What is Tone?
Tone (AKA Lightness, Shading and the art term Light Logic) is a summary word of light that falls onto or reflects off of an object or shadow that falls onto or is cast by the object. I am going to discuss tone here onwards in art terminology of Light Logic. I would also like to say at this point that I have gained my understanding of tone from life drawing classes, Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, colleagues and teachers.
Above is a sample I have quickly created to display a range of Value as it is known. Value ranges from high to low, and in the example above the highest value on the page is shown in the top left and this descends to the lowest value in the bottom right hand corner. The above is not a complete scale of value though as a complete scale of value ranges from pure white to pure black and in between these two high and low values is thousands of tiny differences in gradient ascending or descending to one side or the other of the value scale. Below is another iteration of the Value Scale that I have made.
I have drawn a Cube, Sphere, Cylinder, Pyramid and Cone with light logic applied to each one to demonstrate the way light falls upon an object and shadow is created. If you observe the five objects the light source was directed at each of them from the top left. When you perceive the light and shadow on each one you will see that all of them have the same perceived light logic in common.
Below is the same image but this time I have blurred it and split the areas of tone into separate sections using coloured lines to make it easier for you to find where the main sections of tone are visible in this image.
I have learnt during the process of creating this blog entry that tone is a very powerful tool that can be used to direct the viewers eyes within a photo, still frame, drawing, painting, or anything that has tone within a composition. It has become obvious to me that within a composition adding a sense of depth requires the artist to make objects in the distance appear lighter as the light reflecting off of objects in the distance becomes scattered due to the distance the reflected light has to travel to the viewers eyes. I have found that in order to create a tonal drawing of anything I need to start off building in the lightest or darkest tones into the drawing (which ever one you choose is a matter of preference) and then build the tone from that chosen point into the opposite side of the value scale to bring the illusion of light logic into a drawing, painting or photo.
That's the end of what I have in store this entry, feel free to comment below, thank you for reading and take care.
No comments:
Post a Comment