This is an exercise in generating tonal shades using the same medium and repeated mark making.
I used a stick of compressed charcoal and 3 sheets of rough watercolour paper and drew short vertical lines in an attempt to retain a consistent tone on each sheet.
Sheet 1 - light tone
Sheet 2 - Mid tone
Sheet 3 - Dark tone
Sheet 1
This is the light tone sheet. I created this using a very light pressure on the paper. These lines remained quite thin and, due to the tooth of the paper, quite a lot of the white of the paper is visible through the marks as the charcoal didn't penetrate into the roughness of the paper. The mark making is relatively uniform in width, length and tone.
Sheet 2
This is the mid tone sheet. To create this tone, I used a same pressure on the paper as I would if I was using a pen for writing. This started to create a slightly thicker mark as the charcoal stick started to wear away. The white of the paper can still be seen through the marks as again, as this pressure still wasn’t quite enough to get the charcoal into the roughness of the paper.
Sheet 3
This is the dark tone sheet. I pressed hard on the paper using the charcoal to create these marks. This used a lot more charcoal as the pressure applied meant it was able to penetrate the roughness of the paper, leading to the edge of the charcoal starting to blunt down quickly and make a thicker line as I continued to make the marks. I ended up turning the charcoal stick about halfway through the mark making which can be seen where the line goes from thick to thin. The charcoal also broke a couple of times as I was pressing slightly too hard. Although I was able to retain a consistency of tone, the marks vary quite considerably with the rotation of the charcoal stick.
I created a fourth sheet of tonal markings which fit between sheet 2 and sheet 3 in terms of tone. This time I attempted not to turn the charcoal as I progressed. As a result, the width of the lines gradually thickened throughout the duration of the mark making.
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