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Earlier today, I looked across the office and noticed that my colleague was sitting in a ray of sun. Most of her face was in darkness, while there was a band of light around the edges.

Taking time to notice the dark and shade in your subject can lead to some excellent drawings. Perhaps the easiest way is to stick with two tones only - black and white is the obvious choice, but you can play about a bit if you wish. Decide that you are going to depict your subject only in these two colours, with no mid-tones.

I was lucky - it was pretty obvious to me which areas were going to be dark, and which light. If you notice a similarly clear-cut subject, go for it. Otherwise, aiming an angle-poise lamp will help.

As you can see, it’s a quick and easy way to make quite effective drawings. I’m not saying mine is particularly good, mind you, but it reminds me of cartoon noir and has given me a nudge to explore this technique more thoroughly (sorry to my colleague for making her look like ET, though).

This is a good exercise to try in conjunction with drawing without lines.