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Drawing lesson Technique, Shading, Tone and Value. Artist tips.

How to draw and shade part 2.  Drawing lesson, Shading, Tone and Value or gray-scale rendering. Artist technique and tutorial.

Shading, Value, Tone in Pencil and Charcoal Drawing
Shading, Value and Tone - developing your realist drawing skills using pencil, charcoal, or gray-scale painting (digital and traditional) shading to create value or tone.


Many basic questions from many viewer so...here we are. :)

Value / Tone

Image Reference from www.sovek.com
A very important element in, especially drawings and paintings, is value (or tone). In this context, value means light and dark. Values (Tones) is used to create the illusion of space as well. Sometimes referred to by the Italian word “chiaroscuro” (literally “light/dark”), value is often described visually by a scale with varying shades of gray arranged between black and white. But remember that colors have values also.


Working in flat, two-dimensional surface, as in drawing and painting, in order to create three-dimensional, rounded or projecting objects, Artist must rely on illusion alone.
A circle is rendered into a ball by using smooth, TRANSITIONAL values, gently moving from dark to light, whereas a box needs ABRUPT value changes to show that the light is different around its corners, top, and the side facing the viewer. BROKEN values are what cause us to see texture in a drawing, painting or print. Looking closely at a rendering of crumpled paper, you can see many little abrupt changes in value which, when you move back from the artwork, blend to become the subject matter.


Generally, stronger values or more contrast object appear to be “closer” to the viewer, and lighter (softer edges, fade) values tend to “recede” from the viewer. All of these characteristics of value help the artist create illusions of space in two-dimensional works of art.

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