Materials

Scenic charcoal. plastic eraser, putty rubber, soft

cotton rag, soft paint brush, A3 white, mid-grey or

light grey papero

Technigue

Orthodox hand.

Looking at the drawing.

Subject

Several objects or self-portrait.

DRAWING 24

an angel in the darkTONESUBTRACTIVE

SUBTRACTIVE TONE 195

Duration

40-60 mino

Aims

This drawing is primarily about lhe medium and methodused to make il.

Charcoal has soft. tenuous qualities that make

it the perfect medium for lhe depiction of light,

and working with it offers an enormous amounl of

flexibility for adjusting and integrating any changes

that need to be made.

This drawing is the opposite of other drawing

methods, in which dark marks are added to white

papero A drawing can be made by covering a piece of

white paper with charcoal, and then rubbing into it to

reveal the papero The white of the paper is revealed

as a positive negative, and at its whitest, it reads as a

highlight-the lightest tone. A range of mid-tones can be

created by rubbing out more or less charcoa!.

Use lighl from an Anglepoise in a darkened room to

create a range of tonal contr~st. Try to see your objects

as being larger than life, and having 'monumental'

qualities. Imagine them being as taU as the Eiffel

Tower-a landscape to walk across-or an island in the

sea, around which you could fly a helicopter. Visualise the

spaces between them, as being alive-sea, sand or sky.

making light visible

PROJECT 4

ABOVE Anila Taylor. C/eanse. 2003,

charcoal on papero 182 x 136 cm. Courlesy

lhe arlisl.

OPPOSITE Anila Taylor, Divu/ge-3,

2004, charcoal on paper, 185 x 114 cm.

Courlesy lhe arlisl.

OVERLEAF Barley Beal and Holly Ford

lif! charcoal off lheir drawing with a putty

rubber as lhey attempllhe subtraclive

lone projecl al lhe beginning of the

second week of Workshop 2, July 2010.

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194 DRAWING PROJECTS

196 DRAWING PROJECTS

'. -

SUBTRACTIVE TONE 197

Method

LPlace your objects on a horizontal surface of whitepaper, against a wall, and arrange them in an interestingwelllit, composition. Use a viewfinder, or digital camerato help you with this.

LCover the whole of the drawing paper with sceniccharcoa!. edge to edge, in a mid-to dark tone, by usingthe side of the charcoal stick, and a tissue or old collonrag to lightly rub the charcoal into the surface of the paper.

Imagine being in a dark room, where nothing isvisible, and you had a dimmer switch for the light­gradually turn the switch on, and the objects andthe space become visible. Your blackened piece ofpaper is the dark room, and your erasers and ragsare the dimmer switch. You will gradually reveal yourcomposition by taking the darkness away, and revealinglight through the whiteness of the papero

When Michelangelo was chipping away at a largepiece of stone, a small boy who had been watching himreputedly asked, "Why are you hitting that stone with ahammer and chisel?" Michelangelo replied, "Becausethere is an angel inside." Your charcoal blackened pieceof paper is the equivalent of Michelangelo's stone, andthe emergence of our objects, is the ange!. You nowhave to use the eraser as a chisel and carve into thedarkness to reveal the angel, and describe the light.

BEFORE A BIRO LAYS AN EGG, IT BUILOSA NEST.

You are going to start your drawing by building the nestfirst, and by drawing/describing the negative space andcreating a context for the objects.3_With your choice of eraser start to take the darknessout of the negative space. Look very carefully toestablish the areas of most and least light. You will needto erase right back to the paper for an equivalent ofmost light. and will probably have to add more charcoalfor your darkest areas. Establish the lightest areas first,and have in mind that you are trying to create a feelingof light.4_Keep looking and comparing the tones of all theparts, each area against another "this is lighter. this isdarker". etc..5_Use the cloth, the eraser, your fingers. a soft brush,and the ball of your hand to adjust and integrate the'negative' light of the paper and the charcoa!. You mightwant to describe the light as soft, gentle, dappled, orharsh-so make your rubbed out marks accordingly. Itmight help to think of your drawing as being like a blackand white reproduction of an Impressionist painting,where the negative dabs of light left by the putty rubberare the equivalent of lots of relatively small brush marks.6_Show that the surface of paper that the objects arestanding on passes underneath them, and that at thesame time, the light in the negative space is behind,between, and wrapping around them.

198 DRAWING PROJECTS

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I

SUBTRACTIVE TONE 199

7_When you have dealt with the negative space, andstart working on the objects, it may be necessary todefine them a bit more clearly at Iheir edge.8_Use Ihe poinled end of a piece of charcoal lo makeshorl, lightly 'stabbed' marks, or slide the side of Ihecharcoal slick lo define any bits of contour, and integratethe marks into Ihe picture space wilh your finger.9_Wherever possible. make a feature oul of anyincidental detail, quirky or particular characterislican object mighl have. The eye needs lo be offeredmoments of interest in the drawing. Mould your eraserinto a point lo get at the delails. [Vou might need to dab,ralher than rubl. Gradually as you begin lo work on Iheobjects, Ihey will seal Ihemselves inlo the backgroundand it will probably be necessary lo re-work some of Ihebackground at Ihe same lime.10_00 nol be afraid to use your clolh and rub oúl areasIhat you are unhappy wilh in order lo reslruclure yourdrawing. Charcoal is very flexible.

ResultsOn completion of Ihis drawing you will have carvedinlo a surface of charcoal covered paper and revealedan illusion of Ihe visible world, in a similar way lo Iheway in which Michelangeto found his angel in a piece ofslone. Vou will begin lo recognise Ihe flexible beauty ofcharcoal, and this 'sublraclive' all over way of using it lomake drawings.