Dividing Light and Shadow

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm brent Eviston. Now, if you're familiar with my other courses here on Skillshare, you know that I usually create immersive, long courses with huge amounts of content. But I wanted to make this quick course in order to address one of the most persistent problems I see with student work. Shading. In particular, I see so many students struggling to keep a clear division between the lighter values and their drawings and the shadow values. I also see students struggling to draw with a full range of values that includes very rich darks in bright lights. In your drawings. You want to avoid both of these types of shading. We want our drawings to have a full range of values, from dark, darks to bright lights. But simply having a full range of values isn't enough. They have to be properly organized. In this course, you're going to learn how to fix that problem. You're going to learn how to keep a clear division between your light and you're shadow values. And you're going to learn to draw with a full range of values to make sure that you have beautiful dark blacks and whites. Now this is the first of what will be a series of short quick courses that focus on a very narrow topic. These short courses are designed for students who want to learn a skill quickly that they can immediately apply in their work. But if you're looking for a more immersive and structured learning experience, I highly recommend checking out the Art and Science of Drawing series. That is my Drawing Fundamentals course. And the entire thing is available here on Skillshare. So now I'm going to take you into my studio and I'm going to show you how light works. I'm going to show you the separation between light and dark. And then I'm going to show you how to immediately apply this in your work 2. Demonstration: So this sphere is just lit with a single lamp that is coming from above, from the side and a little from the front. So when we shine light on an object, photons spray out from the light source and they hit anything in their path. And whatever the photons hit, they illuminate. I want you to imagine photons shooting out of the light source and hitting everything in their path. That's a great way to think about light and to understand how it works. But of course, not everything is in the path. Photons coming out from the light source. So any area that is not being hit with light directly from the light source is left in shadow. So this means that we have two categories. We have the lit areas of our subject that are being hit with light directly from the light source. And we have shadow areas, the areas that are not being hit with light directly from the source. This is what it means to have a clear division between light and shadow. It means that all of our darkest values are only found in the shadows, and all of our brightest values are only found in the lit areas. So there are two types of shadows you should be aware of. Form shadows, which are shadows on the object itself, and cast shadows which are areas where light is blocked from hitting an adjacent surface. When we divide light from shadow, we want to capture both form shadows and cast shadows. So first, let's talk about form shadows, the shadows that are on the sphere itself. I want to draw your attention to the moment the sphere turns away from the light source and goes into shadow. This moment is called the line of termination. This is the line where light ends and shadow begins. Now the line of termination goes by many names. You may hear it referred to as the terminator or the turning edge. But all of these names are referring to the same phenomenon, the moment where a form is facing the light and then turns away and we can see a very clear line occur, a boundary between light and shadow. Now on a rounded object on a sphere, you will notice that this is not a hard edge. The line of termination on a rounded object is soft edged and diffused. So when you're putting it in your drawings, you don't want to draw hard line. You want to draw the line of termination on a rounded object using a soft edged line. Now let's take a look at the cast shadow. Remember a cast shadow occurs when an object blocks the light from hitting an adjacent surface. In this case, the sphere is blocking the light from hitting the surface that the sphere is on, and it creates a cast shadow. Now of course, a cast shadow takes on the shape of whatever is casting it. So you can see here we have a beautiful oval shaped cast shadow. Now the edges of a cast shadow are a little harder, particularly right underneath the object that's casting it. You can see here at this edge of the cast shadow, it's a much harder edge that we find at the line of termination on the sphere itself. So these are the two types of shadows that we want to separate in our drawing. We have the lit areas of our subject that are being hit with light directly from the source. And we have the shadow areas which are not being hit with light directly from the source. And these include form shadows which are on the object itself, and cast shadows, which are cast by an object onto an adjacent surface. So now let's head to the drawing board where I'm going to show you how to use these ideas in your drawings. This is an example of something I commonly see. Now at first glance, this Drawing appears to be mostly correct, but there are a few things that I want to point out. First of all, this Drawing does not have a clear division between light and shadow. I want you to notice that down here, where the reflected light is, is actually a little brighter than some of the values on the lit side. This should never occur in a drawing. Remember, even the brightest part of the shadow should still be darker than the darkest area that's being hit with light directly from the light source. So this is an example of a drawing where the shadows and the lights have not been properly organized. We don't have a clear division between light and shadow. The other thing I want to note here is that all of the values here are in this middle gray range and it makes for a pretty dull, boring drawing. You can still identify a bit of a core shadow. You can still identify the reflected light and highlight, but we don't have a wide range of values. You'll notice the darkest parts of the cast shadow are still very timid. I also want you to note that the line of termination is been diffused. It's a little unclear where the exact moment is that the sphere turns away from the light and goes into shadow. A drawing like this demonstrates that a student has some understanding of light and shadow, but there are still so many areas for improvement. This is a very typical type of drawing. I see a drawing that has some of the attributes of a well shaded subject, but doesn't have a clear division of light and shadow and does not use a full range of value. There are no dark darks in this drawing So this is a properly shaded drawing. First of all, you can clearly see the line of termination. Yes, it's a little soft edged, but there's still a very clear moment where the sphere turns away from the light and goes into shadow. Next, you can see the beautiful darks in the core shadow and in the cast shadow, we have a full range of values here in the occlusion shadow area of the cast shadow, I've buried down with a pencil fully to create the darkest black I can. When it drawing like this, we have rich dark blacks as well as a bright highlight. And finally, you'll note that there is a clear division between the values. All of the darkest values are on the shadow areas of the line of termination. You can clearly see all of the darks are here. And you can see that all of the brighter values are on the lit side of the line of termination. Remember in a drawing like this, we are working with a five-step value scale. We can see beautiful whites for the highlights. We can see beautiful blacks in the deepest parts of the shadows. And you'll note that the two brighter values we only find in the light and the three darkest values we only find in the shadows. This is what it means to have a clear division of light and shadow. If you follow these basic principles, it will improve your Shading tremendously. You will be able to do shaded drawings that make sense and that have a beautiful sense of drama and dynamism. Nearly everything I teach is designed to prepare students for figure drawing. The human figure is my absolute, my favorite subject to draw. So for this project, we're dividing Light from shadow. So first, I want to draw your attention to the photograph of the model. Even though this is a much more complex subject, notice that the line of termination is crystal-clear. We can very clearly see the moment where the body turns away from the light and goes into shadow. And here, running all the way down the figure, we see a very clear line of termination dividing the lit side of the form from the shadow side. So hopefully you can clearly see what we've been talking about on the lit side of the line of termination is where we find all of the brighter values and all of the dark values are only found on the shadow side of the line of termination. Know areas of the shadow side, not even the brighter parts of the shadow are as bright as even the darkest parts of the lit area. So I have brought this drawing to the point where all of the basic shapes of the form have been established. I have all of the basic contour edges drawn in. So now I'm ready to begin the shading process. And a first step of the shading process is to divide light from shadow using the line of termination. So I'm going to start up here at the elbow. And using a soft edged line, I'm going to draw the line of termination where the body turns away from the light and goes in to Shadow. Now for my first pass, I'm going to keep this pretty simple. I'm not including every little detail. I'm just using a light soft edge line to establish the basic line. In this first pass, I'm not including all of the details. I'm simplifying the line of termination just to capture the most important elements. So for example, right here, I'm not going to draw every undulation of the shadow. I'm just going to start off using a curved line. So now I've drawn the line of termination down the entire right side of the figure. So once I've done this, I'm going to darken all of the shadow areas to approximately a number three value, which is the lightest value we will find in the shadow areas. I'm doing this using the side of my pencil to create a nice soft wash of value. Here we can see nearly this entire leg is in shadow. So hopefully, you can already see how the simplified line of termination starts to capture the light and shadow in a simplified way. Our goal is to keep this division between light and dark throughout the life of the Drawing. At no point in this Drawing, while any of the shadow values be as bright as even the darkest parts of the lit side of the subject. We have the line of termination making a clear boundary between the lit areas of the subject and the shadow areas. So many times in a more complex subject, you might find a number of lines of termination for each part of the body. That's very normal. You can go around your Drawing, capturing the line of termination for each individual limb or part of the body. If you draw the line of termination accurately and darken in the shadow areas, you will start to see the illusion of light and shadow form even in a simplified drawing like this. Once you have this clear division in your drawing, you can begin to add all of the variations in value. But remember, all of your darker values will only be found on the shadow side of the line of termination. And all of your brighter values will only be found on the lit side of the line of termination. So here we have a simple drawing of a cube. First I drew the three-dimensional shape of the cube. Next I drew the shape of the cast shadow. Then I applied a wash of value to the shadow side, the part of the cube that is not getting hit with light directly from the source. This simple drawing only has two values, one value for the light and one value for Shadow. Here we have the same kind of drawing, but this time with a rounded object. It's a simple drawing of an egg. First I drew the shape of the egg. Next I drew the shape of the cast shadow. Then I divided light from shadow with a line of termination. And again, I only have two values for the light side of the egg. I've just used the white value of the paper. For the shadow side, I have laid in a light wash of value that's at approximately a number three value on a five-step value scale. Once again, this is very simple, but this kind of drawing is going to train your mind to divide light from shadow. So all of your darker shadow values will only be seen on the shadow side of the line of termination. All if you're lighter values will only be found on the lit side of the line of termination. Once you've got your bearing with simple objects, you can move on to slightly more complex objects. So here's a drawing of a pair. A drawing like this has more lumps and bumps and more complex contour. But once again, you can see this is a very simple shaded drawing. I've divided the light from shadow and all of the darker values are going to be on the shadow side and the light side of the pair is just left the color of the paper. The more you do these kinds of drawings, the more this division of light and shadow will become clear and the more dramatic and powerful your shading will become 3. Your Project: So hopefully you now understand why it is so important to divide light from shadow in your drawings. Here's how to practice this. I want you to commit to doing a minimum of three drawings. In these three drawings, you're going to select a subject. You're going to light it with a single light source. You're going to get the basic shapes of the subject down. And then you are going to divide the lit areas of the subject from the shadow areas of the subject. You're also going to draw the shape of the cast shadow. Once you have the basic shapes of your subject, you've divided the light from shadow using the line of termination. You've captured the shape of the cast shadow, then you're going to darken the shadow areas. So when you're darkening the shadow areas of your subject, you don't need to darken them all the way down to the darkest value on the scale. Now I tend to use a five-step value scale. So you just want to darken the shadow areas to about a number three value, the middle value. And by darkening the shadows just to a middle value, this actually will allow you to complete these drawings with a full range of values later on. Remember these are not finished shaded drawings. These are exercises to train your brain to keep your lights and you're shadows separate. So now you know what to do for your project. Once you've completed your project, feel free to post it here on Skillshare where it can be reviewed by me and by other students. Well, thank you so much for joining me in this course. And if you want to learn more about shading or drawing in general, I highly recommend you check out the Art and Science of Drawing series. The Art and Science of Drawing series focuses on Drawing Fundamentals. You'll start off at the very basics. You'll learn things like how to hold a pencil, how to do basic shapes, and how to construct basic objects. And then you'll move on to more complex subjects like Shading and even figure Drawing. Well, thank you so much for joining me here and I hope to see you in future courses.