What Is a Tonal Area in Painting?

Tonal areas are a way of covering surfaces with materials to express colour, texture, light and shade, scale, geometry and depth.

“A tonal area is an entirely perceptual element of visual expression.” (L. F. Hodgden) It defines space. Whatever an object's material or energy, the eye perceives what bounds space through surfaces. It reads the surface structure through light, colour, texture and contours as patterns of tonal areas. The eye cannot distinguish microscopic details; it combines, blends, reduces and transforms them into a visual tonal value.

Types of tonal areas include:

1. Smooth tonal areas: an evenly organised surface, using blending, gradients and softening.

2. Textured tonal areas: strokes or blending that give the surface its texture.

3. Linear tonal areas: structuring the surface with lines.

4. Dotted or pointillist tonal areas: structuring the surface with dots.

Turan Vardar
Rekor Sanat – Art Teacher