Constructive drawing of a human head:
Lighting. Partial introduction of tone.

Table of contents

Lighting. Partial introduction of tone.

You have completed a constructive linear drawing, which is part of the drawing as a whole, that is, its stage. At this stage, you decided the shape of the human head and its position in space using one of the main means of drawing, which is the line. But the line is abstract (and you have already seen this more than once, completing the previous tasks), and the light is concrete and even material.

Understanding the position of the surfaces of the form relative to the source of illumination, we proceed to simulate the shape of the human head with light and shadow in the figure.

To draw a model of a person’s head is better under artificial lighting. A point light source aimed at the model, say, on the left and top relative to you, reveals the plastic shape of the human head shape much better than the diffused light from many sources (which are usually classrooms). Moreover, they introduce a certain confusion into the concept of illumination of a painted object. Shadows falling from objects are darker than their own shadows. And with many light sources - the opposite is true.

True, if for some such lighting is not desirable, for others it is a blessing. This refers to the training of designers in the discipline "Drawing". Due to the specifics of the profession, a constructive drawing in the training of designers is aimed at developing students’ spatial thinking. “Designing” as the main subject of professional formation of designers does not develop three-dimensional thinking among students, but relies heavily on a base based on drawing.

Here is one more example proving that drawing is the basis of all types of human pictorial activity. Working with nature without artificial lighting forces the student to create a form in the sheet space using the method of constructive analysis: with such lighting, drawing is useless.

First: disassemble the state of illumination of the surfaces of the mold relative to the light source horizontally. All front and side surfaces on the left (if the light source is on the left) will be light, and the side surfaces on the right will have a shadow; there is chiaroscuro between light and shadow. Model surfaces to achieve the effect of a filled volume.

Please note that usually an artificial light source is close to the model being drawn and emits a luminous flux in the form of a cone. Such a luminous flux does not quite correctly reveal the volume of the form, so a student with some experience in the drawing will try to introduce a correction for lighting. Which consists in the fact that the rays of light emanating from the light source, go as if in parallel, that is, from a remote light source.

In other words, the farther the light source is from nature, the more correctly you will be able to convey the volume of the drawn form in the drawing. It’s like in descriptive geometry: when creating a perspective view, you need to choose the optimal distance between you and the picture plane. An incorrectly selected distance will distort the space (here - the volume).

Second: disassemble the state of illumination of the surfaces of the form relative to the light source vertically. The source is slightly above. Think of such a geometric shape as a lying hexagonal prism, and how its surfaces are located in space. The upper part of the prism, in which light most abuts, has the brightest surface. The middle surface has a semitone, and the lower surface is in the shadow area. At the border of the surfaces is chiaroscuro. We partially introduce the tone: our own shadows, as we move deeper, become lighter.

After constructive study of the details of the human head in the figure and their modeling by chiaroscuro, it is necessary to bring the figure to a generalized state. The generalized state is the balance between dark and light surfaces in your drawing. All the details of the form in the light should generally be read as a single plastic spot, the details of the form that are in the shade should also be read.

In other words, this can be called the tone design of the graphic sheet. The tone design of the sheet has its own proportional relationship, based again on the proportional relationship of the "golden section". The quantitative composition of the bright tone spot is in harmony with the quantitative composition of the dark spot. And even simpler: the mass of the dark spot that all the shadow parts of the pattern form can never be the same as the mass of the spot that the light and halftone parts of the pattern form - something must be larger.

The design pattern may not imply falling shadows (say, from the nose), since they destroy the volumes on which they are located. Do not touch light surfaces; they should be clean, like paper. Because in the constructive drawing there are no tonal relations between the drawing of the form and the background - it has other tasks.

Constructive drawing does not imply the transfer of materiality of objects. A constructive drawing is, as we have said, above all the basis of the drawing itself. What his skeleton is for a man is the same as a constructive drawing for a drawing in general. The exact, volumetric construction of the human head in space will be the main goal of the constructive drawing. Only having achieved this goal, you can move on, solve tone relationships, tone scale, air environment, materiality, bring the picture to a generalized state and give it aesthetic value.

A constructive drawing of a person’s head can also act as an independent graphic sheet; it is quite interesting. The head on a smooth background (clean background of the sheet) is perceived as a tonal pattern, although tonal relationships are absent. This sensation is enhanced by detecting the volume of the form with light; such an illusion arises if you create a tone color hairstyles from nature. It is good if we emphasize, for example, the whiteness or swarthiness of the human body. So rash techniques turn into tone patches.