the atelier method BALANCING LIGHT AND DARK
This exercise features a one-hour cast drawing demonstration by Lavender Hill Studios student Sebastian Rous. If you don’t have access to a cast or sitter, the principles can still be applied to almost any other subject.
1
In order to create the necessary contrast of light
and dark (chiaroscuro), we placed a white cast against a black background and lit it from a single source. In the early stages of learning, we use a white cast instead of a live model, as the contrast of light and dark is greater, the cast does not move and there are no model fees!
4
Mass in the dark up to those boundary lines you have
drawn. You will note that in some parts you can no longer see where your cast ends and the background begins, as the dark parts of the cast merge with the dark background.
5 2
Draw the scaffolding as described in earlier articles,
starting with top and bottom lines and including a series of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.
6
The next step is developing two tones into four. In the
dark areas, find a lighter dark; likewise in the lighter areas, look for a darker light. You now have two darks and two lights. The most important thing is that this lighter-dark and the darker-light remain distinct tones and never cross over: the darker-light should never be as dark as the lighter-dark.
3
Within your scaffolding, carefully draw the
boundaries of the areas in which dark meets light. It helps to exaggerate the contrast of dark and light at this stage, particularly in the areas where the dark morphs gradually into the light without any hard edge. If you are struggling to identify
the various tonal areas, try half closing your eyes – your eyelashes can act as a screen, cutting out the detail and simplifying the contrasts between light and dark.
7
With your basic shapes in the right place, you can indulge in
detail. There are a variety of edges to be identified – soft, hard, lost, found – each depending on the contrast, the angle of the form (whether a gentle or sharp curve) and the type of shadow (whether a form or cast shadow). Conversely, the accents should have little to do with contour or edges, and everything to do with focus and priority.
Artists & Illustrators 69
Keep your dark areas to a single tone, flattening it to
unify the mass and disregarding at this stage the actual variations within it. Stand back and notice how your image becomes abstracted – an assembly of asymmetrical shapes in two tones.
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