Traditional Artist Workshops
5
End boldly by pushing your dark values
After you’ve been building up your drawing with values, you should know where your highest points of contrast are. But if you want to
create a bold finish, grab a pencil with a higher number on the B scale and punch up your dark values to drive that extra bit of contrast!
Making dark values even darker may
seem like a small addition at the end
of a drawing, but it makes a big
difference in directing the viewers
eye and keeping it clean to read.You can see the
contrast shifts in this
drawing with the
eggshell being the
lightest value, the
background being a
mid-tone value and
then the dragon
being the darkest.Since I want the focus to be
towards the head, I punch
those values darker with an
8B pencil and keep the eye
relatively light to push the
contrast and be a prominent
point of interest.To keep the egg and body
of the dragon separate,
I add a subtle contrast with
the egg being slightly
darker than the underbelly.
This is another easy way to
separate forms.