An introduction to tone and value; light and shade. This is a lecture presentation for Fine Arts Visual Perception class, 28 September 2019, Kalayaan College.

1. LIGHT LOGIC
An introduction to tone and value; light and shade

2. Light Logic
■ make things look three-dimensional through the use of a tech- nique students often
call "shading,"
■ Light falling on forms creates lights and shadows in a logical way.
■ Shadows are logically formed where the light is blocked, for example, by the nose.
■ We constantly use this R-mode visual information in our everyday perceptions
because it enables us to know the three-dimensional shapes of objects we see around
us. But, like much R-mode processing, seeing lights and shadows remains below the
conscious level; we use the percep- tions without "knowing" what we see.

3. Aspects of Light
Logic
1. Highlight: The brightest light, where light from the source
falls most directly on the object.
2. Cast shadow: The darkest shadow, caused by the object's
blocking of light from the source.
3. Reflected light: A dim light, bounced back onto the object by
light falling on surfaces around the object.
4. Crest shadow: A shadow that lies on the crest of a rounded
form, between the highlight and the reflected light. Crest
shadows and reflected lights are difficult to see
at first, but are the key to "round- ing up" forms for the
illusion of
3-D on the flat paper.

4. Henry Fuseli (1741—1825), Portrait of
the Artist. Courtesy ofTheVictoria
andAlbert Museum, London
Find the four aspects of light logic in Fuseli's
self-portrait.
1. Highlights:
2. Cast shadows:
3. Reflected lights:
3. Crest shadows:
Forehead, cheeks, etc
Cast by the nose
Side of the nose, side of the
cheek
Crest of the nose, crest of the
cheek, temple.

5. Shading or tone helps
create an illusion of three
dimensions or solidity.

6. Sources of
Light
• The type of shadow that an object
throws varies depending on the
direction of the source of light.
• A simple way of learning about shadows
is to arrange an object at various angles
and note the differences.

8. Values
■ Light logic also requires that you learn to see differences in tones of light and dark.
These tonal differences are called "values."
■ Pale, light tones are called "high" in value,
■ dark tones "low" in value.
■ A complete value scale goes from pure white to pure black with literally thousands of
minute gradations between the two extremes of the scale.
■ Fuseli achieved the many tones between the lightest light and the darkest dark by
various methods of using the pencil: solid shading, crosshatching, and the
combination of techniques
■ Many of the white shapes he actually erased out, using an eraser as a drawing tool.

9. ■ L-mode apparently will
pay almost no attention
to negative space or
upside-down information,
it seems also to ignore
lights and shadows. L-
mode, after all, may be
unaware that R-mode
perceptions help with
naming and categorizing.
WHAT
SHAPES CAN
YOU SEE?

10. ■ This is another of the
many paradoxes of
drawing: If you draw the
shapes of lighted areas
and shadowed areas just
as you perceive them, a
viewer of your drawing
will not notice those
shapes. Instead, the
viewer will wonder how
you were able to make
your subject so "real,"
meaning three-
dimensional.
WHAT
SHAPES CAN
YOU SEE?
GustaveCourbet'sSelf-portrait

12. Exercise Notes

13. ■ Color/Tone you paper entirely
with pencil
■ Use eraser to draw the figure
■ You can add shades later
EXERCISE

14. Crosshatching: A
lighter shadow
■ a technical term for creating
a variety of tones or values in
a drawing by laying down a
sort of "carpet" of pencil
strokes, often crossing the
strokes at angles.
■ the ability to Crosshatch is a
mark of a trained artist

16. • Hatching or building up tone, is
the most conventional way of
showing the effects of light and
shade
• Start by producing strokes all in
the same direction, about the
same length and evenly spaced.

18. EXERCSIE

19. RECAP
-Portrait drawing for frontal view

21. Drawing in ¾
quarter view

22. THE EAR
Profile:
Eye level-to-chin = back-of-the-
eye to the back-of-the-ear
becomes
Three-quarter:
Eye level-to-chin = front-of-the-
eye to the back-of-the-ear

23. References:
■ 1999, Edwards, Betty, “The Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”
■ 2001, Barber, Barrington “The Fundamentals of Drawing:A Complete Professional
Course for Artists, Barnes and Nobles Books
■ 1996, Berill. Phillip “Everyone’s Guide to Sketching”, PBI publishing