{"id":1057,"date":"2026-10-19T07:06:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2026-10-26T08:41:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T08:41:29","slug":"exercise-6-8-using-collage-to-be-specific-about-tone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/exercise-6-8-using-collage-to-be-specific-about-tone\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise 6.8 \u2022 Using Collage to be Specific about Tone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Brief<\/summary>\n\n
## Aim

Another key aspect of drawing practice that collage can usefully help with, is the tendency to underestimate tonal range, overriding what we perceive visually. We know a banana is yellow, and we know it is the same yellow all over, so when we look at a banana we tend to play down all the information which makes it look less than evenly toned. As visual artists, we need to be aware of that and decide how important a naturalistic observed drawing is. If you really want to draw a banana that looks like a banana, you need to not think too much about what you know about bananas, and just look.

If you half close your eyes and squint at these bananas, you will see that they are very dark and largely a kind of brownish grey. They disappear almost to black on the right hand side and the bottom of the lower banana is so dark, that it can\u2019t be picked out against the pitch black of the chopping board shadow.

Being specific about the shapes of patches of tone, even more so than for the boundary lines of objects (as you see here, to draw this convincingly the bottom edge of the lower banana is irrelevant) is key to describing convincing form and depth. As collage tends to work with cut shapes, a collaged tonal drawing forces us to make really firm decisions about what shapes are inside and across objects.

## Method

1. Choose another interesting subject matter, but consider using a still life, or something smaller where you can control the light source. Two limes and a white bowl placed in an open-fronted box would work well, for example. Be aware that using too highly colourful objects a subject will make the tones much more complicated to judge.

2. Collect together more collage material. You can use found paper this time if you prefer, or a combination. Make sure you have plenty of tonal range. You can choose whether to work in colour or monochrome. Include one piece of black and one piece of white paper.

3. Make a simple tonal collage of your subject matter. If a shadow cuts across several objects, or an object is occluded, or simply falls into shadow, don\u2019t force the issue \u2013 let what you see stand. You will need to cut lots of shapes that operate inside your subject as patches of tone, as the light falls on them unevenly and sets up shadows and highlights. Remember that the light is probably cast from one side, so you can be looking for that as you work (although natural light will of course change throughout the day in both direction and quality). You may like to use a spotlight or table lamp next to your subject to keep the light more constant.

Remember to be just as specific about shadows and shapes that are cast outside of your objects. Shadows underneath things help to site them in space, as do patches of tone and shadows cast behind and around objects.

By the end of the process, try to get to a point where you can add one piece of white and one piece of black to your collage, no matter how small. In other words, try to ensure that you have the full tonal range from black to white in your collage.

## Reflection

Review this collage against your previous work. Is your collage firmer and more accurate in terms of the shapes of patches of tone? Did you create a drawing that has more depth, volume or sense of three dimensions than your earlier work? Consider making some drawings in your sketchbook which adopt this method of accurately transcribing shapes of tone, rather than shapes of objects.<\/pre>\n\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
Choosing a subject<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I choose a still life for this exercise and took out my light box. I picked two satsumas in a white bowl against a black backdrop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
My aim was to keep this simple as possible as I find it very difficult to simplify values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initial study<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
To help me get acquainted with the image I started with a loose graphite drawing and watercolour<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
I could see the values were not quite there and the outer bowl at the front needed to be darker. The shadow of the top satsuma was also too intense and I missed out on the lighter value of the top of the lower satsuma. Rather than obsessing over what was wrong with this image and trying to fix it, I decided to move to the collage and use my observations to guide my next image. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collage #1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
This was another type of struggle! Matching the found paper to the values of my subject was extra difficult. It feels very unnatural. I tried to squint but each magazine page was different and colours complicated the matter. I also found it difficult to cut shapes to match the shapes I saw in the picture. So everything was merely an approximation. So I didn\u2019t think the exercise was a success but nevertheless, I thought the resulting image was an interesting abstraction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collage #2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I wanted to find a way to help me see and be a little bit more precise in cutting the shapes so I used an app on my iPhone to simplify the picture into values.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
It was interesting to see the result. I certainly did not see that with my own eyes looking at the subject!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I decided to use this as a collage ground and fit on it. I used an old Tate magazine and cut out bits of Turner and Constable\u2019s pictures. I printed a second copy and used carbon paper to loosely draw the shapes to help me be more precise with my cuttings. I felt a little delinquent both tearing down the artworks and using carbon paper but at the same time the process was more satisfying and the end result was my favourite out of the three studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Reflections <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
If my aim is simplifying values, I am not convinced I would use this approach as part of my planning because I would rather \u201csearch\u201d for the values through looking and drawing than through looking in magazines for matching values. It\u2019s difficult to explain why but the process feels very different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However the little app I found was very interesting tool that could help me create original artwork. I do enjoy collage a lot and this exercise as well as others I have completed before helped me realised that I very much enjoy using collage as a ground. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Choosing a subject I choose a still life for this exercise and took out my light box. I picked two satsumas in a white bowl against a black backdrop. My aim was to keep this simple as possible as I find it very difficult to simplify values. Initial study To help me get acquainted with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,27],"tags":[57,64,65],"class_list":["post-1057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coursework","category-project-6","tag-collage","tag-tonal-study","tag-tone_variation","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/img_1107.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1071,"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions\/1071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaelle-artstudio.com\/plog2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}