SUNDAY WORKSHOP JUNE 15th 2025: Tonal Still-Life, charcoal, chalk and pastel

I'll be asking my students to bring a good complex still-life from which to work. We'll be looking specifically at tone and contrast with soft and hard edges. Charcoal is a particularly good medium for negotiation in a drawing! One option they'll have (which I haven't mentioned in the lesson plan below) is to work with chalk and/or white pastel on black paper or charcoal blackened paper. This is very effective way of learning where your lightest places and shapes are. Anyone who'd like to work the whole day on one large tonal drawing is very welcome to.

Above are examples of drawings using charcoal and chalk. You can also see that I took a section from the big drawing and made a tonal watercolour using the process described in the lesson plan.

Morning: The Drawing.

·        Set up a good still life in front of you which can include fruit&veg, ornaments, kitchen stuff, vessels, cloths etc. Take a black and white photo with your phone for a tonal reference.

·         

·        On good, large cartridge paper and using a piece of charcoal on its side (about an inch long), softly and smudgily begin to mark the areas of ‘tone’. Have an eraser to hand so that you can negotiate. In other words, so that you can rub out light places where you might have put unwanted tone.

·         

·        Use fingers to smudge soft edges. Particularly with cloth, look for soft transitions from dark to light, these are ‘soft’ edges.

·         

·        As you become more aware of where your darkest areas and shapes are, give stronger tone to those places.

·         

·        You can introduce chalk or white pastel at this stage to put in light places - but perhaps use your eraser first to rub clear areas where you want to use the chalk. This takes off any excess charcoal.

·         

·        Of course, mixing the chalk and charcoal together on your page can create some lovely soft tones. Experiment! Build!

Afternoon: Watercolour, on good watercolour paper.

·        Place some colours on your palette – blues, reds/oranges, greens etc., and experiment a little with various mixes to find a lovely neutral (greyish) colour.

·         

·        Mix a plentiful watery wash of your grey.

·         

·        Without fear…and using your largest brush, make an all over wash on your page but (loosely) try and leave the lightest places un-painted (the white of your page is your lightest tone).

·         

·        While this wash is still wet, and with a stronger (darker) version of your grey mix, gently place the darker tones…allow them to do their thing and spread into the wash. Enjoy the sensation of the paint running.

·         

·        Squeeze your brush and experiment with lifting paint (like mopping the kitchen floor) to re-find lighter places.

·         

·        Each time you mix your grey, mix it slightly differently so that you create a subtle variety with every layer.

·         

·        Gradually, as your layers dry, you’ll find you have more control over your edges. Paint shapes with clear hard edges but remember the edge softening technique with clean water for those places where you’re looking for a softer transition.

·         

·        Two things to note: 1. Your final layers will create the darkest tones and be the smallest shapes as they will sit on top of every layer that went before them. 2. At every layer you’ll think about shapes you want to reveal (leave un-painted) and you’ll avoid painting into those areas later.