Teach Yourself Visually Drawing

Key Your Drawing.

To key your drawing means to create a tonal range in your drawing. Tonal relationships (see

pages 54–55) show you how the lightness or darkness of one area relates to the lightness or

darkness of other areas in your subject. This development of tonal relationships is essential to

building the illusion of space and form in a drawing.

While looking and squinting at your entire still life setup, determine where
the lightest light and the darkest dark are (see page 55). The lightest light
usually appears on the lightest or most reflective object that is closest to
the light source. The darkest dark usually appears in the area that is far-
thest from the light source, such as a crevice or under the object (as in the
still life). If you find it difficult to see the lightest light or darkest dark with
your eye alone, consider where the light is coming from and which portion
of the object it is shining on. Also consider the texture of the object receiv-
ing the light.

Squint and Observe

Darkest Dark

Lightest Light

Once you have determined where the lightest light and darkest dark are,
indicate them on your drawing. With your eraser, erase the shape of the
lightest light area. With a 4B pencil (or higher B number), draw the shape
of the darkest dark area. Don’t press too hard on the pencil. You may want
to refine this shape later, or you may want to make it a little lighter later
on. Now that you have two reference points, form a scale from lightest to
darkest with which to compare all of the other areas of tone in your object
or objects (see page 53). If you are using more than one object, you will
still choose only one area for the lightest light, as you are establishing only
one tonal scale for the whole drawing. If you see a tone in the light area
that isn’t quite as bright as your lightest light, you can observe to what
degree that area is darker than your lightest light.

Darkest Dark

Lightest Light