7. Light & Shadow(s)

Notes from this lesson come from Stan Prokopenko's video, which you can watch here on Youtube.

This lesson is all about shading - which can really bring your drawings to the next level. Many beginners fear shading, that it will be too hard, or take too long. Shading does take patience, and practice, but the results improve almost any drawing, and you don't have to overdo it. Simple indications of light and shadow do not have to be time consuming.

Light and shadow, called chiaroscuro in Italian, was not always championed in art history. For a long time, it was mostly ignored - by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, early Christians. There were some rare examples here and there, but most artists relied on contour lines, symmetry, and bright colors, ignoring a unifying, realistic light source:

Mary with Child and Saints, by Luca Signorelli, a contemporary of Da Vinci.

But, where is the light source?

It wasn't until the Renaissance, that the Italian master Leonardo Da Vinci began emphasizing chiaroscuro in all his works. 

The results were so dramatic, mysterious, theatrical and realistic that many artists copied his idea, most notably Caravaggio, who exaggerated it even further, like a spotlight on a darkened stage. 

Narcissus, by Caravaggio, 1599

Caravaggio became so popular that a whole group of "Caravaggisti" continued in his (and Da Vinci's) style. In fact, many artists did, for over two hundred years: 

Baroque masters:

The Fortune Teller, by Simon Vouet, 1617

Dutch masters:

Self Portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642

Neo Classical masters:

The Death of Socrates, by Jacques-Louis David, 1787

Romantics:

The Raft of the Medusa, by Theodore Gericault, 1818

Realists:

The Burial at Ornans, by Gustave Courbet, 1849-50

Artists didn't fully move away from this look until the Modern Age, with Impressionism. Note, there is still light and shadow, it's just subdued, instead emphasizing bright, vibrant warm and cool colors:

Apple Trees on Chantemesle Hill, by Claude Monet, 1878

VALUE

Artists divide light and shadow into different values. Not dollar values, no. Not moral values either. In art, values are levels from light to dark:

These are values. This is a value scale. I haven't numbered it because there's many ways to do it - it really doesn't matter how, just know that values range from light to dark.

With shading, different planes of your subject will change value as they turn toward or away from the light. Here is an example from Prokopenko's lesson:

Each little plane is darker or lighter as it wraps around the form. This is what you need to start seeing when you draw. Your work need not be so precise, simple indications are enough:

The Forest of Coubron, by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, 1870

When you get skilled in drawing values, you can stop using contour lines altogether, making entire compositions with just differing values:

Illustration by John Gannam

There are different kinds of shadows, and it's good to know what they are, so you understand them better. Here's a great diagram from Prokopenko:

Let's review:

Center Light - this is the part of a subject that directly faces the light source, it's the lightest part of the subject, unless it's shiny enough to have a highlight. When drawing, it's important to check for both center light and highlights, to plan which areas will be lightest.

Highlight - shiny subjects have highlights. These are the points where the light is able to bounce at an angle (like playing on a pool table) directly into your eyes. Highlights move around as the light source does, there's not one place where they have to be. This means you can move them around and it won't look any less realistic. Examples of shiny subjects include any skin that is stretched tight, like noses, or any surface that is wet, like eyes and sometimes lips - if a subject uses lip gloss, for example.

Halftone - this is a light shadow on any area that is still on the light side of the form.

The Terminator Line - this is a line exactly between the light side and shadow side of an object. Note, all parts of the shadow side will be darker than all parts of the light side.

Form Shadow - These are shadows that wrap around a form, transitioning smoothly from a range of values.

Core Shadow - this is the darkest part of a form shadow

Cast Shadow - this is a shadow cast from a subject onto a neighboring surface. Cast shadows tend to be flatter and more uniform. They have sharper edges near where they start, and get softer and blurrier the farther away they stretch.

Occlusion Shadow - these are areas where little to no light enters, like deep cracks in a rock, creating your darkest shadows. Folds in some clothing and sheets can have occlusion shadows.

Reflected Light - Light can bounce off of objects and surfaces to add light (and color) to areas in shadow. Note, that, however lighter that area might appear, it's still darker than any areas in the light side of the subject. A common mistake is to over-exaggerate reflected light.

5 VALUE DRAWING

Some artists claim it's good to limit your values to just five, to help organize your compositions. An excellent example of this comes from Luc Desmarchelier, who uses five values to draw thumbnail sketches for film and television projects:

With just 5 values, you choose deliberately what you want to stand out in the light and the darkness. It helps add clarity to your works.

LEVEL 1 ASSIGNMENT - Create a Value Scale with Smooth Transitions

THE SET UP:

LEVEL 1 ASSIGNMENT - Copy & Label the Light & Shadow Vocab Diagram, Shown Above

THE SET UP:

LEVEL 1 ASSIGNMENT - Shade a Simple Still Life Object

THE SET UP:

LEVEL 2 ASSIGNMENT - Shade a Car

THE SET UP:

LEVEL 2 ASSIGNMENT - 5 Value Landscape

THE SET UP:

LEVEL 3 ASSIGNMENT - Shade a Portrait

THE SET UP: