#tonalvalues

Learn to shade gray tones and tonal values

Hatching is one of the most important drawing techniques with which one can (among other things) simply draw shadows. Hatching draws many lines parallel to each other to create tonal values. There are many different ways to hatch, so you can distinguish the hatching, for example, in the stroke direction, the number of drawn hatching directions, the line density, the stroke shape, etc. This online tutorial shows how to use the right hatching technique to graphically display different levels of brightness and plasticity. So it's about drawing different tonal values.

Chiaroscuro gradient drawn with different hatching techniques Term clarification - tonal value  The term tone value denotes different brightness gradations - that is, gray tones. In other words, a tone within a defined color or gray scale spectrum is a certain gray tone. The entire range of tones ranges from white to black, with gray values in between. A tonal spectrum is therefore a "collection" of different shades of gray. When drawing, you can use a certain range of tonal values to simply represent shadows of varying intensity.

Draw tonal values by hatching

Most often, surfaces in a drawing are hatched to draw shadows. Shading is about making a drawing look three-dimensional by drawing different shades of gray. Drawing shadows is easier when we understand and master the technique of hatching. The goal of hatching is thus the generation of gray tones and brightness gradations. Accordingly, one tries to hatch in such a way that the impression of gray tones arises and the perception of the individual lines is lost. This is possible by means of hatching, since the dark line in the eye of the observer mixes with the lighter background (the paper) to a medium gray tone. It creates the impression of a medium gray tone. To draw different tonal values and brightness gradations with hatching, there are three different ways of drawing with a pencil: Change line density Change in the contact pressure of the pencil Use of pencils of different degrees of hardness 1. Gray shades by changing line density In the picture below you can see how to create different shades of gray by drawing the lines of the hatching further or narrower. You can see that the leftmost hatch produces the brightest gray tone. The lines are far apart here. But beware: If you draw the lines too far apart, you may lose the impression of a steady gray tone. The shadows in the image below become more dense from left to right, producing darker grays. In total, here we have created four hatchings with different tonal values by changing the line density. Even darker tonal values can be created, for example, with cross-hatching, or more generally with multiple hatchings in different directions.

Gray tones are hatched by changing the line density Tip: This method of drawing different tonal values is extremely important, especially when drawing with ink. This is where the other two options fall away. 2. Draw shades of gray by changing the contact pressure of the pencil You can also draw different tonal values by increasing and decreasing the contact pressure of the pencil. If you press hard with the pencil, the strokes are thicker and the gray value darker. With light pressure, the lines become thinner and brighter. In the picture below you can see five hatchings drawn with different pressure. Left was hatched with slight pressure on the pencil, to the right with increasing contact pressure.

Different hatchings drawn with different pressures This method is advantageous because you can draw the hatching very dense without becoming too dark. Narrow drawn lines make drawings seem more realistic, because you do not immediately see that this is a drawing. In addition, you do not necessarily have to change the pen compared to method 3. This hatching technique, for example, is not feasible with ink and therefore typical for pencil drawings. Incidentally, this is also one of the reasons why the pencil or graphite pencil is so popular for drawing. 3. Draw tonal values by using different pencil hardnesses You can also create different gray levels by using pencils with different degrees of hardness. With hard pencils you can draw bright shades of gray, with soft pencils you can hatch dark areas. In the picture below you can see different hatchings drawn with different pencils. These are pencils of hardness 5H, HB, 2B and 5B (from left to right).