Tone Still Life:
Lighting, Volume, Partial Tone

Table of contents

Lighting, Volume, Partial Tone

After completing the constructive construction of still life objects, their proportional relationships, proceed to determine the source of illumination. The light source should be on the left and top or on the right and top. The purpose of lighting is to help further identify the volume of space itself and objects in this space.

Prior to this, you made the most of the line. In the foreground, the lines of construction are active and darker. The darkest line is the one that is closest to all the lines in your composition, for example, the end line of the table. It can also be a line segment on ellipses when you transmit a circle in space. A line that moves away from you to the horizon loses its activity as it moves away.

Feel free to line drawing activity. It should not be “lethargic”, otherwise (with the introduction of the tone) the linear pattern will disappear, merge with the tone spot and you will have to restore it periodically. Work on the line, and therefore on the accuracy of the drawing, continues throughout the drawing of a still life. Do not intentionally remove construction lines from the drawing after completing work on the constructive part of still life objects.

The transfer of the real volume of still life objects and space in a single linear pattern cannot be expressed, so then you need to take advantage of the possibilities of real lighting.

The light propagating from the source falls on still life objects and has the property of being reflected from their shape. The strength of the reflected light depends on the position of the shape relative to the light source and you (that is, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection), as well as the ability of the object to receive and reflect light.

The ability to receive and reflect light in objects is different, it depends on the texture of the object, its materiality and color in lightness. The item may have a matte or polished surface, for example, made of glass; may be light or dark. All this greatly affects the strength of reflected light. So, the brightest areas will be the form, to which the rays of light directed from the source come perpendicularly. These rays of light abut against the surface of the form. Where the rays of light from the source glide over the surface of the form, it is less illuminated.

Lighting in the picture is transmitted using tone. Define your own, falling shadows and chiaroscuro depending on the light source. On bodies of revolution, chiaroscuro is soft and blurry, it coincides with the border of light and shadow and reminds you of chiaroscuro on such geometric objects as a cylinder, cone, ball. On hull objects, chiaroscuro is tough, it coincides with the face.

Do not forget to determine the brightest place on objects that have the form of rotation. Modeling of still life objects with light begins with the introduction of a light tone in the shadows of their own and falling.

Creating a tone spot with a graphite pencil will require some experience from you. A stroke (line) is one of two expressive means of drawing. Many strokes created next to each other form a tone spot. Density of strokes affects the depth of tone. The tone is applied with a pencil in the form of an object - this is how almost all educational publications write about drawing. This is not entirely true, because you will have to simulate spherical still life objects with conical circles. A stroke is not a goal, but a means.

The goal is the volume of the object, and with a good modeling of the shape of the object of the still life, the stroke does not strike the eye. Apply a stroke as you like; it is usually applied from right to left and from top to bottom at an angle of about forty-five degrees (for a person painting with his right hand). Based on your own experience, in the future you will feel when you "stroke the dog", and when "against it."

If you simultaneously apply tone on the shadow and black and white parts of an object, while observing the laws of aerial perspective, you get a shadow part consisting of chiaroscuro, reflex and contour line. Pay attention to the falling shadows. The border of light and shadow is rigid (with a single light source), and there is a region of chiaroscuro, which makes the shadow inside transparent.

The image of a falling shadow is a tricky business. Simply put, if a falling shadow emphasizes the plane of the table on which it falls and reveals the volume of drapery, then it is shown in full. But if this shadow destroys the volume it falls on, it is treated delicately. In architectural, design drawings, the shadow of an object, if it destroys the shape of the object itself, which falls, is dissolved or not shown at all as it moves away from the object.

Having done these operations (applying the methods), you performed a drawing with a partial introduction of the tone, performed an analysis of the space, the shape of the objects of still life and lighting. For an architect or designer, whose interest is in shaping the object, the task is completed; for the draftsman, whose aim is to convey the real three-dimensional world of objects and the objects themselves in the two-dimensional space of the sheet, the drawing continues.

We pass to the second part of the academic drawing.