Tonal Drawing With Rick Morris, 2 Week-Pose, Week 2

Not finished, but this is probably the furthest I have gotten in a class assignment. In the unlikely event I have free time, I would like to finish it – right now the value range in the body is much lighter than the head. Her head dwells in darkness! (Oooh.)

Tonal Drawing with Rick Morris – 2-week pose

It is said that she who knows what she is doing with values can make a successful painting, even if she is a total mess at handling colour.

With this in mind, I am studying with a teacher who really understands values and focus as a storytelling tool. This class is already helping me a lot with my actual art-project-type drawings (still at it! pictures coming soon!), and I hope the skills I am learning will also bridge me back into my painting projects with less frustration therein.

In this exercise, we toned the paper with charcoal powder first, to a middle-dark tone. Then we did a block-in with charcoal pencil, erasing the lines carefully and re-blending the powder with a bristle brush.

The actual work with values started with defining light and shadow by squinting and looking at them as 2D shapes – what I call doing the cow-pattern. (You know? Those black and white blotch cows?)

Then we started building up darker shadows with vine charcoal, blending it in some more with the brush, so it’s really worked into the paper surface, and to get rid of streaking. Texture in shadow distracts from texture in light.

At this point, Rick surprised me by coming over and sticking a big ole highlight on the lady’s forehead. I am still used to keeping the highlights for the end, reserving them as a sort of magical sword that will make the whole thing work somehow. But no, Rick sez if you are setting up the dark value range by building in the darkest areas, you should also introduce the brightest points in the composition at the same time. Then you’ll know how light or dark everything in between the extreme points of the value range should be.

We picked the forehead because I wanted the model’s face to draw the most attention.

Guess what all the male students picked as their point of dramatic interest? No, guess.

Oh, alright. It was the boobs.