Tonal values are the light, medium and dark shades of every colour. Tonal values give you light and shade and are essential to painting.
Look at how the painting to the left gives you a sense of "depth" with the very dark areas. The lighter areas "balance" the painting and give you a sense of realism.
If you reduce the painting to black and white you can see how the original charcoal drawing was a good working drawing and gave great indications of the dark, medium and light areas.
IDEALLY MAKE CHARCOAL DRAWINGS
Go out and make a charcoal drawing of the painting you want to create.
Make sure you have AT LEAST THREE TONES - dark charcoal, (press hard) medium charcoal (smudge) and light areas which you can leave white
THEN PAINT THE PAINTING
It is much more exciting than working from a photograph and focuses you on getting a really well balanced and tonal painting.
The light source is very obvious with the colour and tones.
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