Tape down the artwork to the drawing table. There are two types of manual screentone: the first type is a rubdown sheet much like a decal, the second type is a cut and rub type.
Place the rubdown sheet (dark side down) over the artwork in the area where you want to apply tone. The plastic of the sheet is designed to allow you to rub the printed tone off. Position a soft-leaded pencil or burnishing tool over the area you want to transfer.
Rub across the screen area evenly. Usually you can see the dots or lines transferring and the plastic will become empty. Often the plastic will distort with this type of process and the alignment of the tone may not be completely even.
Apply the cut type screentone by placing the sheet dark side up over the artwork. Cut around the area you want to screen. Often there are dark solid lines on either side. Lift the cut screen off the plastic and position it on the art. Use the flat side of a burnishing tool to gently rub the screentone into good contact with the art.
Tape drawing paper down on the table. Apply pencil to the drawing paper in the style and tone that you want. Try many different graphite and charcoal pencils to produce the tone darkness and quality that you want.
Scan the pencil tones into the computer with a scanner. Open the images with your art software program.
Select the size of screen, halftone, line or other graphic filter you want to create a screentone effect. The screen you use will break up your original image into a size of dot or thickness of line. This creates the tone effect. Save your pencil screentones and use them with your brush or fill feature in your art program. The program will render the pencil in the areas of your drawings that you select.