Introduction

If you're here it is probably because you want to add some cool, dynamic lighting to your illustration.

 

So, let's learn how to draw backlit characters!

Video!

If you’d rather learn from a video, here it is!

 

 

The Scenario/Environment

The first thing to do when adding lighting, any kind of lighting, is to consider the scenario or environment that your character is in.

This step might seem tedious but, having a well thought out scenario or environment can add a lot of depth to your illustration.

 

For this demo I will be drawing a character walking down an alleyway at night.

At this point I like to do a colour sketch of the background which I’ll clean up later.

 

 

The Shadows

After you have thought carefully about your scenario and environment, drawn and added the base colours of your character the next step is to add the shadows.

But before we continue any further, we need to understand shadows a bit better.

 

 

1) The Anatomy of a Shadow (the theory)

1) The light area is usually one that is in direct light and has no shadow.

 

2) The mid tones are the areas of transition between light and shadow, and just as their name suggests they have a middling value.

 

3) Shadows are the dark areas that don’t receive any direct light.

 

4) Bounce light is light that is reflected off of objects in the environment and creates areas of lighter colour in the shadows.

 

 

Keep this in mind when adding the shadows as your environment or style might have things that my demo doesn’t!

 

 

Ambient light is the light that is passively in your environment, it takes on the colour of your environment. We won't be going too much into colour theory here, but as a general rule the colour of the ambient light in your environment is the colour of the shadows.

 

For example; when outside the colour of the direct light from the sun is yellowish, the ambient light is blue because of the blue colour of the sky so the shadows should be blue-ish.

Now that we’ve learnt a bit of the theory, let's put it into practice!

 

 

2) Start Shading! (the practical starts here)

The first thing I always do is create a new multiply layer above either the colour layer or a folder containing all of the colours, use the 'Clip to Layer Below' function to ensure that no shadows go outside of the coloured area.

 

(if you do use a folder, set it to through mode to prevent any weird glitches)

I then fill this layer entirely with my chosen shadow colour.

(For this demo, the direct light is pink, from the sign and the ambient light is dark blue/grey from the night sky/moon)

 

 

When choosing a shadow colour is a good idea to choose something in the middle of the colour picker, rather than something too dark or too light.

I then get any soft brush, I’m just using CSP’s default airbrush, and erase parts of the shadow where the light will hit, make sure not to erase too much of the shadow, a subtle effect is fine. If you do erase too much you can always go back in and add in some of the shadow again.

 

(choose any soft brush and hit ‘c’ on your keyboard to make it erase)

I then go back over with another multiply layer and add in what are called 'cast shadows' or 'occlusion shadows'. I usually do these in a more cel shading style with a slightly different shadow colour. These shadows go in the places where light cannot reach, the folds of clothes, intersections of objects, and any other place that is being blocked from the light.

The Light

Now onto the bit you've been waiting for. Adding the back lighting.

 

For the colour of the light think once again of your environment or scenario and choose accordingly.

 

 

(Mine will be pink)

 

 

We start with the light much like we did with shadow, first taking a soft brush and, on an 'add glow' layer, going over the bits that we erased in the previous step. Again don't go overboard with this, it should not be the brightest colour on the canvas at the end of the illustration. If you are worried about it being too bright then choose a colour that is duller or lower the opacity of your layer. You can also go into the shadows a bit for a different effect.

Next, we take a bright colour such as white or, depending on the environment, a different colour.

 

Try to stay within this range.

Using this colour create a new layer above the line art layer and add the rim lighting.

Rim lighting is direct light that comes from behind and highlights the outline or rim of the subject.

The Background (optional)

This step can really be done at any point, but if you're going to add a background don't forget to add lighting to the background as well, some of the objects in the background might even be backlit too.

You can go through the steps above to add lighting to the background or you can merely add one shadow layer and one light layer depending on the effect you want to achieve.

(I chose to go for a simple background here to make the character the focus.)

Finishing

Now that we are moving into the finishing stages you need to do one very important step.

You need to check your values.

Your values are how dark or how light your colours appear.

If you don't know how to do this, a simple way is to go Layer > New Correction Layer > Hue Saturation Luminosity, then bring the saturation slider all the way to the left. After clicking ok this will create a new layer which will affect the layers beneath it. Bring it all the way up to the top of the layer tab.

Now you can check your values (it should be in black and white like the above image).

The most important thing to check for are areas where two different things, such as the clothes and skin, are very similar in value. You don’t want this, things should contrast each other nicely.

After you have checked your values and make any necessary adjustments this is the part where you add any personal finishing touches to your illustration. This can be things such as noise, gradients, overlay layers, chromatic aberration, dust, paper textures, etc.

(For my illustration I added; an overlay layer and some dust.)

Bonus ･ﾟ✧

Here are some other illustrations I created with this method!

 

 

Remember

This is a tutorial on how I like to go about backlit illustrations. There are no rules in art, so have fun and make cool illustrations!

 

If you found this tutorial helpful in any way, likes are appreciated. If you have any questions ask them in the comments!

 

Thank you for reading/watching and have a lovely day!

 

 

Created by:

*:･ﾟ✧Te Maru/Anaïs