Modeling tone. This is probably one of the most critical steps in the whole process.
You’ve been watching me draw. I’m using the modeling tone all the time. I may have
even mentioned it before. Now we’re going to take and go through what the modeling tone
is and how we use it to describe form. I’m going to explain the whole concept. We’re
going to be taking and using examples of the old masters to help clarify what it is that
I’m talking about. Okay, let’s get to work.

When we’re talking about tone, if you find that maybe the terminology I’m using is
not universal. In fact, what I’m talking about now is the modeling tone, which is the
basic way we render form. In fact, if you are on a computer and doing 3D work on a computer,
when you open up the computer on a three-dimensional model without the lights being set, what you
see is the basic modeling tone. It’s the one where what’s facing you is in light.
What recedes goes back as it goes around the corner. This is very, very traditional. It
goes back to the Renaissance, to the Greeks. It’s nothing new.
A couple of years ago I had a student who had been trained in Italy. He was a professional.
He took my class. He was actually teaching at a university. I started explaining what
we were going to go through today. He was surprised because he had never in all the
time that he, with groups of artists working and trying to figure out how they did this,
he had never had anybody explain to them the fundamentals of what we’re talking about now.
This is the modeling tone. The first thing, the pencil. This goes right back to day one.
We talk about how you hold a pencil. Well, holding the pencil where it’s down, you’re
picking it up beforehand so that the pencil is parallel to the paper. You can’t do what
we’re talking about now by holding your pencil this way. Now, eventually, once you
understand the concepts and become sort of fluent in it, you will be able to do it using
cross-hatching, doing anything. It’s not a style. This is an important part. It’s
not a style. It’s a tool that we use for rendering form, particularly drawing from
imagination. One of the things that you have to take and develop your skill at, particularly
if you’re working from a model, is to ignore the lights that you see coming on the model.
It has nothing to do with the light that exists. It has to do with being able to render form.
Okay, so now let me take and show you exactly what I’m talking about. Again, you notice
that my pencil that I’m using is down low. It’s this. So now, the basic idea. Use a
simple sphere. The center of the form. Intuitively most people already know this. As the ball
turns away from you it goes darker. We’re going over that surface and pushing it back.
Now, this has nothing to do with distance. We’re talking about angle. It’s the angle
that the surface turns away from you. Again, like in the computer. Same thing. Now, as
I push the tone we get darker to the outside edge. Like I said, this is all about angles.
If we take and have a surface that’s going this way and these are planes going in space.
As it turns farther away, this would be the equivalent of the center. As it turns away
it goes into tone. Then as it turns away farther it goes into the tone again. The way we’re
talking about it is the angle. Basically, the idea is what is facing you is in light,
what recedes goes into tone. That’s the essence of the thing.
Now, it’s a question of, relatively speaking, what faces you is in light, what recedes goes
into tone. Here is where the problem comes up now.
If I take, and this is a diagram that I give my students all the time.
I say, well, render this.
I’ve already taken the concept that we have here to take and render this. You should try it.
I find that even as simple as the idea is
here that usually 50% of the people get it wrong. Let’s just take and put it here.
The idea is what faces you is in light, what recedes goes into tone. It’s relatively
speaking. For instance, this is actually an optical illusion. This could be coming out
toward us or it could be going down in. It makes absolutely not difference. So, if this
is facing me, this is also facing me, as this is surface here is facing me. What confuses
people is they tend to start thinking in distance. In other words, as this surface turns away
so it’s in tone, and then we come up to the light. Then as we go through here I’m
rendering this surface. We’re going down or coming up. It makes absolutely no difference.
This could be back or it could be top. It’s an optical illusion. We come through. What
that reinforces is the idea that we’re having—it has nothing to do with distance. So, as I’m
rendering these surfaces it’s a question of the angle that we’re working on.
In other words, if I take a box...
and using this idea, the top of the box is going to go into tone.
The front of the box is going to be light. The side of the box is going
to go into tone. Maybe a little bit more. Now, you find that graffiti artists do this
instinctively. You just take and turn the side. It puts the side of something into tone.
Let’s just take, again, take this flat surface here. Let’s say there is another box here.
Now, if I put a hole that goes all the way down through this thing.
Again, this is a point where you have to really analyze the form to take and be able to use it.
It's all about angles. Okay, so now if you look at this, the top of the surface, again, front
would be facing us. This is in light.
Okay, now how do you treat that hole that goes all
the way back down with it? Again, this is one of those situations where a credible number
of people get it wrong. Let’s just think of it. If we have a cylinder which is just
now an equivalent of a solid. This would be like if I just took that hole out and put
it up here as a solid. What would happen here then? Of course, here the top would be going
into tone. The sides would be going back away. The center facing us would be in light. Well,
the hole works the same way. The back of this hole is facing us just like the cylinder if
sticking out. So the sides then would be taking then and being rendered this way. It would
be darker on the corners. Again, it’s the angle.
Now, in practice, what we do is we play with it. We will tend to emphasize one side of
the sphere a little bit more than the other. In other words, if I want to take and give
the appearance of a dual light source, I would take and still be working the tone to the
outside. But I would take and make it a little bit stronger from one side to the other. So
now, as we’re working, what we find happens here is that we start getting the impression
of a light source just by taking and making one side a little bit darker than the other.
Another term for the modeling tone is ambient lighting. In other words, I feel light coming
from everywhere. In a normal room that’s what we have, just the lighting that exists
without a spotlight.
Let me explain how this works. This is really what you see. In the beginning of the Renaissance.
In fact, we think of the beginning of the Renaissance with Giotto. Okay, as you look
at Giotto’s figures, he was really one of the first to move out of Medieval times, take
and bring the figures out into real space, real figures. Humanism, the beginning of humanism.
He didn’t event this. This goes all the way back to the Greeks, probably before that,
the guys doing the paintings on the cave walls. What we have here then is this impression
of a light source. If you look at Giotto and look at the drapery, for instance, what we
see is the way the drapery was handled. There would be a slight emphasis to one side or
the other of the fold. This is the easiest place to recognize. In other words, this surface
comes down, go through, comes out, comes down. Still, what’s facing us is in light back
here and here. But, the tone is shoved or pushed a little bit to one side.
Let me explain how this actually happens in reality. Most things are based on observation.
How we take and make visual tools is that we take and see how things work in nature.
Break it down into some kind of a clear-cut system, and then take that and turn it into
a tool that we can use and do whatever we want with it. But, it’s how we actually
see. So we have to recognize how do we see things and why do we see it the way it is.
So, if we take here, for instance, let’s just say that over here we have a light source.
And our eye is over here. Most people would assume that as the light comes over here that
this is going to be the brightest spot. But actually, what happens is the light that hits
here is bouncing straight back. This is assuming that we have a perfectly smooth surface. As
the light moves over what we get then is a bouncing effect. In other words, angle of
insolation equals angle of reflection. In other words, it’s taking in how the light
bounced. So, if this was rendered we would see that there would be a tone on here. Probably
the brightest spot would be here. As we go and start moving away from here, the light
starts bouncing off until it misses. In fact, then as in the moon, it’s like we can’t
see into the shadows of the moon. This is all dark. We still have tone on the outside edge.
This is really the same thing as what I’m doing here. This is our ambient lighting.
Also, we can apply this basic concept onto rendering anything. The primary part, though,
is that you have to be able to see the basic form of the thing that you’re drawing. In
other words, you have to break it down into the simplest volumes.
You have to see it three-dimensionally.
So, the tool is the modeling tone. But, at the same time, the modeling tone becomes an
aid in helping you to analyze the form. It’s a double-edged sword. You can’t really use
the modeling tone if you can’t analyze the form, but the modeling tone helps you to analyze
the form. It’s a mating process here. Okay, so this is the beginning stage.

Probably the easiest way to take and start developing some kind of skill at using the
modeling tone before you start dealing with the model is to take and sort of just create
and invent shapes. Of course, this is in the animation industry or even in the early Renaissance.
Everything was done from imagination. We need to be able to render those forms.
Okay, so now let’s take and start out—I suggest that people create their own forms.
I’m just taking and, I can take and let’s just say something going back, turning. Now
here, you can see going back to the second lesson, the second week when we were talking
about spherical forms. That’s all I’m doing here. I can and combine this with a
box form. Going back in. That’s a very, very simple form. It’s a little bit tricky
though in that the surface is not perfectly direct. It’s going in at an angle and turning.
So, how do we render this? We start out by focusing on what’s facing me is in light.
So, in a sense this is just a ball. As that surface turns away, in other words, pushing
the sides back. That’s all I’m doing is pushing the side back. Just pushing the sides
back. Now, we could say I want to make this fit into this surface here. Let’s just say
this is a fold. This is sort of soft like skin. So, I’m taking and then I would be
taking and feeling as this comes back we’ve got light here. Well, this is starting to
become like a piece of the cylinder here. It’s a fold. So, I’m pushing back. Come
around. All of this is, of course, going away from me. The surface, the top part is turned
away. But if I want, you can see what I’m doing now, as I’m doing this I’ve created
with the tone, I’ve created surfaces that come forward, turn, and come in. As I’m
going over that surface, I can take and push and come through. Like I was taking and saying,
maybe giving sort of a sense of a light source by taking and weighting one side of the form
at a time. I’m then coming through.
I’m making this side a little bit darker. In other words, here it’s a little bit darker
than that side. It starts to take and get a sense of a light source. Now we’re moving
around the corner. This surface now, remember this is top. The natural tendency is to leave
the top white. But, here we’re talking about rendering the surface as it goes away from us.
Now, this starts to become relative to this. That is facing us. In other words, we’ve
got the light here. We’ve got the light here and light here. All of this stuff is
actually going away, but to take and explain the form to take and explain that we do have
these sort of wrinkles and things going on in here, we take and relatively speaking,
these parts are facing us. So now I go back up into here. It’s coming from the underside
down here. This surface is taking and going up this way. As we started coming through
here, we’re seeing this tone taking place. Now, this is pulling into the surface here.
You can see that drawing from the imagination allows you to take and build forms a little
bit more. Now we’re saying, okay, I’ve got this block here. Well, let’s just say,
well yes, there is this block here, but maybe it’s got a big hole in here or a dent. You’ve
got an opening in here. Maybe there is something sticking out here. Maybe this is taking and
coming—this hole comes around and goes up, and we’re going over. Notice what I’m
doing. I’m using a line going over the surface to take…it’s like a spline on a computer.
Same thing. There is absolutely no difference.
Okay. So, now as I’m coming through here I’ll say, okay, I want this to take and
start sticking out. Now I’m coming through and I’m making that into a bump. We can
see now that this, I’ve just put the side back. Well, the term pushing the side back
is obviously not that relates to modeling. It’s like working with clay. Same idea.
You’re pushing. You’re rendering. You’re pushing the sides back. As I’m doing this
then, taking and coming down, I want this to take and go in. I’ve created this opening
in here so it has an edge. The side of this coming around and pulling, pushing this.
Now, as I start to work over towards that, I’m going to take and push the ground in
here darker. I’m leaving that bit of a wall in there. I’m giving this a curved edge here.
Now we’ve created an opening. We’ve got something going in, and we’ve got something
sticking out. I can let this pull into here, and it can become a curved surface, or I can
leave this as a straight edge as I’m coming out. So, all of these planes now—I’m rendering
this surface. This is the tool that we use to take and be able to do any kind of fantasy
rendering. This is a great way to actually practice and develop your skill and doing
this by taking and inventing your own forms as we take and build it.
This is your basic tool.
Now, let’s say if we can apply this a little bit to the figure. Let’s just say, I’ll
make up something here. The simplest form, of course, this is just a basic, simple sphere.
If I start out with a simple volume here. Let’s just say that this is a rear end here.
Okay, so then we would have a volume like a peach. The leg going back and say a thigh
coming back in, fitting in. The thigh is really just a cylinder going in. Now, as this goes
back in we would have a waist going back. And maybe it’s turning into a rib cage going
through. I’m creating a bend here and the head back in here. Maybe the shoulder is lifting
up a little bit. Okay, you can see how just using the simple sphere we can create the form.
Now, go back to the lessons, and you will notice that almost every drawing I’ve done
in the first, second, third lesson, I’ve been using the modeling tone even though—maybe
I have mentioned it. That’s really the way it’s done. If you go back and you look at
the Michelangelo’s, the Raphael’s, Renoir, we find that this is the way it is done. Almost
any anatomy book that you look at is done this way. It’s a combination of lines going
over. Look at da Vinci. This is the way it’s done. We assume because it looks like it’s
got a light source, that the direct light is like a spotlight that he’s copying or
looking at. No. It’s all done from concepts. This is a concept.
The modeling tone is a concept that we use.
As I take this figure here, I can say, alright, this is obviously the center facing us. Now,
as that surface turns away then I would take and be pushing it back. You’re feeling the
surfaces turning away. Now, of course, gluteus maximus, minimus, and medius is not a perfectly
round ball. The muscles have directions. They take and we find that this would be going
over and fitting into the thigh. What we get is a plane now that is going down and going
back in and going away. Now, we can start to see how this is taking and…a lot of us
we go over and push back. We go back into here where the sacrum is taking and coming
out. So, now we’re taking and we’re pushing down. Come down to this surface. Coming through.
The pelvis would be giving us a bit of a corner. This is overlapping and so we start to build
these forms in here. Coming through. Pushing this down. If I emphasize this a bit more
we start to get a sense of a light source coming through. Now, the other buttocks here
comes down, well, we’ve got a floating form we would take and actually start to feel that
maybe there is a little bit of weight in here. I would take and start coming through. This
is dropping. But again, the rendering. This is turning and going underneath. So as I go
over that surface and around that surface, it is coming through.
Now, if I say, wait, this is pushing out so we would find there is maybe a bit of compression.
Notice that the minute I put that tone in there we can feel the bulge. We start to and
I can create, I can create all kinds of wrinkles within this just by taking and thinking that
we have, relatively speaking, elements that are facing us and receding. This becomes a
whole thing, so as I’m going through and I’m going back over, coming around. So,
this basic idea now. Notice I’m not dealing with how far something is. It’s only the
angle. But even that is subordinated to taking and explaining the form. I’m going over
the sacrum, coming through. Feeling the flatness come down. Try thinking of the pelvis, start
pulling forms from behind. We start to visualize the whole of this surface as it takes and
turns and goes around. What I’m doing here now is exactly the same thing as I was doing
up here. You’re building these volumes.
As we start to feel elements that are facing us more. In other words, this goes down and
then comes out and it’s turning away. We build forms fitting one into another. As we
come down, for instance, in here with the thigh, this would be coming through, we would
feel this fitting into this. This is just taking and we’re going over that surface
as it goes away from us. This is it. This is the modeling tone. This is the way we take
and create forms from imagination, and the way we render the form from a model by taking
and analyzing the form and ignoring the light source the way it exists. So, let’s take
and show some examples now.

Now, I’m just going to do a fragment of this, so I’m going to do it fairly large.
My general approach to doing things is that I start out very loose. The most important
thing for me is capturing the action. But like I said, I’m only doing a fragment of
this. But even there, I’m taking and I draw it—this is light. I draw it lightly.
I'm just trying to feel sort of the sense. I’ve been taking and focusing on the torso. I want
to feel the flow of how elements go. Now I’m just feeling the flow. As I’m doing this
now I’m taking and constructing at the same time, so I’m thinking the volume, very lightly,
very simply thinking of this as going through, coming down. Feel the twisting that’s taking
place. I’m looking at this as a very, very simple form. Come through. Buttocks.
So, as I’m doing the drawing you can see that this is really fairly straightforward.
I’m just taking a simple construction of the arm coming back. I take and pretty much
rely on the process of going back over the drawing many times, taking and building it
up. I’m just thinking of the first gesture. Like I said, I’m not going to try to draw
the whole figure here. I want to take the time and focus on the rendering part of this.
Come through.
Now, once I’ve taken and got the general sense of the placement then I take and start
to refine the structure a little bit more. So now breaking it down, feeling the gesture,
the volume, the forms. It’s just slowly developing it and seeing the way the neck
is essentially a cylinder. Feel it coming down. Feel the masseter muscles. Think of
the corner of the eye socket. I’m dealing with the planes. Feel the nose coming out,
coming through. I’m really blocking this in now. Coming through. Think of the back,
the neck. The figure is turned. The head is turned. I’m going over. Notice I’m going
over the surface. Everything I do is predicated on seeing this as a round, three-dimensional form.
Now, come through. Think of the back of the neck, 7th cervical vertebra. At the same time
I’m also always pretty much drawing anatomy. So now, come through. Need to be able to consciously
see that this is a plane going in. As we can see, in other words, I’ll just diagram a
little bit here. As this surface goes back, I’m drawing and thinking of the rib cage
as a cylinder now. You can see the spine is taking and going in this direction. Coming
through. There is a down and up, over that surface going back in with the head taking
and turning and coming back. This continues. The gesture keeps coming around. This is very,
very consciously now. I’m thinking of this as simple volumes. But at the same time, the
simple volume is a rib cage. That’s going through.
Even though I can’t see it, when I draw a part of the form I try to visualize it as
the whole. Now I’m thinking through, coming down. The back of the sacrum. So, now you
can see I’m really going to be adjusting already where I’m going. Coming across.
Feel the buttocks taking and come through the center here. I can feel the pull shape.
This would be the sacrospinalis on the other side. Pelvis coming through. Now I’m picking
up the center. The buttocks is taking and coming down, and this is form.
Again, I’m going to simplify this. This is something that’s going in. I’m drawing
this as just a simple volume now. This is a form that’s going in this way, so we’re
feeling there is a compression taking place here. We’re going back that way. Then we’re
going around. As I’m talking here, I can see that you should be able to recognize that
what I’m doing is I’m taking and analyzing and I’m constructing. If you were to take
and classify what I teach or how I teach, it’s an analytical, constructive process
that I’m going through.
Again, this is still very loose around. Feel this pulling through. Feel the leg coming
through. Simple volume. You can see that it slowly starts to evolve. Don’t copy the
model. I analyze what the model is doing. And by taking and going over it many times,
I have the opportunity to take and constantly be adjusting it. Also, I don’t necessarily
see it the first time around. It takes me awhile sometimes as I’m drawing to take
and actually recognize what is going on. As I’m building volumes, one fitting on top
of the other, I think of the shaft of the arm here coming down to the condyles into
the ulna. Through. Think of this as a cylinder to begin with. Then we build onto that cylinder.
I’m going from very, very large simple volumes to progressively finer forms. I haven’t
really done anything at all with the tone yet. Even though I’m constantly going over the surface.
Okay, so I’m taking and building contours. Coming through. You’re going to see very
quickly that as I start to take and do some of the rendering how I take and actually modify.
I won’t be drawing the tones that you see on the model, but that doesn’t mean that
I can’t. In other words, keep in mind that this is my basic thing. No rules. Sometimes
if it helps to use a shadow, a cast shadow to take and show the form I’ll do it if
it’s useful. If it helps to take and show the form.
Now, what we have here. Up here, I’m talking about how we have this compression. We actually
have all of this stuff taking and compressing. We have all these folds that are taking place
as these elements fit together. So now, as I come through I’m considering how to come
through. The way the latissimus is coming down, and we can feel this is really, really
compressing. Again, it’s part of a cylinder. We can feel the compression of the stomach
going over. So the lines I’m following the form. Have them come through. Coming over.
Through. Compression. Feel the whole mass going down. Here we can see the teres major
as a large volume in here. We can feel that this arm is going back. Got the neck underneath
here. There is a twisting that’s taking and coming through. We can see the center
here. These would be the larger muscles coming off. The spine is actually coming out from
behind. In other words, here I drew the spine this way. But we actually have forms that
are coming in front of that, and the spine is coming out from behind that. Again, that
helps to show the three-dimension, and it also gives volume. As I’m slowly building
this thing up, we can start to see now, I can take and narrow this down a bit, coming
through. We start pulling this into form.
Now, the whole point here is sort of the rendering of this form using the idea of the modeling
tone. We can take and the part that’s really—I’m going to first start with the leg and sort
of—Generally, what I do is try to bring up the drawing as a whole. Here I’m taking
and focusing on showing the idea of the modeling tone. I’m going to focus a little bit on
one area at a time to help to explain how this works. Right here, where the trochanter
is coming out, that’s facing us in the light. But the sides of the form here are going back.
This is the exact opposite of what you’re seeing on the model. What you’re seeing
on the model, this is light. Now, I’m just modeling tone. We can come back around.
We want to feel the pull of the form. Now I’m using sort of a cross-hatch. This is like
a line going over. It can be done with tone. It doesn’t matter. Now, we’re just pushing
this thing as it comes around, and progressively as we keep moving back by taking and pushing
the tone back down more. Now you can start to see that the leg is sticking out, coming
down. You start to pull the surfaces. This is all from a conceptual point of view. As
we go through here we can feel this pushing back and coming down. As I progressively start
to work around the corner going back away, I’m taking and going over that surface,
pushing it back, pushing it back until we start to actually come down to the point of
the sacrum in here.
At this point, you’re seeing the rendering is taking place, and we can feel as I’m
working around, going back through there. Here is what we see on the model. We have
that facing us. Of course, then I would leave because it corresponds to what we want to
do. It’s facing us. The model, in fact, is really being seen as what we refer to as
ambient lighting. We’re taking and coming through. Pushing back. Now, I want to take
and really feel these forms going underneath. Here we start to come into where I’m pulling
through here, we can feel this going back. Now, the relativeness of the forms, if I want
to take and show something more behind here and give more of a corner so now we can see
now I’m leaving a little bit of light in there. Even though it’s way in the shadow
and it’s underneath. I would take and as I’m pulling around here I would take and
be pulling forms in front and pulling things out from behind.
This is taking and it’s giving more detail than we actually are seeing much of. Okay,
so now I come through and I can take and pull. I’m going through the spine, thinking that
these are surfaces that are going back. Let’s carry on farther with the leg here. Pull this
into the back. Now, the roundness, this is the cylinder here all the way through. What
you’re seeing then is, and we need to take and push the strength of that trochanter.
We can feel that pushing out a little bit more. I can push this stuff back even more.
Progressively as I go through—now I’m going to weight one side to the other. I’m
going to leave the top a little bit lighter, but not completely in light. I want that surface
to be turning away, so I’m using a tone on it. Modeling tone. This goes back and we
can feel the form here in the center. This is sticking out. This would be probably your
vastus lateralis coming through and then the tibial track. We can feel the form taking
and coming down. We can see this pushing down. We can feel this fitting in. It’s pushing
this down. Then as we start to come through, we can feel all of this down here.
All this is going down. We’re fitting in. Pushing down. Going back away. So now, as
this is pulling up into here, I want to take and pull. These muscles here are taking and
actually we get a little bit of fat here. It’s relaxed. But the ischial tuberosity
back here—a lot of these muscles are actually pulling up there, and this is taking and coming
around, under, through. Now, I really want to get the feeling of this compression in
there. Keep in mind now as this turns down the section here is facing us. What I’m
working on now is I want to come in from this point where we’re getting the fold in here.
All of this now. I give a little bit more of a feeling for this as it comes around.
Pushing around and coming down to this. Pushing down. Come over. This is going back. And so we have a
real corner as we start coming down over here to where the sacrum is. We need to pull.
So, let’s go back to what I’m saying is that I’m actually analyzing this as I’m
doing the rendering. This surface, as we’re going back, this is going back in. Now, at
this point this has been caused because of the pelvis in here. You’ve got the center.
We can feel the spine, center coming through. Feel the sacrospinalis on the outside here.
Coming down and picking up the light. This is fitting into. Through. Now, this surface,
all of this, as we start to come through. Now, I’m looking and reevaluating the shapes
that I was taking and drawing here. This coming through, this coming in. Now I need to take
and feel that this is going over a bit farther in here. This is the rolling surface that’s
turning down. I’m going to pull through. Go over. I want to take and sense this whole
thing is going back up into here. I can feel going over that surface. Pushing back down.
So, now you can really see how this is really getting puffy. Now, in doing that, I want
to take and emphasize the little bits here. I want to take and come over while I’m pushing
this back. At this point, we’re getting something that doesn’t have a hell of a
lot to do with the light the way we see it. It’s really all working with form rather
than taking and copying the light. So now I’m pinching in. Coming through. Now, here
is where we start to get a little more complicated. Since this rib cage is round. This is a rounded
surface, but we’ve got forms that are fitting into this. In here we’ve got forms that
are coming down and fitting into it from here. And we have forms that are sitting on top
of this. But we can’t lose that sense of the rib cage that’s underneath. So, first
I want to take—as I’m doing this I’m really conscious of these muscles now that
are coming up. We can feel the side. This is pulling up. This is really being affected
by the ribs now. Then we can see on top of that, so you’ve got the sacrospinalis muscles
taking and building up. Coming through.
Sometimes they’re referred to the…many piece muscle. Notice and taking and making
overlapping surfaces here. Any time I get an opportunity I do that because that helps
to take and give volume. So now this taking into consideration the rib cage is coming
down. I would go back to the other side and we can feel that I’m going to narrow this
down a bit. We can feel the spine. Feel the forms coming through. As this comes down,
pulling out from behind. Again, that’s the idea of overlapping. I’m taking and pulling
the external oblique. This is coming in front. External oblique is behind.
Now we’re fitting into the line, actually of the pelvis as it goes up. Here this line
here now would be the gluteus medius. Now, I’m defining these forms. Even another level
of understanding. It’s often difficult if you aren’t really familiar with your anatomy
to take and do that, but the anatomy allows you to understand what it is that you’re
looking at. Now because we know that these gluteus maximus starts up here from the sacrum,
this is a break in the tone here. Going up. Now coming back. As I work, I’m seeing it
a little bit clear. Come through. But again, it’s all based on the analysis of the form,
the direction in space you’re taking and describing form. You’re not copying. As
I’m going through, I’m understanding it a little bit better, and I want to keep adjusting.
Come back down. Overlap. Through.

As you can see, I’m building this form now. And now I’m going to come in and block in
simply. I’m looking at the volumes. I would like here a roughly diagramming. Now, I’m
doing the same thing here. And I’m thinking of the large simple mass, so we’ve got the
latissimus and the serratus anterior underneath creating a mass. We can feel the scapula taking
and pushing down, so I’m seeing this as a form and come through. I can feel the building up.
It’s important. It’s the rib cage here. So I want to keep that. I want to keep
the sense that we’ve got this center in here. There is this volume that this is now
this form taking and coming over to this surface. I can feel the spine going behind.
Now, like I said, I’m doing this sort of piecemeal so we can really talk about this.
So, I come up here. Okay, here we get the trapezius going up. Coming through. We’ve
got the way the scapula is sticking out. This is in front now. Coming down. And we can feel
the whole blade here coming down. We can feel this is a form pushing down. Now, that’s
quite similar to what we’re actually seeing. I will take and pull this back a bit more
so that we can feel the curvature of the rib cage itself come down. Now, at this point
we have the muscles that are taking and coming over to the arm, over the surface. We can feel.
Right here is probably one of the most problematic areas for most people. We have the line coming
across, top of the scapula there. This surface is going back in, and you get the trapezius
is taking and pulling. What we’re seeing in here would probably be the end of the scapula.
We’re not actually seeing the clavicle which would be right just over the hill. But, this
surface is going away. It’s a plane going in. So now we have to feel this as it goes
back. We have the trapezius as coming out from behind. This is the—the trapezius at
this point, from here to here, it’s like a cylinder going back in. So you’re thinking
of this form pushing, pushing back.
So now we’re talking about the rendering now as we go through over this surface. Going back.
As you can see my whole emphasis is on the ability to now take and render form.
The deltoid goes all the way back here to the corner. What we have here is a top plane,
and I’m going to diagram this out now. We have this surface that comes through here,
going over and around. It’s attaching on the other side. There are three sections.
There is a corner here. There is the scapula side and back. There is the end of the acromion
and on the other side would be the clavicle side. I’m making a point now. I’m not
sure if you can even see this. There is the end of the scapula here. The muscles now are
pulling off of that surface. We’re feeling the bone right here.
So now, as this comes across and these are going over that surface, going around, behind,
we have to feel that there is an edge her. They actually take and split as they come
through. Through. Over that surface. This takes and comes down. There is a plane here,
so that form is pushing down, through. I’m just hitting the end here. I want to feel
these surfaces. But, right now I’m going to leave this because I want to take and when
we start dealing with the triceps here as the deltoid is going behind, the triceps are
actually going underneath here. So, we see this as a shape that’s fitting in. The volume
of this now, this whole section, this is a three-dimensional. The arm in profile is wide
in the back and relatively narrow in the front. We can see that the triceps then are taking
and creating this shape that’s coming through.
Here is where I would do the exact opposite from what you’re seeing. When we see that
this, and I’m going to break this down as a simple volume. This is a cylinder that’s
going back in, and we have the long head of the triceps coming back inside in here. Again,
I’m drawing that as a cylinder. This is going back. Then we get the common tendon
here as it comes down and pulling down to the end of the ulna here. The meaty part continues
on along the side, so the tendon is going up to the end here, and we can feel the dimples
in here. We have a brachial muscle underneath in here, and much of what you’re seeing
here, the tendency is to say, well, this is all the biceps. Not necessarily so. It could
be the brachial, and then we feel this ridge muscles, which were pulling off the ridge
of the humerus. This is coming through. I’m analyzing and breaking this down.
So now, before we go into the armpit here. We’ve got the infraspinatus pulling off
of the surface here. That goes up and over. It’s going to the head of the humerus. Triceps
going in. The teres major goes underneath, and so we get this shape in here. Then you’ve
got the latissimus, which is taking and coming up and going over that surface, coming down.
Now we can go back into here, and we can see that we’ve got the surface that goes down.
They can feel the compression of the stomach here, and then underneath that we’ve got
the rib cage coming through in here. Then there are pecs on the other side. So now,
we’re slowly building this thing. I’m going to go—again, I’m doing this sort
of piecemeal so we can explain what we’re doing. This is going back in. By the way,
the knee does come out past here.
So now, what we’re seeing is this as a cylinder going back that way with another one fitting into it.
Obviously, from what we’ve been talking about, this is light. The top is in
tone. This will be in tone. I’m dealing with faces me is in light, what recedes goes
into tone. I’m not copying the light. As I come through then I want to take and push
this, pushing it back. I left this light up here because this is facing us. In other words,
when I come back the deltoid is in here, this part of the deltoid is facing us, so the rendering
of that deltoid, again, is all of these surfaces going back. Come through. Now we can come
around. Pushing this. Even here we can have, there is some separation in here,
but we can take and feel this.
Artists that you can look at that were really good at this type of thing are Rubens. And
then, of course, there is Michelangelo. We can feel the pull come down. Fitting in. We
can feel this surface. The more I take and I’m giving, the waiting is a little bit
to one side. I want to make this really clear that this is going this way. Through. We pick
up the condyle on the other side here. We can feel the fullness. Then as this here is
changing directions, now we’re starting to go that way. So, as I’m doing this, now
we start thinking this is going in the opposite direction. These forms now are pushing down
into the dimples in here. The two marks that you see here, one is the condyle, and the
other is the end of the radius. Come through. You can feel the edge as we pull down to this
surface in here. Even making this more—go back in here. I’ll push this more. And I’ll go
back up over the deltoid. Now we can start to feel the separations that they place. This
is fitting in. Coming out from behind. Building up. As we start to go back in, I will take
and be pushing down, and I start to pick up infraspinatus. This is turning back away.
The teres major. I start to pull, going underneath. Through.
Now, this is sort of a drawing technique, you might say. When I come across something
going underneath like this, I would tend to start from the underside and pull up. It helps
with the rendering at the same time. Also, I want to feel that there is a corner here.
Here is where is said I would take and break the rules in a way. In other words, the whole
idea is to create a sense of form. As I’m creating this form going back down in here,
I’m going to take and create a cast shadow to separate the arm from the latissimus and
to also give depth. Now that little bit really becomes a line that shows the volume, but
it gives the illusion that we have a light source.
As I keep pushing these forms down, and we can pick up the sense of the latissimus here.
As we do this, we’re back down to here where we’re feeling the compression. Now, as I
work into this then I’m going through. Pushing this through. We can feel the pull in these
forms so now we get the compression taking place between these elements now so that this
takes and pulls up. Coming through. Taking and pushing in the form here now. We keep
getting further and further down in, and the surface is turning away. Coming through. So,
then as this surface here, the roll is taking place, but it’s really turning away.
Now here is where I would take, and again, I’m sort of breaking the mold of what we’re
talking about. I let things get a little bit darker because it only makes logical sense
that it would be darker. Now, we can take and pull. Since I was talking about a cast
shadow coming over that, and now we’ve got the leg coming in front. We have a good cast
shadow on the model there so we can see these are now logical. But, I’m using that cast
shadow as a tool to help describe the form. As we’ve been going through this now you’re
seeing that the appearance, somebody looking at it would say, oh yeah, there is a light
source and we’ve got all this stuff there. But, that’s not the way it’s done. It’s
not being done with the idea of a light source. It’s being done with the concept of describing
form. So as I build, you can see that it’s not all that dissimilar. There are changes.
I take and reverse the light in many places. I still come through and I emphasize pushing
things back and down, but the model to start with is pretty much in ambient lighting.
Now, as we come back, see up here into the neck, everything would then be taking and
dealing with a sequence of cylinders that are going back and coming around. Now, here
is where I would make a real change here. The figure is really taking and turning. The
back of the head I want to make really clear that this is taking and pulling from behind,
so I start to really pull these surfaces. I will take and redesign folds if it helps
me to take and show what is going on more clearly. Particularly in here, we start to
see the overlapping. You start to see how these folds pull from behind, and even the
compression that takes place as the head is turning. Now, that’s pretty extreme looking in there.
Again, if you go back and look at the old masters, you can see this is really something
that gets developed pretty regularly. Look at some of the works of Pontormo or even da
Vinci. In Michelangelo you’ll see that taking and really playing with the idea of these
surfaces turning and going back and going around. I think at this point you’re getting
a pretty good idea of how we take and work with the modeling tone. This is probably enough
to explain how it works, but as I’ve been doing the drawing here, I’ve been giving
you a strong dose of the necessity to take and be able to construct, be able to reduce
the forms down to simple volumes, and then to be able to ignore as needed the light that
you see on the model and to focus on—your job is to render and clarify the form rather
than to copy the light as you’re working.

Now, this Michelangelo is absolutely exactly what I’ve been talking about. If you look
at this now, these are just a series of simple spherical forms, round spherical forms. The
light is to the center as the form turns back. So, you can see that as this goes down we
go to the light. The light to start with is overlapping simple volumes, building. It’s
literally exactly what I’ve been talking about. So, progressively, as you can see,
as you’re working down over this surfaces we’re going down. What you have then literally
is, this is one of the ways that was explained to me. It’s a series of steps. You have
a step that goes down. You’re building up and going down. You’re building up. Light,
tone. Light, tone. Going back to the whole idea now. What’s facing you is in light.
What recedes go into tone. Relatively speaking. Now, that relatively part is important because
if you look at the shoulder here, you have very, very strong light. The arm is sort of
going back, so it takes and it gets darker, and then it gets darker again. Then it comes
through. Then it picks up the light again. But, all the way through now. You can see
that he is defining the form as we go down.
Notice that what we actually get here is this is really a corner. It’s like a box. We
can feel that take and play coming through. You can see. Now, that line there, that’s
his line. That’s not my line. He’s got that to come in through. Overlapping forms,
drawing cylinders. Notice how he approached the drawing. Again, this is pretty much the
way I work, and you’ll find that this is the way most artists work. Basically, you
can see he was taking and feeling the thing out. You can even see in here he was sort
of diagramming the side of that arm a little bit. You can see—look at this. You can see
the wrist as it goes in. We feel that coming over. It’s all, it’s a thinking, logical,
rational approach to taking and drawing.
Okay, this is Leonardo. Now, if you look at that head, first of all, let’s just take
and simplify this. It’s just a very, very simple volume. The neck is literally nothing
more than a cylinder. Then he’s taking and he’s building on top of that. That head
is, again, if you take and look at this and give it, pushing the tone, you’ll see that
the light literally is here, and then progressively as it goes back, it goes into tone. Underneath
the lid you have the tone. It’s like drawing an egg. Even though the neck is in shadow,
you’ll see in the shadow the center of it is light, and the tones are going there. So,
he’s building these things.
Again, look at the drawing. Look at the way the rendering of the knee is exactly what
we’re talking about. He’s taking and pulling through here. We look at the shoulder and
the way the baby is…this is all, in the general sense even here you look at the sleeve.
Okay, the center of it is in light. Now, he gives it a whole atmosphere quality, which
in the last lesson we will talking about. I’ll probably end up using this as an example
again. But essentially, it’s the same process that we’re going through. What’s facing
you is in light. But we see it goes into tone. Now, he added more tone to it, but essentially,
this is the idea.
Okay, now we’ve got two of Michelangelo’s here. One working with a pen, and the other
working with a pencil. The media doesn’t make that much difference. As you look at
this now, what we deal with, and this is really an important part here in that—I’m talking
about the one on the left now—the figure is taking and twisting. What happens is you
get the rib cage shifted. You can see now he’s building this volume underneath here.
That’s the context of the thing. Then he builds the forms on top of that. Now, as he’s
done it, like I mentioned, we weight one side a little bit stronger with the tone. It gives
us a sense of being like there is a real light source. And so it’s not quite so obvious.
As you look at this, and we go over the surface you can see it’s going down. It’s going
across. We’re going down. Here we’ve taken and blocked. He’s coming in almost like
a box in here with the form. He’s really straightened this thing out here. But the
rendering of all of the pieces here, he’s going down. He’s pushing the sides back
and pushing the sides back. We’re taking and we’re constantly just pushing the tones
and the forms back. Notice the way the buttocks is treated, pushing the tones down. Coming
around. Everything is taking and working these as volumes. Now, where he comes in and starts
rendering a little bit more, this becomes very obvious. You can see the way he’s taking
and pushing the tones down, and he leaves the next form in light. Comes across the corners,
pushing down. Very simplified form, by the way. He hasn’t gone out there and rendered
out all these muscles at all. It’s very, very, very simplified. But you can see that
it’s all, basically, the idea is push the sides down, push the sides down. Even as we
go into tone it’s left light, so that as you’re looking at this we can see this to
that. And the back leg, he pretty much lets it go. It’s just a simple tone.
So, it’s all rendering going over and around the surface. You can see I was trying to make
a fairly big issue out of the fact of the pinching, and the way the line is wrapping
around the neck. On the other one here you can see the line. He’s drawn it. Really,
he’s getting the idea of that twist and the way we pull the forms coming around. This
is active anatomy. It’s active anatomy, and it’s where we’re building these things up.
Okay, again, this is Michelangelo. As we look at this now, you can see real clearly now
that we have this rib cage as just a simple volume. He builds. The scapula is on top of
this, coming across. This is very similar to the drawing that we just did. You can see
how he’s taking and building on top, and so the rendering as you look at this, you
can see the top of that shoulder is pushing into tone as it goes away. Then the trapezius
muscle as it goes back, we can really feel the twisting, the way this twists and goes
over that surface. But this is a cylinder going back in. We can feel these forms fitting
in. Then we feel the deltoid coming through, coming across, and we feel the pulling going
back. Stuff coming around. Feel it coming out from underneath. Pushing down. It’s
building on a volume, so as you look at the drawing you have a very clear sense of the form.
Look at the way he’s drawn the head. The model must have had a cap on. You can see
the lines wrapping around the head. There is a very analytical construction and development
of the form. Yet, essentially the rendering is done with what’s facing you is in light.
As you look at the leg here, you can see it become very obvious. You can see the surface
of these forms as we go over. You can see these forms as we go through. He’s taking
and being very definitive about how everything takes and fits.
Okay, this is a Peter Paul Rubens copy after a da Vinci drawing. When you think of Rubens
we think about those simple spherical forms. I’m not using any Rubens in the examples
other than this, but I’ve talked so much about him in other classes. Okay, this is
pretty straightforward. When you look at this, this is one of those drawings that as a student
I remember the instructor using as an example. You start out with this. This is really just
a round form that breaks that round form in half. You can see how we’re just taking
and pushing the tone. As he builds things out we are pushing the tone down, coming through.
Progressively this goes down. Notice how he comes down her. He’s taking and showing
how this fits in. This had a major influence on Rubens’ work.
So, as you can see as we go down we can feel these corners. These are a series of simple
volumes. It’s very, very diagrammatic. The impression is this big violent thing, but
everything has been drawn very, very carefully as a series of constructed volumes. As you
see the tones even in the light up here the tones are going back around. You can see the
tail is really just a cylinder coming through. Everything. What is facing you is in light.
What recedes goes into tone. No matter how complex this is. Of course, you realize that
this was all originally done from imagination. There is no model posing for it. There are
no horses sitting there to take and draw from. These were all basically constructed figures.
Everything that you go back into and render—look at the parts and the pieces. Everything is
developed through very, very simple volumes. This is fantasy drawing at its best. What
we see as you look at this stuff is no different then what we would find in taking and doing
a drawing. It’s creating these characters from imagination. It’s constructing. It’s
all based on very, very simple volumes. Building one thing into a another and rendering it
by pushing the sides back and constructing very, very clearly.
Okay, this is Auguste Renoir. Now, if you look at the way this is rendered now, this
is all done exactly the same thing. Notice that the center of all of these forms is white.
He builds it up to white. The tone, the very, very subtle tones. In other words, we can
see, if you look at this back here you can see where it goes down and picks up the light.
All of these are simply round forms with a light to the center. If you look at this back
here, okay, here we’ve got the shoulders light. They go down. A little bit of tone.
It gets lighter. It gets tone again. Lighter. Come back. This was Renoir’s master classical
piece. He spent something like four or five years on this painting taking and developing
it and building it up. But the rendering is very, very classical and very, very simple.
He even carries this idea of taking the light into the center of the form. Look at these
trees back here. They’re rendered really the same way. Pulling these light areas in
here and then wrapping darks around it. It’s not just the Renaissance. It comes up into
really the way we work in the animation industry.
This is Ingres. We can really bring this up. Now, I bring this up because now as you look
at the sort of interesting play between these things, you notice the figure with the white
hat and the main figure in the front here. Now that gives us a sense of a light source.
Again, rendered right in the center here. Then as it goes back, it goes into tone, picks
up light, and then goes back again. The neck is just a simple cylinder. These other figures
are all done exactly the same way. It’s just pushing the light a little bit to one
side, but that’s the way it’s done.
Notice that this leg as we come down, the crease in here is light. The leg as it goes
back down is pushing into tone. This is just exactly what I was doing with my little demonstration
of what’s facing you is in light and what recedes goes into tone. It’s the crevices
are light because they’re facing you. The tops are light. All of this done exactly the
same way. We look at all these figures as we step back into space. The one here where
you can see the neck, where you see where the stylus is here, and you can feel the light
of the rib cage is facing us. Then we step back and it goes into tone, and then we pick
up light on the collar. It’s all the same thing.
Okay now, this is Lempicka. I think she died actually like in the 50s. But again, it’s
the same thing. Very simplified. Very, very simplified forms. Exactly what I’ve been
talking about. Even to the point of taking and throwing a cast shadow to take and give
us the curvature of the wall. It’s also at the same time. A very, very strong two-dimensionally
and three-dimensionally. The process is a tool that we use. We take and we build forms
from imagination and we then render them using a system or an approach that takes and allows
us to create forms of any kind. Anything. Again, we use it all the time in the animation
industry. It’s rendering and building things up. This is how we construct the figures.
We render them. We make them come alive.

Okay, now, this lesson is the modeling tone. This is really the workhorse of all your rendered forms.
I’ve picked out one pose. I want you to take and do a detail of the pelvic area. Waist, pelvis.
Render it using the modeling tone. Take 20 minutes. Build the drawing up. Remember now, do not copy the
light that you see. Use the modeling tone to take and render the surface of the form. You’re analyzing.
You’re taking and pushing the sides back, but they’re not copying the light that you see.
Okay, let’s see what we can do with that.

Now, look at what I’ve done. Again, I did a fragment just like I asked you to do. Modeling
tone, taking and carefully building it up. I’m sure you’re going to find some difficulties
that you had with not copying the light the way you see it. I suggest that you do it again,
use my drawing as a reference. Look at the model. Look at my drawing and see how I change
the pose or how I change the light to correspond to the concept that we’ve been using.
Now, in this drawing I’m focusing on a fragment. Again, this is what I do in my normal classes.
I have my students draw larger and to take and analyze the form, and the modeling tone
is a process of rendering. So first, as always, we get the gesture. And I’m drawing light
to take and so that I come back over this. Going over. Notice as I’m blocking this
in I’m taking and building these using spheres. Not necessarily drawing the box now, but I
am definitely thinking. In other words, you can see where I’m going over the corner,
going over the surface. I’m visualizing the box form. The leg is going back in, through,
down, out.
Now, like I said, I’m only going to do a fragment. The fragment that will give you
a really good opportunity to feel the form as it goes back. As we’ve taught, what you’re
doing is you’re pushing surfaces back. It’s the modeling tone we feel. I’m thinking,
what’s facing me? Particularly ignoring the light that I see. I’m looking at the
forms. This is the form that’s facing me. So, these surfaces now are turning away.
I'm pushing back. I want to take and going over and so I’m combining this now. You’ll
see as I’m doing the drawing that utilization of the cylinder, it’s the same thing. I’m
going over the surface and pushing the side back, so I’m taking and constantly going
over the surface. The surface is turning away. I’m pushing the tone down. I want this to
go down to the leg. Feeling the corner.
So, the modeling tone can be done many ways. If I’m working with a pen, I would be taking
and doing this with a cross-hatching. In a sense, actually, as I’m drawing even with
the pencil I do a lot of cross-hatching. Cross-hatching is nothing more than going over using line.
But, not only—I work with tone even when I’m doing cross-hatching. You’re going
to see as I’m pushing these things back, I’m combining by using the line as a way
of analyzing the form. So, this whole surface is going away from me, and I can feel the
dimple back here, so I’m pushing down. Feel that dropping down. We can feel the sacrum
going back, pushing down.
Now, here you notice in the model that this is all light up here, but this where you take
and you change. In other words, as I’m pushing the external oblique back in tone. I’m pushing
it back. Here you can see that it’s the way the light is working on coming off of
the rib cage. It goes down in tone. Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing with the
rest of it. I’m taking and pulling these tones. Going down. I want to feel the spine
going in. I’m pushing down. Now I’m going back over. All of this now is coming up and
fitting into the rib cage. This is going over, so it’s a cylinder. Modeling tone, sphere,
all wrapped up. These surfaces turn away. Going down. I’m building the surface.
Now I’m going to take and emphasize even more. I want to feel where that pelvis is.
Go through. I’m taking and I can feel the way the muscles are coming across. I’m getting
a little bit subtler sense of the tone of the form using the modeling tone. Pushing
the forms back. I’m creating a sphere within a sphere. Now, go the buttocks on the other
side that’s facing me. I’m in here, I’m using the tone, and I’ll come back in. I’ll
go over this with the line. Turning, going underneath.
Notice how carefully I’m drawing. I’m not copying. I’m trying to just control,
controlling my pencil, controlling the value, how light and dark I get.
So, as I’m building these surfaces…
it’s the modeling tone. Now, as I come down into the leg—actually,
first, let’s just take and deal with how we feel the spine in here. The rib cage, remember,
this is a sphere that’s coming up this way. The bottom edge of that sphere is facing me.
As I’m coming down to this point, compression here. I would then be leaving that in light.
Pretty much the opposite of what you see. Now you can see that this is a—what’s
going here is we’ll make it feel like this is coming down. We start to feel through.
Maybe I would even take and create a bit more of a sense of the pinch as we come through.
Feel these forms going up on the other side. This is a cylinder. I’m pushing the backside
of that cylinder turning away from me. We can feel the compression of these forms as
they come down. I can stretch this out a bit more. And we can—overlapping.
Now, as we come into the leg, I’m taking and feeling this is coming around. Here is
where I’m thinking of this as a cylinder fitting in. These forms are going down. There
is a corner here. I’m making this leg going a little bit more. What I want to do is avoid
an ambiguity of what the form is doing, so I will take and make this clearly something
that is going slightly away from us. I’m thinking of the roundness, talking about the
spherical form. Now we’re taking and feeling how the forms here are fitting in, so there
is a corner. Feel this is coming down. Pushing down. Even here we’re taking and coming
across. Now, as this pulls in we have the thigh. Basically, the trochanter is in here,
so we can feel that we’re, basically there is also a fat pad that’s coming in. So,
now we’re fitting into this. I’m going to make this a little bit stronger now. Pushing
this down. Coming out from behind. And pull around. I think I would make this a little
bit fuller. So now we can see this volume. Notice I’m taking and coming in at just
a hint of it. I’m looking at the model, but I can feel that shape that it’s fitting
into the next form. So, we’re building one form on top of the other.
This needs to be a little bit clearer now. This is really coming down more, so I’m
pushing the form down and away, and we’re fitting in. I can take and make this even
fuller just by now I’m using more tone. Come across. When I’m pushing this over,
up. I’ll take and come from underneath. The stomach is way over here. I’m building
from here. I’ll pull the tone coming up this way. We can feel the stretch of the rib
cage coming through. The other leg here is really coming toward us. Here is where, again,
I’m going over the surface this way. We have a series of overlapping forms. We can
see coming through here is the pinch. We can feel the fullness as it’s compressing here.
Then this is taking and fitting in. So now I’m using the cylinder. We come back down.
Going through. I’m going over the surface. Going over the surface. I’m pushing the
side down. In fact, we would carry this all the way down.
See, now what I’m doing is I’m starting on the line and I pull off of the line taking
and building the tone. I’m going to ignore this foot here for right now. I want to take
and pull. I’m taking and doing reverse instead of pushing the tone to the outside. I’m
starting with the tone on the outside and bringing it up. At the same time I’m creating
these forms. I would take now and emphasize this line coming through
and push the tone coming through.
Going over that surface.
You probably found out now that it’s difficult to ignore the light that you see.
You need to be able to take and separate the form from the light. You’re drawing
form. You’re not copying the light. That’s the advantage of the modeling tone.
I can take and emphasize even more and come through. Sometimes the light corresponds to
what you want to or what the modeling tone would be. Remember, the modeling tone is exactly
the same as what you get in a computer when you’re looking at a three-dimensional form
where no lights have been set. The light is coming straight from the front. Photographers
refer to it as flat lighting. That’s the modeling tone. It’s really, the modeling
tone is, in a way, really just the ambient lighting. For instance, the top of the rib
cage here is all getting the light. That’s exactly the opposite of what you want. This
is turning away. All of this is taking and coming down. All this is turning away from
you. As you’ve you’re your drawing now, you should be taking and consciously have
thought of, this is just simply an egg. If you had that egg there, and you were rendering
it and it was turned away from you, you would be doing that. All of these elements, that’
what they’re dealing with.
Now that we’ve done modeling tone, I think you can see how important this step is in
the whole process. Keep practicing and as you look at the drawings, now, the next lesson
is going into direct lighting, but you will see the relationship of the modeling tone
to direct light source, and what a lot of people call or refer to as the rules or laws
of light. The next lesson is building on this lesson, as they all do.
Okay, until the next lesson, then.