How to Make a Chiaroscuro Drawing.mpg

all right first someone just want to

talk about just how to manipulate

charcoal on the

page um there's two basic techniques

there's an additive technique and a

subtractive technique the additive

technique is where you build up the

surface by adding more media and a

subtractive technique is when you

actually develop the Surface by the

removal of media and so when you go put

this down in the page I I don't ever

hold the charcoal like a pencil I always

hold it kind of

flat almost parallel to the drawing

surface so that I can start to just

manip manipulate it and put it down on

the

page in much broader Strokes then once

it's down there I just kind of take my

hands and I start to incorporate the

media into the surface of the page and

by doing so I'm not just going in One

Direction I'm going a lot of different

directions working circularly going

vertically kind of horizontally however

many uh I utilize as many directions as

I need to so that I'm really working the

media into that surface into the tooth

of the page for some of you folks that

that's something you don't feel

comfortable with you can use another

tool like a paper towel or a soft piece

of cotton uh you can get a shammy cloth

anything that you can utilize to kind of

start to move it

around whatever you feel more

comfortable with these are all valid

ways to manipulate the media onto the

page um sometimes if you're trying to

get a a a lighter gray you don't want to

go as dark as this sometimes you can

take a paper towel and that little bit

of media that's on the towel can

actually

create an area of

value that still nice and Rich and it's

complete but it doesn't get as dark as

using the stick directly um to then

start to manipulate the media you can

use a white plastic

eraser you can use a kned putty eraser

they both work very well the white

plastic eraser though tends to take more

media off and so if I want to take a

large amount of the media off I'm going

to use the white plastic

eraser if I want to take just a little

bit of the media off I'm going to use

needed putty eraser and I take it and I

just kind of warm it up in my hand a

little

bit and then as I kind of start to kind

of pull it across that charcoal surface

it allows me to take the media

off but it doesn't take as much

off as the white plastic eraser and so

what it allows me for allows me to do is

to create some more subtle gradual

changes in the

value you know want to try to manipulate

this this around um I want you to think

about charcoal as being a very fluid

media meaning even as dark and as heavy

and this really strong presence that it

has on the page it's still a very fluid

media meaning if I

had oh say I had a shape

here and it was a circular

shape

and if all a sudden I was looking at

whatever I was drawing and I I realized

that instead of it being circular say it

was a a triangular shape that I worked

with the charcoal almost like it was

Clay where if I need to take this into a

triangle I'm just going to pull off a

little bit

here and pull off a little bit

here and just as if it were you know a

clay that little part that I just pulled

off of here I'm going to stick back up

here that part that I pulled off over

here I'm going to stick back right over

here and then I'm going to add some of

it right back over to here and so even

though again it's very heavy heavy it's

got a a really uh strong presence on the

page it's a very fluid media that you

can move around really quickly um is it

ever going to come completely off the

page no but odds are even this residue

that's here it's going to be very rare

that you ever have a completely white

area in your drawings and so sometimes

when you first take it off it can be a

distraction where you see that residue

but odds are another value other

charcoal is going to go back into that

spot

later

so so that's just the introduction on

how to move the charcoal around um if

I'm trying to get a really specific

shape say like in here if I wanted to a

really fine shape and I wanted to draw

it with my Eraser can you see how the

Eraser is kind of rounded right here so

it's kind of

tough because it's rounded to actually

get a really defined shape and so if I'm

trying to get into a small area like

that I will maybe take and sharpen my

Eraser I will cut off maybe maybe about

a quarter of an inch so that now that I

have now that I have a sharp edge on

here I'm able to get into that

shape and actually start to control

it or excuse me control where my

charcoal or my Eraser is a little bit

more accurately and therefore I can

actually start to Define that shape

a little bit

more

uh Define it a little bit more

accurately um I can also use a

tool like my

um which is a pencil which has a um an

eraser on the inside of

it so that if I need to get into a very

small

area

the smaller surface area kind of allows

me to do some really nice

fine detail

work and so you always got to be

conscious of realizing whatever it is

that you're trying to accomplish and

making sure that you have a tool that is

prepared to help you accomplish whatever

that task

is

cut that's just the introduction to

Charcoal go all right so now when we um

start to take and apply the theory of

kiriro to just a very basic shape to

create the illusion of volume shape

we're going to use as a circle and so

what I'm going to do is start off with

just a circular shape here and I'm going

to leave a little bit of room so that I

can have the cast Shadow and I can also

have an En environment around it all

right what I want to start off doing

though instead of getting with uh

distracted by the details immediately

meaning I'm not going to start with the

Highlight I'm not going to start with

the penumbra area I'm not going to start

with the reflected light I'm going to

start with the large areas of kiriro the

three large areas are the light area the

Umbra area which is also called The Core

Shadow and the cash Shadow and so I'm

going to just take the side of my

charcoal and I'm going to just do it

very lightly in the beginning I'm not

going to

overcommit so I'm just going to start to

lay

out

where the Umbra area is going to

be and then

also where the cast

Shadow is going to

be know there's always got to be an

awareness of the entire picture plane

and so I'm going to also then think

about that backr around or the

environment that the object exists

in and the decision to make that

background

dark it's simply since that cast Shadow

is here I just wanted a dark value up

here just to balance that

out

and even at this early stage what I want

to be able to do is right now I just

want to be able to see where the form is

and I also want to be able to understand

the structure I want to be able to

understand where the light source is

coming from and right now just where

this light area is and my highlight's

going to end up being right here I can

already see that kind of trajectory of

the light source as it kind of hits the

form here and then as it exit it's

almost kind of resulting in that

direction of the cast shadow

now as I start to to develop the surface

I'm going to again use my

hand I'm just going to start to blend

this

in and I'm working the charcoal into

that surface and to do so I'm going to

have to work in a lot of different

directions sometimes if that charcoal

has been a little um what's the word I

want to use charcoal's being a little

stubborn Maybe and sometimes if I can't

get rid of those marks sometimes what I

might need to do is get just a little

bit more charcoal on there on my fingers

and just start to integrated it into the

page just a little bit

more if working with your hands is

something you don't feel that

comfortable with you can use a paper

towel um I've actually had some students

use uh cotton and that works really well

but I can just take this now and very

easily

sorry start to incorporate this in the

page but I still have to be thinking

about instead of just going One

Direction I need to go in a lot of

different directions when I do that

again it helps to really incorporate

that media into the Surface by working

it into the the to the tooth of the

paper

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you know I might even use this now just

to kind of start to define the

form cuz I want to have charcoal

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everywhere

what I might need to do to kind of

lighten something up primarily I've been

working with additives techniques where

I've been taking the media and I've been

developing the Surface by the addition

of media but you know what sometimes

what I might need to do is if this goes

a little too

dark I might kind of maybe use my kneed

put or excuse me my white plastic eraser

to start to remove the media as

well all right so it still has value it

still has charcoal here but it's not as

dark as it is here so I'm bringing a

little bit of contrast into my

[Music]

composition

and sometimes developing that surface

again you might need to work

additively but you know it might get to

a point where by working

additively this has gotten a lot darker

than here and so I might just need to

come back in with my white plastic

eraser and develop that surface again by

the removal of the

media where I'm pulling it back off

now so that the value level here is a

lot closer to how it is here you know

and if I didn't take enough off I could

keep going back to it and keep removing

it

so that those value levels are more

similar and don't worry you don't have

to get it to be this perfectly smooth

surface what I'm interested in as is

having the media worked into the surface

sometimes can you see like the eraser

marks here sometimes that um I think can

add to the interest of the drawing

because it's now the surface of the

drawing it's the physical texture of the

drawing it's the texture that's created

by the medium

and for me this almost looks like a and

I refer to it as a painterly surface

where it almost looks like brush Strokes

on a

painting the activity is okay but you

don't want it to overwhelm the subject

very active marks create emphasis in the

composition and

so the background is not what I want to

emphasize what I want to emphasize is

the subject and so a very active

background can very easily distract from

the surface

meaning I had a bunch of marks that were

really active like this my viewer my

viewer's eye is going to go here and

it's po it could possibly compete with

the focal point or the subject of my

statement that happens you just kind of

take it and

just just soften them back up the marks

stay there but by reducing the contrast

they don't

compete with red

so now back to my

form now that once I get these areas of

the major areas of TI Scaro in now I

want to start thinking about developing

them a little bit more I want to think

about expanding out from the large major

areas to the more specific detailed

areas um maybe where the highlight's

going to be I'm not going to take my

charcoal and put a line around there I

did that that line I'm going to have a

very tough time getting rid of later and

so what I want to think about doing is

maybe adding a little bit of

media to that part into that light

area but even by adding the media I'm

still keeping it significantly lighter

than the Umbra area so I'm I'm

maintaining the structure I'm

maintaining how that light is moving

across the surface but that little bit

of media now will allow

me

to Define where that highlight area

is and then now thinking about going

that transition area the penumbra area

which is the transition from the light

to the Umbra I want to start to think

about creating that transition where as

the planes are slowly turning away from

the light source or are gradually

turning away from the light source we

want to see that the value in that Ed in

that area gradually go from a light to a

dark um I can start to use my

Eraser to kind of pull back

over that area so that I'm actually

starting to create almost this new

Crescent

shape that'll start to

Define that transition

area by pulling a little bit of it off

take my hand now go back in and just

start to blend it a little bit

more but even even though I'm softening

up that edge I'm still maintaining this

very distinct area it's it's the

Highlight here the light here the

penumbra here and the Umbra

here as I'm developing these shapes I

want to think about what we talked about

in the beginning of the quarter about

contour and cross contour lines that now

these

edges of these shapes are acting as

cross contour lines early in the corner

we quarter we used a line to talk about

the terrain of that surface and how that

terrain changes in space now what we're

using is that edge that edge that's

created by the change in

value to start to talk about that plane

change and that change in terrain but

but that edge has to move fluidly across

that surface or it has to have that

circular quality to it so that the form

has a circular or the illusion is that

it is a sphere meaning if I did this and

all of a sudden if I had this shape that

was

here and if it made a diagonal there

that to me

contradicts what I understand by looking

at the primary contour and so that edge

that is there still needs to

have again that circular

quality so that I understand the volume

of the

form at this point I might come back in

with a little bit more of the charcoal

to maybe reinforce that Umbra

area and then as I'm working back

through here on this far side now I'm

want to start defining where that

reflected light is and remember that

reflected light is created not from the

light source directly hitting that area

of the subject but from the light

hitting the environment and then

bouncing back up into that area to

illuminate it and so since it's a

reflected light the reflected light is

always going to have a lower intensity

than the direct light source and so even

though it's going to be illuminated over

here it's not going to be as light as

this

area

and you see how as I keep adding more

information as I start to expand this

out more and more and you start to see

the illusion of volume

increase you know and as I'm also doing

it now and I'm getting more specific

information in starting to define the

shapes a little bit more

completely but it's still very very

soft you know and so what I want to do

though is I want to start thinking now

again from the beginning of the quarter

when we talked about the difference in

primary and cross contour lines primary

Contours which is that outermost edge of

the subject the cross Contours which are

those lines that go across the form that

describe the ples or the terrain of the

subject but when we look at them that

the if we were working with line we

would want a darker sharper line to

convey a more severe change in the plane

we would want a softer lighter line to

convey a less severe break in the plane

and right now do you see how I have

these edges pretty defined pretty

equally well if I'm looking at this form

it would make sense to me that this

would be a Sharper Edge than this

because there's more of a severe change

in the plane here and so to enhance this

illusion I need to start to

differentiate those from one another and

so what I'm going think about doing is

taking maybe my white plastic eraser now

I'm just starting to come into this

area I'm not pushing very

hard I'm just starting to

Define where that edge is I'm going to

blend it just a little bit so that that

line goes

away but that edge remains you know I

might do it over through here with that

reflected

light I might use that as a

way I'm starting to Define that form a

little bit more you know up through here

I might actually have to come back in

and maybe I need to add a little bit to

the background here you know I might

need to work on the other the other edge

of that form instead of here where I was

primarily working on the positive space

now I might need to work in that

negative

space just to start to

define the subject just a little bit

more can you start to see the form

emerging

here continue to kind of work on it kind

of continue to build it you know I might

need a tool that's a little smaller just

to Define that edge you know that much

more

you know sometimes if I even actually

leave marks in here I almost want to

think about letting them go kind of

across the form they're going to help

bring my viewer's eye across there so

they hope so they they they maybe

understand the circular quality a little

bit

more you know I want to make sure that

my air areas of curious the placement of

them make sense like right now where

this is coming from it means my that

that light is shooting out here so if

it's shooting out this way I probably

want to

pull my cast Shadow over this way just a

little bit more to bring it under the

form because it would make sense that if

the light's not hitting it here it's not

going to be able to hit it

here you know and as much as you hate to

hear the word this cast Shadow is

actually an ellipse all right it's a

circle that's now being drawn in

perspective

so so you want to bring in that kind of

elliptical

quality of that shape a little bit more

you know here maybe kind

of find this if I need to sometimes if I

got to Define an edge what I'll do is

I'll take that value that's in that

negative space

and I'll pull it

over into that positive

space and then I'll go back

in and redefine that

edge from the

positive you know we here

maybe where it gets darker here maybe I

need to now Define

that by lightening

up that negative space a little bit

more right and I'm going to continue to

do this until I Define these edges

where that my understanding of how these

plan planes change in Space the edges

that I believe reflect my understanding

on the times when it's a more of a

severe break and times when it's more of

a or it's a less severe break all right

does that make

sense think we're

done