Exercise: Creating tone using marks

Tonal scales for a range of media from white to black:

Line 1 above: thick graphite crayon: Cross hatching and going from pressing lightly to pressing really hard

Started with the first lighter colours then the darkest to gauge inwards to get a middle tone, I sometimes had to go back over some to maintain the gradual tones
Pressing lightly and with more space in the cross hatching gives the lighter effect

Line 2 above: charcoal pencil: Cross hatching in increasing layers and blending slightly for more solid tones

This time I added more cross hatching layers to build the dark tones and blended with my finger, this gives a messier less even look than using one simple cross hatch

Line 3 above: white, grey and black conte sticks and pastels

Even using the lightest grey for the second patch next to the white it seemed to dark and so I had to add on white
I simply scribbled lines on these ones in one way until the end I added more cross hatching and darker tones till the black
Interesting to see the effects of different greys then adding lighter or darker greys or black or white to get the gradual scale – pastels lend themselves to this better than a lot of other media

Decided to try black pastel paper and work with white, grey and black

Line 1 above: White chalk, pastel and charcoal

Vertical lines and application of mixed media to get the tone desired on top of black pastel paper – similar to the above I had to go over some of the lighter shades with greys to get the scale right – this is easy when you have the comparative ends of each scale but this made me reflect on how easier it is to get lost in tone in a piece when you dont have this scal

Line 2 above: Neon crayons in white, grey and black

evenly spread using the texture of the paper for a light and even grainy effect given how hard crayons are and the texture of the paper
Some of the grey had a blue tinge I only noticed after

Line 3 above: White pastel in rough diagonal stippling

Line 1 above: acrylic paint

I tried dirtying the water for my brush after making the darkest two tones and applying this for the first really light tone which worked well
then I kept adding though paint is thicker and not as easy to manage so I had to go back and add and adjust tones as I went, using white and black interchangeably

Line 2 above: water colour markers

tried applying less and less lines of colour to then blend with water to get less and less tone
You can still see the lines

Line 3 above: ink pens and pencil

Cross hatching smaller and tighter to lighter and wider to get dark to light tones – as well as using thicker and thinner nibs and finally a light pencil for the lightest tone before the white

Reflections:

I think using these examples against when I attempt to apply tone over a piece could be useful as its not always easy to stand back and get the tones right in a piece
I still continue to like working from a mid or darker tone paper as I find it easier to build towards light than apply dark tone
different media and mixing media to get the right tone was insightful