Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Mays.

I'm so excited you have chosen to learn with me today.

We're gonna have a really fabulous art lesson.

I know you are going to do brilliantly.

Let's get started.

In today's lesson, we're going to be learning how to create tones and shadows with a variety of materials to show that a figure is three-dimensional.

Let's have a look at some of our keywords for today.

I'm going to say a word and I would like you to repeat after me.

Tone, pressure, shadow, light source.

That was really good.

Well done.

Let's have a look at some of the meaning of those words.

Tone means how light or dark something is.

Pressure means how heavily or lightly a drawing tool is being used.

Shadow means the area of darkness where an object or figure rests on a surface and a light source is where the main source of light is coming from.

Today's lesson is all about adding tone to your sleeping portrait.

There are two learning cycles within today's lesson.

The first is to explore and create tone.

The second is to use shadow.

Let's look at our first learning cycle now.

Here, there are three different tones, a dark tone at the top, a mid-tone in the middle, and a light tone at the bottom.

Tone is all about how light or dark something is.

In drawing, we can use tone to make a drawing look more three-dimensional.

By using tone, our objects looks more, three-dimensional.

Artists have a special word for this and it is the word form.

If we have a look at this drawing here, we can see that it uses a variety of lines to create an outline just like we have explored before, but this drawing does not have any tones within it.

This drawing has used tones.

It includes the tones to show the form of the pear.

Can you see how is beginning to look more three-dimensional? Andeep and Jacob are talking about the outline of the pear.

Andeep says, "By itself, an outline does not look three-dimensional at all!" That pear is just an outline by itself.

Jacob says, "Exactly.

But if we add light, dark, and mid-tones, the drawing starts to show form." We start to make it look more 3D.

Now it's your turn to answer a question.

Why might an artist use tone in their drawing? A, it makes the drawing look two-dimensional.

B, it shows that the object is flat or C, it shows the object has a three-dimensional form.

I'm going to pause here to give you a chance to answer that question.

Did you have a go? Let's have a look at the answer together.

That's right.

Well done.

It shows the object has a three-dimensional form.

By using tone, an artist can begin to show that they are representing a three-dimensional object.

To achieve different tones with a pencil or charcoal, we use different amounts of pressure.

This is how lightly or how firmly we use our drawing tool.

When we talk about how lightly or firmly a drawing tool is being used, it's how much thought we use behind our drawing tool in our hand.

Heavy pressure will create the darkest tones, whereas the light pressure will create the lightest tone.

Izzy is exploring tone using a pencil.

He says, "If I press quite hard with my pencil, the drawing becomes quite flat and shiny.

It is really hard to rub out!" Has that ever happened to you? It's where we press so hard with the pencil, it becomes impossible to rub out.

What advice might you give to Izzy to stop that from happening? The pencil can become flat and shiny if you use too much pressure.

It is better to build up layers of pencil really slowly and to use a little less pressure.

You can see in this drawing that Izzy has now done that she's built up those darker tones a lot more slowly and not pressed quite so hard.

She says, "Brilliant! I can now draw lots of different tones." Now it's your turn to answer another question, which image has been created using the heaviest pressure? Is it A, B or C? I'm going to pause here so you can have a really good think.

Did you give that a go? Well done if you answered C.

This is the drawing with the darkest tones, so it is used the heaviest pressure.

Let's have a look at what Izzy is exploring now.

Izzy is exploring tone using a pen.

This is a different drawing tool to our pencil.

She says, "I'm trying to use an ink pen to create tones, but it is the same tone even when I add more pressure." Again, I wonder if that has ever happened to you when you're trying to create lights and darks with different pens, but they all look the same.

Why do you think Izzy is finding it hard to draw tone in this way? That's right, with an ink pen, heavy pressure does not always change the tone.

Artists can change how they use lines instead.

Izzy says, "Great." I can create lots of different lines with an ink pen if I overlap, some look darker than others, so create those different tones." If we look at Izzy's drawing now we can see that she has layered a pen and given us lots of different tones within it.

I can see light, mid and dark tones.

I wonder what you notice.

By changing how close together pen lines are, we can achieve different tones using lines.

Drawing ink lines closely together will create the darkest tones.

Can you see here that those pen lines have been layered up on top of one another and drawn really closely together? Here, the ink lines are drawn further apart and will create the lightest lightest tones.

Here, they're a really long way apart and that helps us to create the idea of a light tone.

Izzy explores the different lines she could use.

We have hatched lines, where the lines are all drawn going in one direction.

We have crossed hatched lines, which is similar, but we now have lines going into separate directions and finally, Izzy has tried scrumbled lines.

These lines look like squiggles or scribbles.

She says, "I am going to use different lines to achieve tone in my drawing as this will make it look more interesting to look at." I think she's right.

Do you? Artists can also use water with pen or hand gel with a ballpoint pen to create lighter tones.

They both give two slightly different appearances, but both can be really useful to an artist to create those different tones.

Now it's your turn to answer a question.

Which of the following is not a way to achieve tone? A, using heavy and light pressure? B, placing lines close together and further apart.

C, using heavy pressure with ink or D brushing water over ink.

I'm going to pause here to give you a chance to think really hard about that question 'cause it's a bit tricky.

Well done.

I can tell you thought really hard about that question.

Let's have a look at the answer.

That's right, it is C.

With an ink pen, heavy pressure does not always change the tone.

We have to think about those different line styles we could use instead with our hatched, crosshatched or scrumbled line.

This is now our first task.

In your sketchbook, explore a range of materials to match the three tones below.

You might think about using heavy and light pressure, layering materials until you achieve the tone you want.

Drawing a variety of line styles closer together and then further apart.

And finally, using hand gel with a ballpoint pen or water with an ink pen.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what ideas you come up with.

I'm going to pause here or you can pause the video and I'll see you in a moment.

Well done.

You have completed that task in a really interesting way.

Your task was to, in your sketchbook, explore a range of materials to match the three tones below.

You might have drawn, stumbled pen lines, close together, heavy pressure and pencil lines to complete the darkest tone.

For the mid-tone, you might have used hatch lines using a pencil or hand gel with biro pen to create the mid-tone.

You might have drawn lines further apart using cross hatching, or you might have used water and ink pen to create light tones.

Now it's time to move on to our second learning cycle where we will be exploring using shadow.

A shadow is a dark shape created by an object blocking light.

When drawing, a shadow helps to show the form of an object, so making that object look more three-dimensional.

We can draw shadows using a range of tones.

To accurately draw a shadow, an artist needs to look at where the light source is coming from.

Here, a light source is the sun.

The side of the object nearest to the light source will have lighter tones.

The side that is furthest away from the light source will show darker tones and shadows.

Jun is looking at this drawing.

He notices that shadows are not always drawn in the darkest tone.

He says, "I can see that the shadow is darkest closest to the pear.

The shadow then becomes lighter." I wonder if you can see the same, right underneath the pear it's very, very dark, but as we move further away, you can see that the shadow gets lighter.

Did you spot that? Jun notices something else about the shadow around the pear.

"I can see that the shadow is not all around the pear, but just where it rests on the surface opposite the light source." In fact, towards the top of the pear, there's no shadow really at all." Did you spot the same thing as Jun? Well done if you spotted it.

Now it's time for our first question of this learning cycle.

True or false? Shadows will always be drawn in the darkest tone.

What do you think? Pause the video here and have a go at thinking really hard about this question.

Well done.

That was some excellent thinking.

Let's have a look at the answer together.

That's right, it was false.

Let's have a look at why.

Shadows can get lighter the further away they become from an object.

Do you remember that pear and what Jun noticed about it? Shadows can also help us to make an object look like a three-dimensional form.

First, we have our outline.

Then we might add our tones like the middle drawing, and then in our final picture we can see that we have got shadows around the pear.

Jun is going to draw a simple object.

He says, "I am going to start by drawing the outline.

Next, I will add light and dark tones within the outline." Can you see his paintbrushes used some of those marks we looked at earlier? "Finally, I will add shadow in different tones where the object sits on the surface." So here he has drawn his shadow to the right of the objects.

Let's see if you can answer this question.

Which shadow has been drawn correctly? Is it A, with the sun on the left of the object? B, with the sun above the object, or C with the sun to the right of the object.

Have a really good think and I'll pause here.

How did you get on with that question? Well done.

It was A, this shadow is correct as it is opposite the light source and those light tones are nearest to the light source.

Here is your final task of today's lesson.

You may have drawn a sleeping portrait outline in our previous lesson.

You are now gonna add tone and shadow.

You might think about using these steps to help you.

Start by thinking where the light source is coming from.

Is it above, to the right or to the left of your object? Begin to add your lightest tones.

Remember, don't forget that light pressure.

Next, add your dark tones and then your mid-tones, all those tones in between.

Finally, use a mixture of tones to show your shadow opposite a light source.

In my drawing here, you can see that the light source is to the right of and above the object, so my shadow is to the left.

I'm going to pause the video here while you have a go at that task.

I know you were going to do it brilliantly.

How did you get on? That was quite challenging, wasn't it? I'm sure you have done really well.

Let's have a look at what you might have done.

You might have used lines drawn closely together to show darker tones, a range of drawing materials such as pencil and ink, pen.

A shadow around your figure where it rests on the surface and you might have used your light, mid and dark tone.

I think you have done so well at that task.

Well done.

Let's have a look at everything we have learned today.

We have learned that heavy or light pressure is used to achieve different tones with a pencil.

We can also show tone by using hatching and cross hatching.

The side of the object nearest to the light source will be drawn with lighter tones, or the side that is furthest away from the light source will show darker tones and shadows.

By using shadow, tone and line, we can show that something is a three-dimensional form.

Well done on working so hard in today's lesson.

I've really had a lovely time with you.

See you soon.

Bye.