Lesson video

Hello, everybody.

How are you today? I hope you're doing really, really well.

My name is Ms. Afzal and I am going to be your art teacher today, which I'm very, very excited about because I love art.

Also, I'm really excited because our lesson is going to be about flowers.

It's called "Tonal flowers." And I just love flowers so much.

There's so many amazing kinds of flowers, so many beautiful colours, and so many interesting tones that we can discover on flowers, and we're gonna find out more about that in our lesson today.

Our lesson comes from a unit which is called, "Create a flower garden: an introduction to the seven elements of art." There's a lot to learn about art, so shall we get started? The outcome for our lesson today is I can use light and dark tones to create a reduction drawing.

Doesn't that sound interesting? Shall we find out more about our lesson? We have some keywords in our lesson today.

These are really important words that will be coming up again and again, so let's find out what they are.

Let's go through them, my turn, your turn.

Tones.

Light.

Dark.

Reduction.

Fantastic, I liked how you were saying those words so loud and clear.

Let's find out what the words mean.

So tones is how light or dark something is.

And we can see in the image there at the top on the right-hand side, going from light to dark.

And light means a tone that is closer to white, and you can see the arrow pointing at a lighter tone.

And dark means a tone that is closer to black, and we can see the arrow pointing to the darker tone.

And reduction is when an artist takes away a material rather than builds up layers of material, so it's about taking away.

These are our keywords, let's look out for them.

Let's listen out for them, let's think carefully about them.

They will come up in our lesson.

Our lesson is called "Tonal flowers." It has two parts to it, "Using light and dark tone" and "Creating a reduction drawing." Let's begin with cycle one, "Using light and dark tone." Oh my, look at this beautiful drawing that has appeared on the screen.

Wow, let's just pause and take a really good look at this drawing.

Hmm, did you have a good look? Did you enjoy taking in that drawing? Now I've got a question for you.

What do you notice about this artwork? I'd like you to turn to someone nearby and tell them everything you notice about this artwork.

Pause the video here.

Okay, what did you notice, I wonder.

And did you notice the same things or different things as the person next to you? We could say that this is a tonal drawing.

And remember, tone, that's one of our keywords, tone is a word that artists use to describe areas of light and dark within an artwork.

So this is a tonal drawing.

Let's look closely at the flower.

Where are the lighter tones? Pause the video and tell someone nearby as you look at this tonal drawing of a sunflower, where are the lighter tones? Okay, well done for spotting those.

I wonder if you could guess this next question that is coming up.

Where are the darker tones? Again, turn to someone nearby and tell them, where can you see the darker tones? Pause the video here.

Okay, great, well done for spotting the lighter tones and the darker tones.

I wonder, did you spot that there are dark tones where there is less light? So we can see at the tip of the petal there on the left-hand side, it's a darker tone.

And there are also light tones where there is more light, and we can see that petal that the arrow is pointing at has a much lighter tone.

And there are also grey tones somewhere in between, and we can see the third arrow is pointing at a grey tone.

Well done for spotting all these different kinds of tones.

Without tone, an artwork can just look like a series of flat shapes or an outline.

So here we can see a sunflower with tone.

Can you see the light tones, the dark tones, and the grey tones? And here is an image of a flower without tone.

And we can see this as just a series of lines and it just looks like a flat shape.

So we can achieve quite a different effect when we use tones in our drawing.

Check for understanding, true or false? Artists use tone to show light and dark areas of a subject.

Pause the video while you decide if this is true or false.

Tell someone nearby.

Well done if you selected true.

Artists do use tone to show light and dark areas of a subject.

Artists can use lots of different materials to achieve tone.

They can use pencil, charcoal, watercolour paint, or ink.

Pause the video and tell someone nearby, which of these materials have you tried before and which is your favourite to use? I wonder if you had the same favourite or maybe a different one.

Sometimes an artist will use more pressure to create darker tones.

This means pressing harder with your pencil or charcoal.

And that can give us a darker tone.

Sometimes an artist will build layers of material to create darker tones.

So we may create, first of all, one layer and then we may go over it again with another layer and we may keep going, and that will keep building up a darker tone.

Let's take a look at an example now.

This artist is gently layering charcoal to make the tone darker.

Pause the video while you watch this.

And now I will build up layers of charcoal to achieve a dark tone.

One layer.

And now it's your turn.

I would like you to build up layers of charcoal to achieve a dark tone.

Pause the video while you do this.

That looks really good.

I like the way you've built up layers of charcoal to achieve a dark tone.

Artists can also build up layers of watercolour and pencil to achieve tone.

Check for understanding.

Which statement about tone is not true? Is it A, different materials can be used to achieve tone; B, tone can be light or dark; or C, tone is always achieved through pressure.

Pause the video while you decide which of these statements is not true.

Tell someone nearby.

Well done if you selected statement C, that's not true that tone is always achieved through pressure.

And what we know is that tone can be achieved through adding pressure, but layers of material such as charcoal can also be built up to increase tone.

We can use our materials to practise with tone.

Take a good look at what you can see on the screen, and can you notice where the tone is light and where the tone is dark? What has this artist done as they've been using their material? Pause the video, tell someone nearby.

In this image, the artist has practised going from light tones to dark tones.

I wonder, is that what you noticed? And now it's time for your first task.

First of all, I would like you to select several of the shapes below or draw your own in your sketchbook.

Let's take a look at the shapes.

So you could select one of these or choose one of your own.

And then use charcoal, pencil, or watercolour to add tone to make one side of the shape dark and the other light.

And maybe you can move progressively from light to dark or from dark to light, as we saw on the example earlier.

Okay, so are you ready? You've got your shapes, you've got your materials, and now you're going to add tone to your shape to make one side light and one side dark.

Pause the video while you do this, enjoy your task.

Alright, it's great to be back with you.

I hope you enjoyed your task.

You might have produced something like this.

Perhaps you started by practising creating tone with different materials.

Or perhaps you might have used pencil to create tone.

Maybe you used charcoal to create tone.

Maybe you used watercolour to create tone.

Whatever you did, I hope you enjoyed your task creating tone, going from light to dark or from dark to light.

And now it's time for the next part of our lesson where we'll be creating a reduction drawing.

Artists can build dark tones with their materials.

Artists can also remove tone to make lighter tones, as we can see in this second image.

Take a good look at this image.

How do you think that the artist has removed the charcoal? Pause the video and tell someone nearby.

What do you think? I wonder if you came up with this answer.

A rubber can be used to remove pastel, charcoal, or soft pencil.

This is called a reduction drawing.

So reduce means to make less, it's something that's been taken away.

This artist is experimenting making light tones.

Take a good look at these four examples of experimenting with making light tones.

They are using a reduction process with pencil and charcoal.

And now I'm going to have a go.

I'll use a rubber to experiment with the reduction process.

So I've got my first marks and then I'm reducing them using the rubber, so to take away some of that material.

And now it's your turn.

I would like you to use a rubber to experiment with the reduction process.

Pause the video while you do this.

I hope you enjoyed having a go at that experiment of using a rubber to experiment with the reduction process.

Artists can use a range of materials to create light tones.

Here's Andeep, and he feels like experimenting.

He's going to experiment with the reduction technique to create light tones.

So there's a sunflower.

Andeep's gonna look closely at his sunflower.

We always have to begin any artwork by looking closely at our subject.

And now Andeep says, "I'm going to draw the marks and shapes I can see in this sunflower." Let's take a look at how he gets on.

Andeep is making different marks and light tones with his rubber and charcoal.

"I can use the edge of the rubber to create an outline of my shapes." So first of all, Andeep covered his paper with charcoal, and now he's used the edge of his rubber to create that outline of the sunflower.

I think he's done such a great job.

He's got the petals, the stem, and the leaves.

Well done, Andeep.

What could Andeep do next to develop his reduction drawing? Take a look at the sunflower, take a look at Andeep's reduction drawing.

What do you think he could do to develop this drawing further? Pause the video, tell someone nearby.

Hmm, Andeep thinks about what he can do next.

"I'm going to add the smaller shapes and some of the seeds in the centre." I wonder if that's what you thought he would do.

Oh my goodness, look at that.

I think that's been really effective, Andeep.

So can you see those little seeds? He must have worked so carefully to create those with his rubber.

And so he's got little seeds in the centre and he's used his rubber to create lighter tones at the tips of some of the leaves as well.

Andeep then uses his rubber to make the lightest tones where he can see them on the flower.

He says, "I can make the lines lighter by going over them with the rubber more than once, but I need to be gentle with the paper." Oh, that's a really good tip from Andeep, 'cause if we rub too hard, then we're actually gonna rub away the paper or we might tear the paper.

Oh, look at what he has created.

I love that, Andeep.

By going over those lines again with the rubber, he's created an even lighter tone and it's really making his drawing and the different tones very distinct and very clear.

Well done, Andeep.

What do you think of Andeep's final reduction drawing? Pause the video and tell someone nearby.

Thanks for sharing.

Check for understanding.

Which images show a reduction technique? Take a look at these three images, A, B, and C.

And then pause the video while you tell someone nearby, which of these show a reduction technique? Well done if you selected image A.

We can see that a rubber has been used there to create that circle.

And well done if you selected C.

Again, a rubber would have been used to create that leaf shape.

And now it's time for your next task.

I would like you to draw the shapes you might have noticed in the flowers you have observed.

Next, I'd like you to build up layers of the material you preferred within your shapes to create dark tones.

And then use a reduction process to create light tones.

So first you'll draw the shapes that you have noticed, then you'll build up the layers to create dark tones, and then you'll use the reduction process to create light tones.

Pause the video while you create a reduction drawing, enjoy.

So how did you get on with creating your reduction drawing? I'm so excited to find out.

You might have drawn the shapes you saw in your flower.

And then perhaps you added some details that you saw, maybe things like seeds and leaves, just like we saw Andeep do earlier.

And then perhaps you used your rubber several times, going over some of those lines to achieve even lighter tones in your reduction drawing.

Well, however you got on, I hope you enjoyed the process because art is all about having fun, having a good time, and I hope you're proud of yourselves for what you've achieved today.

In our lesson today, "Tonal flowers," we have covered the following.

Artists use tone to show where an object is light and dark.

Artists can build layers of tone, rather than use pressure, to create dark tones.

Artists can create light tones by taking away, rather than adding, materials.

I would like to say a really big well done to everybody for joining in with this lesson.

It was so much fun to explore tones, light tones, dark tones, layering to create darker tones, using a rubber to take away and create lighter tones.

I hope you enjoyed the lesson as well.

I'll see you again soon, bye for now.