Three values are enough to make a form readable: a light, a middle and a dark. Texture, reflected colour and a dozen grey steps can wait. If the drawing does not work in three tones, extra greys will only blur the failure. This is a limitation you choose, and it is one of the fastest ways to see.

Sort the subject first

Squint until the detail drops out. Decide which shapes are the light family, which are middle, and which are truly dark. The lit top of a cup may be paper-white. The side may be one flat middle. The inner rim and the cast shadow may be the dark. A fourth tone is a temptation. Resist it until the three are in the right places.

Value First: Why a Grey Study Saves the Painting is the painted version of this sort. On a drawing, the sort is the shading. You are not preparing a study for later. The three tones are the picture.

Fill flat, then stop

Block each area as evenly as you can. A middle tone full of restless pencil marks reads as uncertainty, not as form. The light area should stay clean. Beginners shade the light because an empty page feels unfinished. The empty page is the light. If you tint it, you will have to push the darks much further to recover the range, and the paper may not allow it.

Cross-Hatching That Follows the Form can be the way you make the middle and the dark, if you keep the layers few. Hatching that covers all three values equally has abandoned the exercise.

One turn, not a gradient everywhere

Where a form curves from light into middle, you may soften that single boundary. Do not soften every edge. A cast shadow on a table often has a firmer edge near the object. A cheek turns more gradually. Choose. Shadow Colour: Studio Temperature Mistakes talks about colour, but the edge lesson is the same in graphite. One sharp, one soft.

If the three masses merge into a polite gradient, you have lost the poster that made the object clear. Darken the dark again, or erase the light back to paper. The drawing should still make sense from across the room, as three shapes.

A repeat you can judge

Draw the same object twice, once in three values and once with as many greys as you like. Pin them up. The three-value version will often look more solid. Keep it as the standard. The softer version is allowed afterwards, and only where it does not destroy the big plan.

Use this limit for a week of pages. It is strict enough to teach and small enough to finish in a short sitting. A drawing that names its three tones in the margin is a drawing you can learn from tomorrow.

Frequently asked questions

What if the subject is all middle? Then two of your values will occupy small areas: a highlight and a dark crack. Do not invent a dramatic light the room did not provide. The honesty of a narrow range is still a three-value drawing if the steps are clear.

Can I use charcoal? Yes. Charcoal blocks a middle tone quickly. Keep the light by not touching it. Three values in charcoal fail when the hand rests on the white and makes a fourth, accidental grey.

Does this apply to paint? Yes. Three premixed piles, light, middle and dark, will organise a study before you refine the hue. More piles are easier to mix than they are to control.

Steps

Name three tones: Squint and assign every large area to light, middle or dark, with no fourth category yet.
Block them flat: Fill each area evenly, keeping the light as clean paper or a very pale tone.
Add a turn only after: Soften one boundary where the form curves, and stop if the three masses start to merge.