Shading

Page 2

The main concept behind shading is 'the source of light'. Where you lighten your object, where you darken it, where you place the shadows are the basic necessities to your start in shading.

Identification of the light source

You're not kids, so you know very well that the closer the light source is to the object, the brighter it is. Decide on the source of light well before you start the drawing.... does your picture have a lamp , or the sun, or a candle flame in it? If it does, then every object in your piece will be shaded relative to the source....and if your drawing does not have a direct source of light, then just imagine one!

In the examples below, imagine that the source of light is hanging somewhere above the ball in the middle... notice the 'reactions' of the three balls to the source of light.

Placing shadows

As you can notice from the above three images, the shadows are all placed in accordance with the source of light... imagine if in the first image the shadow was on the right...would it be proper? Definitely not. The shadow is always in the opposite side of the source of light.