The simplest and most effective way to make a volume look real is to use light and shadow, creating value changes across the volume instead of using lines to describe it.

I will try to show you of the characteristics of light and shadow to improve your skills .

 

Cast shadows are integral to creating the illusion of three dimensions and it is important to understand at least the basic concepts of shadow construction first.

 

Let's learn about light and colors!

DIRECT , HARD LIGHT

When discussing different types of light, it is really about different types of shadows.

Direct light casts a shadow with a

hard edge, and diffuse light casts a shadow with a soft edge.

 

All rays of light from a particular source are technically exactly the same, but the direction from which they come makes all the difference.

 

The term "hard light" refers to when all of the

light rays are very aligned in a singular direction.

 

Hard light can be recognized by the hard edge of the shadow that the illuminated forms cast.

 

Hard-edged shadows can also be cast from sunlight .

 

Even though the sources of light are very different, what matters is that the rays of light are very aligned and traveling

from a singular point at the source, whether that source is the sun or a light bulb, the quality of the edge of the cast shadow is

the same.

 

Here the light source is the sun,

There’s a gate and a tree casting a shadow on the ground that’s hard-edged.

Here is another example , if you were to put a lamp in font of you at eye level and put your hand in front of your face the shadow would come out hard-edged.

 

It can also depend on distance , if the lamp was very far from you the shadow would be softer.

DIRECT, SOFT LIGHT

The term "soft light" refers to when a surface is illuminated from many different points of light, also called diffuse light, like on a cloudy day.

Soft light can be recognized by the soft edge

of the shadow that the illuminated forms cast.

 

Very strong value changes are still observed across the surfaces of the forms, but

the cast shadows have soft edges.

Make note of this because when rendering scenes, the cast shadows must correctly match the quality and type of light source.

 

The soutce of light can be a light bulb diffused by a lampshade, the sun on an overcast day, or any light source that is obscured,

and as a result softened , before it reaches the volume and casts a soft shadow. .

When starting to observe both types of these

cast shadows in the environment, make a mental note of the edge quality of the shadows and the type of light source that

is creating them

Occlusion is a shadow ettect of light being blocked by neighboring surface.

This occurs wherever two adjoining

surfaces come together to block

the light, such as in the

corners of walls and ceilings.

EDGE/RIM LIGHT, HALF-LIGHT

To really emphasize the silhouette of an object without drawing a line around it, which would make it look like a cartoon and kill the realism, try adding edge lighting, also known as rim lighting.

 

This technique accomplishes the same

goal as outlining, but with value only.

 

Light shining from behind an object that illuminates just an edge of it, as on the body of

the person/object, creates a strong edge-lighting effect that enhances the silhouette, the silhouette of the object is visually strengthened.

 

Using this real-world lighting effect in renderings emphasizes silhouettes

without resorting to outlining.

 

Half-light is when an object, or a scene, is only half in the light, creating more visual interest and naturally creating a tocal point.

MULTIPLE LIGHT SOURCES

When there are multiple light sources illuminating an object, there will be multiple cast shadows.

The light sources can be different from each other, so keep this in mind when staging scenes and lighting tests.

Knowing that as light sources change,

so do the cast-shadow edges, it is quite possible to have multiple types of shadows cast by the same object.

Remember, the cast-shadow edge quality is dependent on the type of light.

REFLECTED LIGHT

Reflected light, commonly known as "bounced" or "fill" light, is light that reflects or bounces off of one surface and illuminates

another surface.

 

Shadows will rarely be totally black since reflected lights are everywhere

This often occurs on a different area of the

same volume or surface.

CAST SHADOW’S POSITION

You can determine where the light source is coming from by tracing lines along the edges of the shadow.

You can also determine that way where the shadow of an object will land on the ground depending on the angle of the light source.

LIGHT AND COLOR

Here , if we put an egg on a dark surface the reflected light and shadow will be darker than if earlier where the egg was on a lighter surface .

So imagine we put a white paper near the egg’s shadow.

The reflection of the white paper will then make this part lighter.

When a light ray bounces off something , its color mixes with the color of that object.

Light rays inherit other colors throughout their lifespan.

Gray is what make colors link together.

The more the colors become gray the easier it’ll be for them to blend together

Let’s say we put a ball under the sun on a beige ish ground.

The blue color of the sky will reflect on the ground and will then bounce on the shadow of the ball.

The shadow will then be lightened and will appear more blueish due to the reflection from the blue sky.

Now let’s put the ball on grass.

Ray of the sun will inherit the green color of the grass and bounce up in a diffuse way on the ball

The bottom of the shadow is green while top of the shadow is still cast blueish by the sky.

Just for comparison let’s replace the green ground by a red surface.

As you can see it’s the same principle.

But we can see that even though the ground is a bright red the reflected red will be way more desaturated and closer to gray .

Now let’s say the ball is yellow and on a green surface, since yellow and green are close together on the color wheel they will mix easily and the reflection will make the shadow pretty bright.

If we make the ball red it will look like the green is almost gone but it’s not totally.

Since red and green are not close to each other on the color wheel it will be harder for them to mix and the reflection will appear more gray

If i made the ball color a less saturated red we can see on the bottom of the sphere that the green bounce light shows up way more clearly

And that’s because less saturated colors can more easily mix with other colors.

If i put the same ball under an overcast day the shadows will turn soft and the colors will become less saturated .

Practice

I recommend you practice light and shadows by drawing simple forms first such as cylinders , cubes and spheres first.

Observe how light and shadows work in real life on the environment. Try to understand how it affects objects around you.

Also study photographs and then try to reproduce them on paper .

When you’re comfortable and understand how the shadows are casted you san simplify them.

Thank you for reading !

Hope this helped you understand how light and shadows work a bit more!

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Thanks and see you next time!