Black-and-White Sketches

Black-and-white sketches are like value sketches, except that you focus on the contrasting blacks and whites and ignore the middle values. Your softest 4B pencil will work, but charcoal and carbon pencils work especially well for this because of their rich, dark qualities. Also called chiaroscuro sketching, this type of sketch is a good exercise for understanding what makes images visually identifiable with the most basic of values, black and white.

No Outlines or Middle Values Allowed

No matter what part of the subject you’re drawing, use only black and white forms to define it for a chiaroscuro drawing.