Lesson four is line with tone.
And the tool that we're going to use to draw with today is a brush.
And as a result, it will be a wet drawing
rather than a dry drawing that you would produce with a pencil.
Wet drawings are interesting because they get us nearer to painting.
I don't want to talk today about the difference between painting and
drawing, but this is a drawing that gets us on the way to painting.
Now, what are you doing when you draw with tone?
Basically, you're translating the lights and
darks you see in nature onto a piece of paper.
If you look at my hand, this side is lighter than this side.
And that is what allows us to see the hand as a three dimensional thing.
If I hold it up like that, it's light on one side, dark on the other.
And it is those differences in tonal value that allow us to describe things on paper.
Now, if we move to the drawing you'll see the left-hand side of the man's face
is in light, and the right in dark.
That is what makes it look real and convincing.
If we look at his leg, his thigh, on the right-hand side, is in bright light.
Drop-down to his feet, and you see the shadow that he casts.
So in the drawing, we know that the light is shining from left to right.
Now, very interesting thing about controlling tone with a brush is how
you can either do it by the darkness of the ink that you use.
So you could use a dark ink, as Romney has used on the right-hand arm of the figure.
Or you could use a much lighter ink
as it appears to be on the lef- hand side of hide of the figure.
Now, another way of varying it,
if you look at the wiggly line that's kinda going through his legs at
the bottom of the drawing is by how much ink you have on the brush.
You can see a lighter line.
Now, as it gets lighter running along the top of that squiggly line,
you will see that there is
what's called a dry brush moving across the paper just leaving a light touch.
So this is a much more complicated drawing to work with.
If you want to make it simple, you could take a photograph, you could trace it.
You could make a simple pencil drawing onto a piece of paper and
then work energetically over it with a brush.
Now, the reason I say energetically is because the point of using a wet
substance to work with in a flexible ended brush is that it
transfers the energy of your body into the image on the paper.
It isn't a dry graphic process like you're carefully working around
the edge of a leaf with a very pointed instrument.
You're working with something that flows and is rhythmic.
And of course, an important thing and
important part of drawing is that it should have atmosphere.
It should have energy.
It should have rhythm.
And that is what brushes are good for.
What very hard pencils are not so good for.
So this first lesson in tone also introduces the possibility of using
a softer and more lyrical, more flexible medium.
So the fourth lesson introduces not simply tone,
but an ability to use tone in a more energetic,
lively, and imaginative way.