Build Light and Dark Areas with Hatching

Hatching builds an area from repeated lines. By organizing their spacing and adding a crossing set, you can explore light and dark values with one drawing color. This exercise produces a three-part sampler and a small shape study that uses the same line systems.

The National Gallery of Art's introduction to drawing describes hatching as parallel lines and crosshatching as intersecting sets that add tone and texture. Here, the main question is how each field reads as a light or dark area when you step back from the individual marks.

Prepare a controlled sampler

Use one familiar pencil and ordinary drawing paper. A ruler can help make three similarly sized boxes, but freehand boxes are sufficient. Label them A, B and C. Leave a margin for notes and a clear space below for the shape study.

Choose a comfortable line direction and short stroke length. Keep the same pencil, approximate pressure and line direction in the first set of marks. If the pencil point wears down or a line becomes much heavier, note it; those changes can affect the comparison.

Make this study on paper. It does not establish whether a drawing tool will adhere over paint or mark a particular canvas surface. Keep the pencil exercise separate from any later material decision.

Build three line fields

1. A: Leave open spaces. Fill the first box with a set of roughly parallel lines, leaving clear paper between them. Keep the spacing reasonably consistent across the box. Do not shade back and forth over the whole area.
2. B: Bring the lines closer. Use the same general direction, pressure and stroke length in the second box, but reduce the spaces. Compare it with A from your normal viewing position. Record whether the field reads darker.
3. C: Add a crossing set. Begin the third box with a line field similar to B. Add a second family of parallel lines at a clearly different angle. Keep this new set deliberate and spaced rather than filling every remaining gap.

A to B tests spacing. B to C tests the addition of a crossing set. If you also press much harder or use a different pencil in C, label that as a changed variable instead of assuming the extra darkness comes only from crossing lines.

Check values from a comfortable distance

Place the sheet where you can see all three boxes together. Can you order them from relatively light to dark? The letters do not guarantee the order: uneven pressure or dense marks in A can change the result. Number the boxes according to what you actually see.

Record: “My lightest field is ___; the useful change from A to B was ___; the added set in C made ___.” If two fields look nearly the same, make a small fourth test with wider spacing or a clearer crossing change. Keep the original evidence instead of repeatedly darkening every box until they match.

Apply the system to one shape

Draw a simple oval or an angular shape below the sampler. Divide it lightly into three broad regions. Choose a light, middle and dark arrangement as a design plan; this part does not require a physically accurate lighting model.

Fill each region with the corresponding line system from your sampler. Keep the systems recognizable at first. You can explore lines that curve with a form in a later study, but changing spacing, direction and pressure together would make this first transfer harder to assess.

Step back again. Does the light region remain lighter than the other two? Does the dark region retain its boundary, or have dense marks made adjoining areas merge? Compare with the contrast guide when deciding which separation matters.

Choose what to carry forward

Write one practical decision beneath the study: “I will use ___ line system for ___ region because ___.” Keep this as a drawing or as a value plan for a later painting. The flat-color guide offers a separate method for filling painted regions; a pencil sampler does not require painting every individual hatch mark.

Must the lines be perfectly straight?

No. Look for a line system consistent enough to compare and repeat comfortably. Choose another exercise from the painting practice guide when you want to work on individual brush strokes or observe where shadows belong.