Light, Shade and Tonal Value
Tone is what makes a drawing visible across a room. This domain tests whether the light comes from one consistent source, whether the value range is wide enough to read, and whether shadows are understood rather than smudged in. Examiners check the logic first: highlight, halftone, terminator, reflected light and cast shadow, all in the right order.
Fix the light before you shade
- Decide the direction once, at the start, and check every new mark against it. Top-left is the usual convention because it matches how we read form.
- Every object casts in the same direction, and shadow length stays consistent with the object's height and the light angle.
Structure of the shaded form
- Five zones: highlight (paper or near-white), halftone, core shadow or terminator (darkest on the form itself), reflected light (inside the shadow but lighter than the terminator), cast shadow.
- The darkest dark is usually the contact point between object and table, or a deep occlusion where two forms meet - not the outer contour.
- Reflected light must never become lighter than a lit halftone, or the form turns inside out.
- Cast shadow: sharpest and darkest at contact, softer and lighter with distance, its shape following the receiving surface.
Control the range
- Limit yourself to four or five values and keep them separate. Three clear values read better than infinite grey.
- Squint, or step back, to check that the masses still separate. If everything greys out, the range is too narrow.
Worked example
A white cube on grey paper, light from upper left. Top face: value 2 (light). Front-left face: value 4 (mid). Right face: value 6 (dark). Cast shadow: value 7 at contact, fading to 5 at its far edge. Highlight along the top-left edge only. Check: the right face must stay lighter than the contact shadow, or the cube looks lit from two sides.
Traps
- Shading by local colour - making the red apple dark because it is red, not because it turns from the light.
- Outlining the cast shadow, which flattens it into a sticker.
- Blending into even grey mush that destroys the terminator.
- Cast shadows pointing two ways because objects were shaded at different moments.