivalent, in tone and colour, for what you are actually SEEING - which is a shadowy white.
Ask questions
From this little example you can see that you need to decide about the relative lightness, or darkness, of the various parts of your subject, as the light falls on it. Most importantly, you need to develop an ability to scan your scene, comparing one area with another. Ask yourself "Is this part lighter, or darker, than that part? And what about that part over there? How much lighter, or darker? A lot? A little?" In this way, you will be less influenced by the textures and colours, and more aware of the tones.
This image, "The Gondoliers" has a lot of subtle tones, from light to dark. Each tone had to be carefully assessed, to achieve the effect of sunlight coming from the right. The very light tone on the shirt of the gondolier on the right is crucial, isn't it.
Also, although it is important to simplify what you see, do remember that it is really important to find those intermediate tones within darker areas, or else you loose the depth and subtlety which exists in nature.
Sharpen your Skills
The best way to sharpen your skills is to practice regularly in monochrome. Begin with a single object, and work up to several objects. Their colour is irrelevant, but do ensure that you use good directional light, either artificial or natural. Simplify what you see into four or five tones only, using black for the darkest parts of your subject, and the white of your paper for the very lightest tones, with two or three tones of grey, light, medium and darker grey. Draw your subject's main outlines, and then isolate the lightest tones, leaving white spaces/shapes for these areas. Then cover the whole of the rest of the shape with your lightest grey. (This is important, you may have a reluctance to do this, but please trust me and try it.) Then decide upon the darkest areas in your subject and use black for those. All ready, you should have a good sense of the form as depicted by the light. Finally, add in the intermediate tones with your middle, and dark grey. Most of you will enjoy using a soft pencil for this exercise, but do try other media too - gouache is excellent as you can mix greys simply and easily from black and white. Also try charcoal, and watercolour using any colour you like in 5 tones. Ink is good too.
Squint!
You will find it really helpful to squeeze your eyes together and squint at your subject. This will usefully eliminate texture and a certain amount of the colour, surprisingly. It will also simplify the tones for you. The more you practice in this way, the easier you will find it to translate the coloured world into accurate tones - and your pictures will become suffused with light. Remember - strong light will have the most impact, but even a softly grey day will throw a certain special light on your subject. You have to get the tones right to capture this.
A word of warning.
When you are working with an artificial light source, it is eas to create interesting light effects by turning lights on, or off, or by repositioning the subject or the lamp. Natural light is more complicated and sometimes you may be tempted to manipulate the tones in your picture in order to improve the effect of light, for added interest or drama. This is fine in principle, but needs to be tackled with great care and ONLY when you are truly able to depict accurate tones in your work.
A little project to test yourself.
You might like to try this fun project which will test your ability to translate colours into tones. Find a colour picture in an old magazine. Tear a strip out of the picture, about an inch wide, so that you have a long strip with lots of colours from top to bottom. Tape it to a sheet of cartridge paper, and then produce a tonal version of the strip, using a soft pencil, or charcoal, or ink, or black and white gouache mixed into the appropriate greys. When you have finished, photocopy the original strip in black and white - and see how the photocopy compares with your monochrome interpretation!
 |
"The Red Oil Can" Pastel
on paper. This image shows a full range of tones, from very dark to very light. However, notice that even in the darkest areas, there are subtle intermediate tones, and in the lightest areas there are intermediate light tones too. There is a good feeling of light in the image because of this wide range of tones, and the contrasts of dark and light, but more importantly, the light is there because the tones are accurately represented. |
I hope you enjoyed this
article, and to see more of my work on my main website, please click HERE!