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ART CLASS 1118

TONE

Tone is the lightness or darkness of a color. The tonal values of an artwork can be adjusted to alter its expressive character. The play of light and dark can add deep and profound emotions to your artwork.

How can tone be used...

Tone can be used to create a contrast between light and dark, which can create dynamism in an image.

Tone can be used to create the illusion of form, by manipulating the tonal values of your marks.

Tone can also...

Tone can create a dramatic or tranquil atmosphere, with lighter areas and darker, deeper shades.

Tone can also create a sense of depth and distance, because contrast increases up close and decreases further away.

Realistic

Drawing teaches us to really look. Before the invention of the camera an artist would perform the important job of creating realistic representations of life in order to capturepeople's likeness. This role has diminished somewhat since the camera, but remains a key skill in training and improving the sharpness of the artistic eye and developing technical skills when drawing from observation.

Check out our Realistic picture board...

Here are some good examples...

Realistic

Surrealistic

Artists (unlike machines) are able to manipulate and play around with tone to create unusual and extraordinary effects. By creating an unnatural depiction of light an artist can create a strange, dreamlike scene which looks and feels quite surreal and alien to us (as in a dream or a nightmare).

Check out our Surrealistic picture board...

Here are some good examples...

Surrealistic

Subtractive

It is common practice to start a drawing or painting with a white piece of paper or a white canvas. As we live in a world which is just as much dark as it is light, it is sometimes more natural to create your image by placing lighter tones onto a darker background. This can often give your work a greater sense of depth and form.

Check out our Subtractive picture board...

Here are some good examples...

Subtractive

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro originated during the Renaissance as drawing on coloured paper, where the artist worked from the paper's base tone toward light using white gouache, and toward dark using ink or watercolour. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures.

Check out our Chiaroscuro picture board...

Here are some good examples...

Chiaroscuro

Colour Tone

Artists can often become complacent when using colour to describe tonal values because it comes ready mixed. Colour work can often end up overly vibrant, unrealistic and sickly because of this lazy approach. Some artists mix and match subtle colours by first mixing the grey tone value and then adding colour. This technique can achieve accurate and realistictonal values in colour work.

Check out our Colour Tone picture board...

Here are some good examples...

Colour Tone

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