Painting with Light & Shade
What is tonal value?
Tone, value or tonal value is the lightness or darkness of any colour.
Why is tonal value important?
Successful paintings have a wide tonal value range to add depth and interest. Imagine a painting turned from colour to black and white, if there were all greys and no lights and darks it would look dull. Therefore, tone is more important than colour to bring a painting to life. Highlighting pupils tonal value (or lack of) comes up the most in my teaching above all the other aspects of teaching people to paint, which is why I have written some pointers here to help you in your work.
There is a phrase I have read which sums this up brilliantly.
“Tones do all the work,
and the colour takes all the glory.”
How can I achieve successful tonal value in my art?
You can paint subjects which have a distinctive contrast of tonal value such as cast shadows or silhouettes. These types of scenes are full of drama as you have lights and darks adjacent to one another. With this, you can highlight certain areas or create a focal point to draw the viewers eye towards a specific area. For example, bright sunlight in the sky behind a silhouetted tree or a silhouetted lighthouse over a bright sunlit sea. Directional long cast shadows in a woodland setting formed by the low sun against the trees. Remember that cast shadows vary on different surfaces. A shadow cast across tufty grass would look uneven compared to a neat, edged shadow cast on a smooth path. Buildings are best captured on a sunny day to depict the high contrasting shadows and light hitting the building’s structure and forming strong shapes.
If you are using a reference photo or painting from life, a good way to see your tonal values is to squint. Then you block out all the details and just see the lights and darks. Or, you could always take a photo and turn it to black and white to see where the lightest and darkest tones are.
I use a minimum of three tones in my paintings to depict something that is 3D on my 2D painting surface. For example, if a tree trunk has the sunlight hitting on one side, this creates a light-tone, the opposite side would be the dark-tone shady part and the tone in between the two would be your mid-tone. If you add in any extra tonal values in between the light-tone, mid-tone, dark-tones then that is an added bonus! So, a general guide of three works for me.
Highlights can be added on top of the tones if necessary. Don’t presume all highlights are white, look at your subject to see.
The colours of shadows are a darker version of what the shadow is cast upon. So, the shadow of a vase on a blue table would show a darker blue shadow and so on. A tree in a woodland if it is casting a shadow on green foliage, the shadow would create darker greens. However, if you are feeling artistic, you can play around with different colours to see what looks exciting in your work. Push the boundaries. The only restriction is your imagination.
I often paint too pale so how can I improve the use of tones in my work?
If you struggle to work out your tones and not achieve dark enough colours, practice by painting a monochrome scene in a dark colour such as Payne’s Grey. This will improve your tonal awareness and build your confidence when you switch to using colour.
Always question yourself while painting…’are my darks dark enough?” If the answer is ‘no’, then go darker.
