Use tone and shading techniques, including a tonal range from light to dark, highlights, core shadow and cast shadow, to make drawn objects look solid and lit

What this dot point is asking

SEAB wants you to use tone and shading to make your drawings look solid and three-dimensional. Tone is how light or dark something is, and shading is how you apply it. This is the skill that turns flat outlines into rounded, lit forms. The central idea is that you are not drawing the object so much as drawing the light falling on it, and a smooth change of tone across a surface is what makes it look real.

The answer

What tone does

Tone is how light or dark an area is. When you shade an object, you are recording how light falls across it: the parts facing the light are pale, the parts turned away are dark. This gradual change of tone is what makes a form look solid. An outline alone keeps an object flat; tone gives it volume.

Building a tonal range

A good drawing uses a full tonal range, from the lightest light (often the white of the paper) through mid greys to the darkest dark. A common weakness is shading everything in the same dull mid-grey, which looks flat. To avoid it, find your darkest dark and your lightest light first, then fill in the mid-tones between them. Strong contrast between light and dark makes a drawing read clearly.

The parts of light and shadow

On a simple rounded form there are predictable parts:

• Highlight: the brightest spot, where the light hits most directly.
• Light side: the area facing the light, kept pale.
• Core shadow: the darkest band on the form itself, where the surface turns furthest from the light.
• Reflected light: a slightly lighter edge on the shadow side, bounced from nearby surfaces.
• Cast shadow: the dark shape thrown onto the surface beneath, on the side away from the light.

Shading techniques

How you lay the tone down is the technique:

• Blending smooths the tone so there are no visible lines, suiting soft, rounded surfaces like skin or a smooth ball.
• Hatching and cross-hatching build tone with sets of parallel lines, crossing a second layer to darken, suiting textured or controlled work and ideal in pen.
• Pressure control with pencil, pressing softly for light tone and harder for dark, lets you change tone smoothly.

Examples in context

Example 1. A still-life of eggs and cloth. A classic tonal exercise is a few eggs on draped cloth lit from one side. The smooth gradients on the eggs show core shadow and highlight, while the folds of cloth show how tone follows every rise and dip. It is a simple subject that teaches the whole language of tone.

Example 2. A pen-and-ink drawing. With pen you cannot smudge, so tone is built entirely with hatching and cross-hatching, more lines packed closer for darker areas. This shows how a technique is chosen to suit the medium, and how tone can be built from line alone without any blending.

Try this

Q1. Explain why deciding the light source first is important when shading. [2 marks]

• Cue. All the tones follow from the light direction; deciding it first keeps the highlight, core shadow and cast shadow consistent so the form looks solid rather than confused.

Q2. Name the parts of light and shadow you would shade on a simple ball. [3 marks]

• Cue. The highlight (brightest spot), the light side, the core shadow (darkest band on the form), reflected light on the shadow edge, and the cast shadow on the surface beneath.

Q3. Describe one shading technique and say what surface it suits. [2 marks]

• Cue. Blending smooths tone with no visible lines and suits soft, rounded surfaces; or hatching builds tone with parallel lines and suits textured work and pen drawing.