JACKY O'CALLAGHAN Paintings

How to...

Drawing

Your drawings are OK, but something’s missing…Sound like you? Would you like to make them punchy, dynamic and amazing?

I’ve seen hundreds of beginners‘ drawings, many of them very good - but a lot of them lack what I call “oomph”…and that is often down to:

Something called TONAL CONTRAST.

TONE is the term given to the lights and darks in a drawing or painting.

If you’re a beginner this might sound a bit highbrow and beyond your capabilities. Believe me it isn’t! Read on for a simple exercise anyone - yes anyone - can do, to lift your drawing out of that “beginner” level and boost your confidence in what you can achieve:

HOW TO MAKE A TONAL SCALE:

Take a pencil and a sheet of white paper (preferably a softish grade 2B or 3B pencil, and good quality cartridge paper - but any pencil and paper will do for the moment - don’t put it off until you can get to the art shop - start now!)

Hold your pencil as loosely as you can and, starting a little way in - an inch (3cms) or so - from the left-hand edge, make a small patch on the paper, as lightly and softly as possible - just let the pencil use its own weight. The patch can be as big or small as you like, but something about an inch (2 or 3cms) across is ideal.

Next to this patch, make another - but this time use just a little more pressure, to make a very slightly darker patch.

Continue making these patches, in a row, each one slightly darker than the last, until you find you can’t make one any darker - you can go back over the patches if necessary. You’ll need to press harder with the pencil, and probably find yourself holding it differently for each patch - eventually you’ll find you can’t press any harder and you’ll have a patch on the end of the row as dark as it will go. Now stop!

You should now have a row of patches - each one darker than the last. How many have you got? Probably 8 or 10. Now number them, making the first, lightest patch No. 2 (yes 2 - you’ll see why in a minute) and the last, darkest patch, whatever number it ends up with - probably 8 or 10 (maybe 9, it doesn’t matter as long as you’ve got a row from lightest to darkest.)

Now go back to the beginning of the scale, and draw just a circle, or a square, so you’ve got a patch of pure white paper inside it. That’s why I said start a little way in! This is your tone Number 1.

It should look something like this: (I got 9 patches...)



Congratulations! You’ve made a Tonal Scale! So what has this to do with your drawing?

HOW TO USE YOUR TONAL SCALE:

Take some drawings you’ve done, and compare them to the scale. Try to see which tones in your drawing match the tones on the scale. My guess is, if you think your drawing lacks something, that the only tones you can match are in the middle range, say 4 to 7.

IMPORTANT: Use YOUR Tonal Scale, not the one here!

So what does all this tell you?

To give your drawing that dynamism you want, you MUST be able to see the darker tones - whether it’s 8, 9 or 10 on your tonal scale, it needs to have, somewhere, the darkest, strongest tone you can make. It often only needs to be a small area that has this darkest tone, but it makes all the difference to the result.

Equally important is Tone Number 1, pure white - this, and the darkest tone, give you the complete TONAL RANGE to use in your drawings.

IMPORTANT - You don’t need ALL these tones in a drawing, in fact it's better not to - but you DO need the lightest, No. 1, the darkest, No 10 (or whatever it is on your scale), and one or two in the middle range - say 4 and 6. Don’t be too worried about the middle ranges - it’s the lightest and darkest which are vital.

I haven’t given tone No. 1 much emphasis because, though it’s vital, it doesn’t cause a anything like the anxiety to beginners that the dark tones do!

I’ve seen beginners make a superb tonal scale, then be afraid to re-create that darkest tone on their actual drawings. “I’m scared!” is a common cry…Well, it’s a sheet of paper - you won’t kill anyone or drown or cause an accident - so just do it!

Please feel free to contact me to let me know if this helps and how you got on.

Good quality pencils and paper will definitely help - next time I’ll show you the pencil grades, and how to get the most from them.

Happy drawing!