First week of Art: Shading and Tonal Notes

Year 10 Art - Week 1

This year, one of the choice subjects I chose is art. Today is our fourth lesson, and so far we've learnt quite a lot about shading and tone. We spent the first lesson going over the course line for this semester, and doing some drawing. We got to choose whatever we wanted to draw. If we already had an idea, then great. If not, there's a shelf in the art room full of random objects to choose from (mannequins, models, cups, cameras, jars, etc). These drawings gave an idea of how well we understood tone, proportion, and different shading techniques. I chose to draw a truck (one of the objects on the shelf), but never ended up finishing it, so it doesn't look too great.

We spent the next two lessons learning about shading, and creating a page filled with a range of different shapes and objects showing what we learnt. The first of these two lessons, we were instructed not to use an eraser, which I found kind of hard, considering when it comes to drawing and artwork I'm a slight perfectionist. After watching a video about some of these techniques, I feel like I got a better understanding of negative space, highlight, and reflected light, along with how to use them. Here's the page of tonal notes I created, along with the video we watched, and some of the examples we were given. 

Questions: 

Have I improved with shading?

I think I have. I have a better understanding of how to draw shadows and highlighted areas, so yes.

Do you understand that using a structure can help you draw better?

Yes, it makes your drawing more accurate, more specifically proportion.

What are you going to work on going forward in pencil drawing in and out of class?

I think I'll start using structure a lot more, because it looks kind of cool to see whats been done underneath the art, and it also makes your drawing look more precise.