sketchbookAugust
TIPS • ADVICE • IDEAS
WHAT IS
COUNTERCHANGE?HAZEL SOAN explains
this useful artistic trick- and when to use it
A difference between adjacent
tones on the picture plane helps to
defi ne spatial relationships, showing
that features lie one in front of
another. The pencil lines drawn for
a composition usually demarcate
where the eye discerns individual
objects, a perception which is due
largely to tonal register. In principle,
therefore, there should be an
exchange of relative tone either side
of a pencil line.
This lighter than/darker than
counterchange sets up the illusion
of space between objects
overlapping on the picture plane.
If your painting looks fl at, the way
to give it depth and contrast is to
increase and even exaggerate the
counterchange, darkening the tones
against lighter tones and vice versa.
Having established individual
areas of tonal exchange, make sure
the overall balance makes visual
sense, with the tones in the
foreground brighter and stronger
than those in the background.
This is an extract from Hazel’s new
book, Learn Watercolour Landscapes
Quickly, published by Batsford.
http://www.batsford.com
View this painting from left to right to see how the relative tones of one rock beside the next enables us to
believe that one is in front and another behind, even though we know the painting is a fl at piece of paper.In this mosaic of alternating
tones, light is contrasted
against an adjacent darker
tone and vice versa, so
that the eye can clearly
comprehend what lies in
front and what lies behind.It can help to see features
in the landscape as
geometrical shapes one in
front of the other. Here a
pile of rocks similar to those
in the painting below has
been approximated to a
wedge, hemispheres,
a cube and a cylinder.Artists & Illustrators 9