Coming from Africa, I sometimes feel I carry a torch around in my head, because I see tones where it appears others don't see them! What am I talking about? I recently attended the Northern Parishes Art Exhibition, and there were over 200 paintings, done by groups and individuals and the variety of subject matter depicted was wonderful to see....but. There is a but....so many people are either timid painters or they simply don't understand the importance of tones. If you paint a robin or a tree, it appears flat unless you shade it. You have to give the subject FORM, and to do this it needs to be light in places and dark in other places. People seem able to shade from light to dark if they have a pencil in their hands, but when they use paint and a brush they lose the plot! We all should spend time just practising painting, trying to get our heads around painting things light and dark. The results will be wonderful.