Transcripts
1. Shading Beyond the Basics Trailer: Welcome to Shading Beyond the Basics. This course is designed for students who have some basic drawing skills and some basic shading skills, but are looking to challenge themselves and dramatically increase their drawing and shading abilities. After an introduction to high print volumes, you'll learn how to accurately shade complex subjects by first simplifying them into more basic volumes before capturing all of their details and complexity. In this course, you'll learn how to shade multiple kinds of subjects, including concave forms, like cups and bowls, as well as organic forms. You'll also learn how to keep the shading process simple even as the complexity of your subjects increases. Finally, you'll learn how to shade using dynamic mark making that will give your drawings a sense of energy and dynamism. You'll even learn crosshatching, one of the most sought after shading skills. You'll learn from beautiful photographs, dozens of crystal clear diagrams, and drawings by the instructor. This course is more than just good advice and drawing demonstrations, it's a complete drawing program. Each lesson in this course, has a specific focus, as well as a project specifically designed for you to get the most out of what you've just learned. Once you've completed the recommended practice, you're ready to watch the next lesson. This course is like taking private lessons with an expert from the comfort of your home or studio. If you're ready to learn master shading skills and dramatically improve your drawing abilities enroll in Shading Beyond the Basics today.
2. Welcome: Welcome to this shading beyond the basics course in the art and science of drawing Series. I'm your instructor, Brent Evanston. There are a few things I'd like to share with you before you start the first lesson. The first thing is that I absolutely love working with students. Teaching drawing is a joy and a privilege that I take very seriously. Before creating the art and science of drawing series, I taught drawing for 20 years in studios, schools, museums, and universities. While working with students, I would constantly ask myself, What are the teaching tools and techniques that really connect with students? What tools and techniques show the most improvement in their drawing skills? How can I teach these techniques in a way that really speeds up their skill development? This course is the answer to those questions. The courses and the art and science of drawing series contains some of the most powerful teaching tools and techniques that are proven to teach students how to draw. Here's how the course works. Each day, you're going to watch one video lesson and then be given a project to do. Once you've completed that Days project, you're ready to begin the next video lesson. Now this course was designed so that you can watch one video lesson each day and do one project each day. But you're welcome to adapt the structure of the course to fit your schedule. If you can only get to one video lesson in project a week, that's fine. Feel free to make this course work for you. Now this is a project based course, which means that every lesson is going to come with a specific project that's designed for you to get the most out of the skills you've just learned. The practice that these projects provide is absolutely essential to your learning how to draw. If you're not practicing, you're not doing these projects, you will not improve. Having an intellectual understanding of these ideas is great, but practice is required to really get good at crying. Now one of my great joys as a teacher is to see students evolve and grow over time. I encourage you to share your work. You can share it with family and friends. You can share it on social media, and of course, you can share it right here on skill share. When you share your work on social media, I encourage you to include the hashtag, evolve your art. Building a community when you're learning to draw is a great way to be inspired to practice and get feedback on your work. Now this course is one of seven in the art and science of drawing series. Each course in the series focuses on a different essential drawing skill. Now if you're a beginning student, I highly recommend going through this series in order. But if you've got some experience drawing, feel freedom, mix and match the courses to suit your own needs and interests. Now while you're taking the course, I recommend watching it on a larger screen. You're welcome to take the course on your phone if that's what you have available. But by watching it on a larger screen, you'll have a richer experience. You'll be able to see more detail in the drawings. If you'd like any other information on other courses and the art and science of drawing series, drawing resources, or a detailed description of what materials to use, I encourage you to visit the website, evolveyourart.com. It's a great place to go for further drawing resources. Well, thank you so much for joining me. It's an honor and a privilege to have you as a student. Let's get started with our first lesson.
3. The Cone & The Egg: Welcome to Shading Beyond the Basics. This course is designed for students who have some basic drawing skills and some basic shading skills. This course will introduce you to a series of shading tools and techniques that will add a whole new sense of dynamism and sophistication to your drawings. If you're not yet comfortable choosing your drawing materials or lighting basic volumes, you might want to revisit the Shading Fundamentals Course in the Art and Science of Drawing Series. The Shading Fundamentals Course will introduce you to some basic shading techniques, as well as how to light simple volumes. So once you're ready, let's get started by looking at how light operates on some of the more complex secondary volumes. We're going to take a look at the cone and the egg. The cone is closely related to the cylinder. Just like the cylinder, if we run our finger along the length of the cone, our finger will move in a straight flat line. But if we move our finger perpendicular to this direction, it would curve around the object and meet back up at the same place it started. When we encounter a volume that curves like this. There's a predictable pattern of light and shadow that we can expect. Because the right side of the cone is lit and the left side is in shadow. We can tell that the light source is coming from the upper right. Take a look at the edge of the cone that is closest to the light source. The lightest value we'll find on the cone is located here along this straight edge that is closest to the light source. This brightest area on a curved form is called the center light. But you can see that as the cone curves around, the value gets progressively darker. As the cone curves away from the light source, it gets hit with light less directly and therefore appears dimmer. The moment the surface of the cone curves completely away from the light source is called the line of termination. The line of termination marks the moment where the light ends and shadow begins. You can see that just like a cylinder, the line of termination on the cone appears straight. Even though the area directly above the line of termination appears darker than the center light region, it is still considered to be in the light. This dimmest region on the lit side of the line of termination is called the midtone. Next, let's focus our attention on the shadow side of the line of termination. You can see that the shadow side of the line of termination can be divided into two distinct sections. There is a darker band of shadow directly below the line of termination. It is called the core shadow. You can see that just like the cone itself, the core shadow is narrower at one end and wider at the other. Right underneath the core shadow, you'll notice that the value gets slightly lighter. This is called reflected light. Reflected light is created when light comes down from the light source, hits the surface the cone is sitting on, and reflects upward, suddenly lighting the bottom of the cone. Finally, let's take a look at the cast shadow. You can see that the cast shadow mimics the shape of the cone itself. One edge of the cast shadow is straight and narrows to a point, while the left edge of the cast shadow is curved like the base of the cone itself. Once again, in the cast shadow, we can see two distinct values. You can see that the darkest part of the cast shadow is directly underneath the cone. It is called the occlusion shadow. The occlusion shadow will usually be the darkest value. It is one of the few places in a drawing or painting that you can use actual black. You can see that the occlusion shadow is darker than the rest of the cast shadow, as well as darker than the core shadow. You can see that as the cast shadow moves left and away from the cone itself, it begins to brighten. You can also see that the further the cast shadow gets from the cone itself, the edge begins to diffuse. Take a look at the cast shadow near the tip of the cone. You can see that the edge of the cast shadow here is much firmer. Now take a look at the edge of the cast shadow at the far left. The edge has softened considerably. This diffused edge of the cast shadow is called the penumbra. Now, I'd like you to take a moment, look at the cone and make sure you can discern all of these individual values. Remember, it can be easier to see the shapes and edges of values if you let your eyes go softly out-of-focus or squint. Start by looking at the center light, the brightest part of the cone. Next, move your eyes down into the left and watch the cone get dimmer as it approaches the midtone. Continue to move your eyes in this direction until you come across the line of termination, the moment where the light ends and shadow begins. Remember, the line of termination marks one edge of the core shadow. You can see that on a cone, the core shadow edge at the line of termination gets firmer as the cone narrows toward the tip and softens as the cone gets wider toward the base. Finally, continue to move your eyes downward to the reflected light. Being able to recognize and understand the various lightened shadow conditions found on a volume is the first and most important step to being able to draw them. Next, let's take a look at how the shadow conditions change on the cone when it is oriented upright. The lit side of the line of termination remains the same. We can see the center light gradually transition to the mid tone. But on the shadow side of the line of termination, you'll notice that there isn't really a discernible core shadow. Remember, in order to get the darker band of the core shadow, there must be a nearby, adjacent surface that reflects light back onto the cone. With nothing to the left of the cone, there is nothing to reflect light back onto it. Therefore, we see no core shadow. If you're new to the Art and Science of Drawing Series or if you just like an in-depth review of how light operates on the foundational volumes, as well as how to use a value scale to accurately render all of these values, please review The Shading Fundamentals Course of the Art and Science of Drawing Series. Next, let's take a look at our first hybrid volume, the egg. We can think of the egg or the ovoid as a hybrid volume because it contains elements of both the sphere and the cylinder. To understand what I mean, take a look at the larger end of the egg on the left, you can see that much of it is perfectly spherical. Let's superimpose a sphere over the larger left side of the egg. Now let's imagine that we cut that sphere in half. This is essentially the volume that makes up the larger end of the egg. Next, take a look at this smaller front end of the egg on the right. Hopefully you can see that it too is essentially spherical. So both ends of the egg are made up of a half sphere. These two half spheres are facing one another. The half sphere on the left is larger than the half sphere on the right. The two ends of the egg are connected by a volume that is somewhere between a cylinder and a cone. Hopefully you can see the obvious relationship that this volume has with a basic cylinder. The only difference is it is tapering with the ellipse on the right side, slightly smaller than the ellipse on the left. But another way to think of this volume would be as a truncated cone or a cone with it's narrower section cutoff. So the simplest way to conceive of an egg as a hybrid volume is to think of it as two half spheres, one larger than the other, facing one another and connected in the middle by a cylindrical or conical volume. The only difference between our volumetric diagram of the egg and the real thing is that the sides of the actual egg are slightly more rounded. Being able to break down hybrid volumes into their more basic volumes is an essential skill that will help you observe, analyze, and draw the various lightened shadow conditions you'll encounter on more complex subjects. Now let's take a look at the various lightened shadow conditions of the egg. Hopefully you can see that the light is coming from the upper right, which means that the section of the egg that is closest to the light source will be the brightest, excluding of course, the highlight which we'll look at in just a moment. Remember this brighter section at the edge of the egg that is closest to the light source is called the center light. As the surface of the egg begins to curve away from the light source, we can see it get dimmer. This dimmer value is the midtone, as the surface of the egg continues to curve away from the light source, we find the line of termination. The moment on the surface of the egg where direct light can no longer hit it. Everything on the upper right section of the egg above the line of termination is considered a lighting condition. Even the midtone, everything below the line of termination is considered a shadow condition, even the reflected light, because the front right section of the egg is rounded and spherical, we can see a highlight. Remember, a highlight occurs at the exact moment that photons travel down from the light source and ricochets off of the object in the exact location that sends them directly back into your eyes. The highlight is literally a reflection of the light source and indicates how shiny the surface of the object is. The more polished the surface, the brighter and sharper the highlight appears. You should also remember that the highlight is one of the few places in your drawing that should appear completely white. Now let's take a look at the core shadow. Hopefully you can see that the core shadow on the egg is rounded at both ends, but straightens out in the middle, just like the egg itself. This is where it pays off to be able to understand hybrid volumes in terms of the more basic volumes they are derived from. For example, take a look at the larger spherical end of the egg on the left. You can clearly see that the core shadow curves upward toward the left. Now let's take a look at the corresponding section on an actual sphere. Sure enough, we can find the exact same shadow pattern, a core shadow of that curves upward toward the left side of this sphere and is wider at the edge of this sphere. Next, let's take a look at the cylindrical middle section of the egg. In this section, the core shadow seems to straighten out. This is of course, exactly the kind of shadow pattern we would find on a cylinder. Finally, let's take a look at the spherical end of the egg on the right. Once again, on this spherical section of the volume, we can see the core shadow curving upward this time towards the right. You can see that the shadow conditions on the right side of the egg are not quite as darker obvious as the shadow conditions on the left of the egg. Now let's take a look at the corresponding section of an actual sphere. Remember to let your eyes go softly out-of-focus or to squint when you're trying to discern values on volumes. Hopefully you can see the subtle core shadow curving upward and to the right. This is the same shadow pattern we see at the front right of the egg. Understanding how to shade more complex objects will be much easier if you understand the basic volumes that they're made of. Next, let's take a look at how light and shadow conditions change when we place two or more volumes next to each other. Here you can see a cone and an egg right next to one another. I'd like to draw your attention to the reflected light on the egg. The portion of reflected light on the upper left side of the egg almost appears to be glowing. The reason the reflected light here is so intense is because in addition to the normal amount of reflected light, this section of the egg would be getting if it were by itself, there is also light coming down from the light source striking the right side of the cone and reflecting onto the egg. You can also see that this strip of reflected light is straight and is going in the same direction as the edge of the cone. Whenever you have two or more volumes in close proximity to one another, you'll want to pay special attention to how they reflect light onto one another. Next, let's take a look at a cone next to a cube. We can clearly see that the light is coming from the upper right, which of course sends the cast shadow to the left. The cast shadow moves across the ground plane exactly as we would expect until it is intercepted by the vertical plane of the cube. You can clearly see that the cast shadow of the cone climbs upward on this flat vertical plane. Next, let's switch out the cube for an egg. Once again, we can see the cast shadow moving left across the ground plane. But as it is intercepted by the round form of the egg, instead of the edges continuing on straight, you can clearly see them curve over the surface of the egg. In a drawing, this will help reinforce the illusion of roundness of the egg. Now I'd like you to take a look at the bottom left of the cone. It is a bit brighter than it would normally appear if it were by itself. This is of course, because light is coming down from the light source, striking the right side of the egg and reflecting onto the bottom left side of the cone. Now that you have an understanding of how light is operating on these volumes, let's put these concepts into practice. To start this drawing, I've got the basic shapes of the cone in the egg down on the page. I've also drawn in the line of termination separating the lit side of each object from the shadow side. Finally, I've drawn in the shape of the casts shadows, including the casts shadow of the cone that is curving over the surface of the egg. Once these basic shapes are drawn in, and I'm confident that they are accurate, I'm ready to begin the shading process. I'll start by laying a light wash a value into the shadow side of the line of termination on each object. When shading complex volumes or multiple objects, I would highly recommend slowly building up the values on all of the objects at the same pace, as opposed to trying to shade and finish one object before moving on to another. Next, you'll see me dark in the cast shadows of each object. Although I'm holding back on the cast shadow of the cone across the egg. I'll address this shadow once I begin to differentiate the different shadow conditions on the forums themselves. It's important to note that although the occlusion shadow section of the casts shadows will eventually go all the way to black. I'm not yet pushing the shadows to be that dark. This allows me to make sure the lightened shadow patterns I've drawn are actually working before I commit to using my darkest values, which are extremely difficult to lighten once they are drawn. Remember, it's much easier to darken a value than it is to lighten one. At this stage, if you're drawing even without any true dark's, it should be apparent to you whether or not your shadows are working. Any final changes to the shape or placement of the shadows or volumes should be done now before committing to using the darkest values. No amount of shading is going to fix a problem with the size, shape, placement, or proportion of any of your objects. Once you're confident that the accuracy of your drawing, you can begin darkening up the values. To do this, you'll first see me define and darken the core shadow on the egg. Next you'll see me darken the occlusion shadow, pushing the pencil to its darkest limits. Next, I'll do the same thing on the cone, but instead of the cone having a clear core shadow, the reflected light from the egg only lightens the bottom of the shadow on the cone. So I'll darken the shadow with a top of the cone, but allow it to get gradually lighter as it nears the bottom. Next you'll see me darken the cast shadow of the cone, including the section of the cast shadow that's curving over the surface of the egg. Once the shadows are working, I'll begin adding the mid tones on the lit side of the line of termination. Remember, the only area where we will leave the paper completely white will be in the highlight. Instead of simply drawing around the highlight, you'll see me lift it out using an eraser. At this point, all of the light and shadow conditions on the objects have been addressed. But this does not mean that the drawing is finished. Once the basic shadow shapes and values have been addressed, you can begin to add subtlety in detail. I would encourage you to pay particular attention to the edges between all of the light and shadow conditions, hardening or softening them as needed. If for any reason you need a refresher on basic values, shadow edges, or the basic shading process, please revisit the course, shading fundamentals in the art and science of drawing series. Let's speed up the process as I continue to refine the values, including adding value to the surface that the volumes are sitting on. The resulting drawing has a good amount of subtlety and detail, but the foundational values, the highlight, mid-tone, core shadow, reflected light and cast shadow are all clearly defined. So for your project today, you're going to need some basic drawing materials, and that's whatever you're comfortable using. A simple pencil, a white piece of paper, and an eraser is just fine. You're also going to need a cone shape and an egg or an ovoid. If you can't get a hold of a wooden cone like the one I'm using, look for something in your environment that's cone-shaped, or you can make your own paper cone by first cutting out a circle of paper, removing a triangular section from that paper that goes to the center of the circle and then pull the two cut edges together and tape them. You're also going to need a light source. A simple desk lamp will work just fine. Once you've got your drawing subjects, you're drawing materials and your light source, you're ready to begin today's project. I want you to do at least two different drawings of your egg and your cone placed together. But in each drawing, I'd like them to be arranged in a different way. In this series, I'm giving you the bare minimum amount of practice if you really want to increase your rate of learning and skill development, I would recommend doubling, tripling or even quadrupling the amount of practice you're doing. Once you've done today's project, I will see you back here for the second lesson where we're going to take a look at how light and shadow work on concave forms.
4. Concave Forms: Welcome to the second day of shading beyond the basics. Today you're going to learn how to shade concave forms. A form becomes concave or has a concavity when part of it curves inward, creating a hollow in the form. Conversely, when part of a form becomes convex, it curves outward. Today's lesson is going to focus on how light operates on concave forms and specifically, we're going to look at how concave forms often cast shadows onto themselves, as well as how reflected light works on them. Now we're going to introduce two other concepts today as well. The first is reflective objects. We're going to be working with this subject that has a highly reflective surface and this gives us the opportunity to introduce a new shadow condition, what is called a reflected shadow. Now one of the things I'm sure you're noticing is that as this course progresses, we're slowly increasing the complexity of the subjects we're working with. When you're learning to draw and shade, you want to find a sweet spot of complexity. You want each drawing you do to be slightly more challenging than the last, but you don't want to go too far. Attempting to draw a subject that is far more complex than you're ready for is a sure way to develop bad habits. But by gently challenging yourself each time you do a new drawing and slowly increasing the level of complexity of your subjects will prepare you to tackle much more complex forms in the future, including figure drawing and even portraiture. Well, let's get started by taking a look at our first concave object, a simple bowl. Whenever you're drawing and shading more complex form, it's incredibly useful to be able to understand that form in relationship to more basic volumes. To understand the form of this bowl, let's first imagine it as a simple ovoid. Now, let's cut that ovoid in half, and finally, let's scoop out its center, leaving just a shell of the original ovoid, the thickness of which is visible at the rim of the bowl. This gets us remarkably close to the three-dimensional form of the bowl. Let's look at the lightened shadow conditions on the outside surface of the bowl. This should be the easiest to understand, whenever you're shading more complex form, I would highly encourage you to start with a broader, more basic light and shadow patterns before chasing around smaller and more subtle detail. First, let's find the line of termination on the outside surface of the bowl. Let's focus on the shadow side of the line of termination. We know that there are two broad categories of shadow that we're looking for. The first is the core shadow, the core shadow follows the exact pattern we would expect to find on the bottom of an ovoid and, of course, immediately to the left of the core shadow, we can find the reflected light. Remember, reflected light is still considered a shadow condition. Because this area of the bowl is not receiving direct light. Remember, any part of your subject that is not being hit with direct light is considered to be in shadow. If for any reason you're struggling with the terminology I'm using or with identifying these light and shadow patterns, please revisit the shading fundamentals course in the art and science of drawing series. You've probably noticed that this bowl has a much more reflective surface than any of the volumes we've drawn from this far. This is a great opportunity to introduce another shadow condition. You should already be familiar with reflected light, is it is one of the fundamental shadow conditions. But take a look to the immediate left of the reflected light, right at the edge of the left side of the bowl. Hopefully, you can see that the far left edge of the surface of the bowl gets much darker, almost as dark as the cast shadow. This is because this dark area is literally a reflection of the cast shadow. We refer to this dark area as reflected shadow, this bowl has almost a mirror-like finish, this surface of which will reflect its surroundings. You'll also see the effects of this mirror-like surface of the object when we talk about highlights in just a little bit. Before we move on, let your eyes go softly out of focus or squinting to make sure you can see the three distinct shadow patterns of the core shadow, reflected light, and the reflected shadow. Let's take a look again at the core shadow, it's important to remember that this bowl is essentially a hybrid volume made up of both spherical and cylindrical elements. This, of course, will dramatically impact how light operates on the bowl. In the upper left section of the core shadow, we can identify a distinct darker band. This darker band is another core shadow. To understand why this is happening, we have to understand how the volume is constructed. Take a look at the rim of the bowl. If we were to move our finger up and over the rim, it would create an arc because the rim is rounded. This tells us that the rim of the bowl is essentially one long cylinder cut in half lengthwise, curving around the edge. I've enlarged the shape here for clarity, but hopefully, you can see how well this describes the simple volume that makes up the rim of the bowl. This darker area is a core shadow of the cylinder of the rim of the bowl. In fact, we can find two such core shadows, in addition to the core shadow we've just been looking at. If you follow the rim around to the right, you'll find another core shadow. Both are occurring because of the cylindrical nature of the rim of the bowl. This bowl has three distinct core shadows, each related to the foundational volumes that the bowl is constructed from. The rest of the shadow conditions we see are cast shadows so we know that a cast shadow is created when an object blocks the light from hitting an adjacent surface. But frequently, a concave form will cast a shadow onto itself. Properly rendering this is one of the key ways to give the illusion of a concave form in your drawings. Like all other shadows, the area where the rim of the bowl casts a shadow onto the bottom of the bowl has a specific shape. You'll notice that this cast shadow is not as dark as the shadow cast by the entire bowl onto the surface the bowl is sitting on. There are two reasons for this, the first is that the bowl itself is a lighter value than this surface the bowl is sitting on. The lighter the value of the object, the lighter the values will be. The darker the object the darker the values will appear. The second reason that this smaller casts shadow on the right is not as dark as the cast shadow on the left is because of reflected light. To understand how this works, take a look at the inside of the bowl. You can see that the left side of the interior of the bowl is generally brighter than the right side. Light comes down from the light source, strikes the left side of the interior of the bowl, and reflects downward, further illuminating the bottom of the bowl, which is already, of course, indirect light. This reflected light subtly lightens the value of the shadow cast by the rim of the bowl. But the reflected light doesn't stop there, it reflects off the bottom of the bowl, enlightens the part of the cast shadow that runs up the right side of the interior of the bowl. Now let's shift gears and take a look at the light areas of the bowl. At this point, you should be fairly comfortable with recognizing the transitions from the center lights to the mid-tones. But because the object is so highly reflective, we can see numerous highlights. This brings up an important question for the artist. How much information do you really need to include in your drawings? The answer to this question changes depending on the aims of the artist, the medium the artist is using, the style the artist is working in, and to many other potential factors. But remember, the world is infinitely complex. We as artists cannot hope to ever capture all of the information contained in even the simplest of subjects. We must choose the level of detail wisely. In the demonstration drawing, you'll see me do in just a few minutes, you'll see me select a few of the larger highlights, but leave out this smaller and less prominent highlights from the drawing. Understanding how light and shadow operate on volumes, particularly more complex volumes is a critical step in understanding how to shade them. Before we move on, there's one final thing I'd like to show you. As I lower the light source, watch how both cast shadows elongate to the left. Regardless of the complexity of the subject, whenever you're drawing, you'll want to carefully craft both the size and shape of all shadow conditions. This ensures that the relationships between them will make sense and the resulting drawing will be believable to the viewer. Now let's put these concepts into practice with a demonstration. Before any shading occurs, you can see that once again, I've drawn in the basic shape of the object, as well as the lines of termination on the right and left sides of the bowl, and finally, I've also drawn in the shape of the cast shadow. If drawing any of these basic shapes on the page is still a challenge for you. Please revisit the form and space course in the art and science of drawing series. As you should already be familiar with, I'll begin the shading process by laying in a light washer value in the form shadows. You can see that I've laid a darker washer value in the area where the rim of the bowl is casting the shadow onto the right side of the bottom of the bowl. Next, I'll darken the cast shadow on the surface the bowl is sitting on, with confidence that my basic shapes and values are correctly drawn, and that my basic values are starting to read. I can begin darkening my values, starting with the cast shadow, the darkest value. Next, you'll see me darken the core shadow, and then I'll darken the reflected shadow, which is almost but not quite as dark as the occlusion shadow. It's important that you remember that during the shading process, your drawing will go through multiple iterations. You shouldn't feel that you need to finish or refine any section on the first pass. After making my first attempt at the mid tone on the outside of the bowl, I'll shift my attention to the shadows on the right side of the interior of the bowl. Once I've made my first attempt in shading all of the basic shadow shapes, you'll see me begin to add subtlety in details, seeking out all of the small changes in details that the larger basic shadow shapes haven't captured. One of the most common shading errors I see beginning students make, is that they lose a clear separation between the foundational values when beginning to add subtlety in details. In this demonstration drawing, you'll notice that no matter how many tiny details and small changes in the values that I draw, I'm maintaining a clear separation between the center lights, the mid tones, the core shadows, the reflected light, and the cast shadows. Before I go too much farther in the drawing of the bowl itself, you'll see me darkening the surface that the bowl is sitting on. You've probably noticed that I haven't yet addressed the highlights near the end of the drawing. In addition to lifting out the highlights using an eraser, I've added a small amount of white acrylic paint in the highlight areas. The white paint I've used is even brighter than the paper itself. This is a great way to keep your highlights clean and sharp. You may also have noticed that I've left out a number of the smaller highlights from the original reference photo. Remember, it's always up to you as an artist to decide how much detail you want in any drawing or painting. Now let's take a look at another common concave object, a coffee cup. Because you've already got a more thorough description of all of the values you're likely to find on a concave object. In this section, we'll focus on some notable differences between the coffee cup and the bowl we just worked with. I'm sure you've noticed that in this course, we've been slowly increasing the complexity of your drawing subjects. This coffee cup contains all of the complexity of the bowl we just looked at, but also has the additional complexity of the handle. Let's start by focusing on the line of termination on the vessel section of the coffee cup. On the shadow side of the line of termination, we have both a core shadow and reflected light. The core shadow can be divided into three distinct sections. The largest section of the core shadow is straight, and runs along the cylindrical section of the coffee cup. As the cylinder travels down and transitions into the more spherical and rounded bottom of the coffee cup, we find the core shadow curving along with it. Finally, at the cylindrical rim of the coffee cup, we find a darker and tighter core shadow. We just saw similar core shadow conditions on the bowl. But the bowl being much shorter, did not have this straightened out section of the core shadow. As we mentioned earlier, both the coffee cup and the bowl have a highly reflective surface. So instead of simply seeing a lighter band of reflected light, we can actually see a mirror like reflection of the handle. To the right of the light reflection of the handle, we find the reflected shadow, which is literally a mirror like reflection of the cast shadow that is on the surface that the coffee cup is sitting on. Even though the handle of the coffee cup is connected, it can be useful to think of it as an entirely separate volume. For example, it has it's own line of termination, and immediately to the right of the line of termination, it has its own core shadow starting here at the top and running down the entire length of the handle. We can find yet another core shadow inside the cylindrical rim of the coffee cup on the left. Now let's shift our focus to the cast shadows. The most obvious cast shadow is on the surface that the coffee cup is sitting upon. The cast shadow of the coffee cup is not just an amorphous shape. We can clearly detect the straight sides of the coffee cup, the curved top and the handle. Even as the edge of the cast shadow softens as it gets further away from the coffee cup, the distinct characteristics of the shape of the coffee cup are still observable in the cast shadow. Finally, we can see that the rim on the left side of the coffee cup is casting a shadow on the inside of the cup. But you'll notice that we cannot see the bottom of the coffee cup. We only see the cast shadow gently curving down the side. Every time I sit down to do a drawing, I make this same kind of detailed analysis of how the light is operating on the subject. I find that the shading process is much easier if I have a deep understanding of why and how the shadows are where they appear. I have a specific shading process that begins with drawing in the lines of termination, as well as the shapes of the cast shadows. I then begin adding value to each of the light and shadow conditions and I'm always aware of which light or shadow condition I'm working with. When I shade, I make sure that I understand the logic behind which parts of the object are lit, how much they are lit, and which parts are left in shadow. This shading process produces a drawing in which the shadows are organized according to their function, and the logic of the light is clearly communicated to the viewer. When I talk to students who have taken other courses in the art and science of drawing series. They often tell me that watching these lessons two or even three times before beginning the project makes the project much easier, and more accessible. Because they have the ideas and concepts I'm presenting firmly placed in the front of their mind. This is going to become more and more important as we increase the complexity of our subjects, as well as the demands of our projects. Assuming that you're ready to do today's project, here it is. I'd like you to do a minimum of two drawings of a concave object. Any concave subject will do. Today you saw me work with a bowl and a coffee cup, but there are many different forms of concave objects. Your two drawings can be of the same subject with two different lighting schemes, or they can be of two different objects. As we increase the complexity of the subjects we are working with, I'd like to remind you of an essential drawing rule. When you're doing observational drawing, you should spend about 70 percent of your time simply observing, and analyzing your subject in only 30 percent of your time with pencil to paper. The more experience you get and the more comfortable you become with a drawing and shading process, this ratio can change. But while you're learning, it's critical that you get into the habit of only drawing something once you have a deep understanding of it. Good luck with today's project, and I will see you back here for the third lesson in this course when you are going to learn how to apply the shading process to much more complex subjects.
5. Managing Complexity: Welcome to the third lesson in Shading Beyond the Basics. Today, you're going to learn how to manage complexity. We're going to focus on how to apply a shading process to much more complex subjects that we've been working with thus far. Now at this stage, hopefully you're pretty comfortable with the shading process, but all too often in the studio, when students are faced with much more complex subjects, they tend to fall apart. They often really struggle with what steps to take to complete a drawing. Today, I'm going to show you how to apply the basic shading process that you've already learned to much more complex subjects. Now, the shading process I'm going to introduce to you today is based in one simple idea. You are going to apply each step of the shading process to every form in the drawing before moving on to the next step. That means that when you draw a line of termination, you're going to draw the line of termination for every single form in that drawing. When you define the cast shadows, you're going to define all of the cast shadows in the drawing before moving on. There are two common errors I see in the shading process that I want you to avoid. The first is that many students attempt to start a with one part of their subject, and finish shading that one part of the subject, and then move on to the next. This tends to create fractured and uneven light and shadow patterns. The reason is that by only focusing your attention on one small part of the subject and then moving over to focus it on another small part of the subject, you tend to miss the overall organization of the shadows that really unifies a drawing. The other mistake I see is that students often just haphazardly start to apply shadows to their drawing. It's as if they put a dark patch of value when they're drawing wherever their eye happens to fall on the subject. This haphazard way of shading your drawing creates a lot of chaos and confusion, and it almost guarantees that you're going to miss essential light and shadow patterns that you would have captured had you had a more cohesive process. The shading process that I'm going to share with you today has been tested in the studio on thousands of students. It's easy to understand and apply, and it usually yields really fantastic drawings. It's important for you to remember that this is simply one of many potential shading processes. Whether or not you stick with this particular process is entirely up to you. I would encourage you to tailor it to your needs and interests as an artist, but it's important to have some cohesive shading process that you're working with. By working with a cohesive and consistent shading process, you'll always know what you've already done in the drawing and what to do next. By following a shading process, you're much more likely to end up with a drawing that is unified and contains all of the essential light and shadow patterns. In today's lesson, we're not going to be working from a reference photograph. We're going to focus the entire lesson on the drawing itself. There are two important reasons for this. The first reason is that, hopefully, you're already comfortable with observing and analyzing light and shadow patterns on basic forms. This allows us the freedom in this lesson to really watch the drawing evolve, to watch the illusion of form really take hold, and we can focus all of our attention on the shading process itself, not so much on observation or analysis. The second reason is that as you learn more and more about light logic, it's a critical skill to be able to predict how light operates on basic volumes if you know where the light source is. One of your goals should be that by knowing the position of the light source, you can actually predict how light and shadow will operate on your volumes. During today's demonstration, test yourself, see if you can predict where the shadow conditions are going to fall and how the shadows will appear on the volumes even before you see me draw them. Remember, we tend to only draw what we know, so knowing how light and shadow operate on basic volumes, even without a subject to observe, is a critical skill that will really take your understanding of light and shadow to the next level. Let's get started by taking a look at today's subject. Today's subject is more complex than any subject we've worked with thus far. This seemingly simple toy train consists of eight different volumes, each of which are hybrids. Drawing wooden children's toys is a fantastic way to make the transition from drawing simple volumes to much more complex subjects. Even though this collection of volumes contains more complexity than our previous subjects, each individual volume should be familiar to you. Like all subjects, this toy train is nothing more than a collection of variations on spheres, cubes, and cylinders, and all of them are lit by a single light source coming from the upper right, which means that unless they are obscured by a cast shadow, the right sides and tops of all of the volumes will be lit. The undersides and left sides of the volumes will be left in shadow. When you're learning to draw, it is critical that you do not begin the shading process until you're confident that the basic volumes are accurately drawn. When drawing students are learning to draw, one of the most common problems I see is that they begin the shading process too early before they've correctly drawn the basic volumes that make up their subject. Students often report that they think that these problems will be solved later on in the drawing process, often by shading, but the reality is that no amount of fantastic shading is going to solve problems with basic volumes, perspective, or proportion. Don't make this mistake. This seemingly simple collection of basic volumes provides the structural foundation that you're shading will be built upon, the same way that a concrete foundation and wood framing provide the foundation of a house. Just like a house, if the foundation of your drawing isn't solidly an accurately constructed, any errors and inaccuracies will be transferred directly over to whatever is built upon the faulty foundation. Once I'm confident that this light foundation of basic volumes is accurately drawn, I'm ready to begin the shading process. The first step of the shading process is to define the form shadows. To do this, we're going to identify and draw the line of termination for all of the volumes. Applying each step of the shading process to all of the volumes as opposed to shading and finishing one small section of your drawing and then moving on to another will ensure that your lightened shadow patterns are unified. It will also give your shading process a sense of structure. Another one of the most common shading problems I see is students drawing dark patches of value, more or less, in random order, only determined by wherever their eye happens to fall upon the subject. I call this reactive and chaotic style of shading shadow chasing. Instead of chasing shadows around your drawing, your shading process should be systematic and organized. Now that I've lightly drawn in the line of termination for all of the volumes, I'll fill in the shadow side with a light wash of value. This does two things. First, it allows me to see if the emerging pattern of light and shadow, or what we call light logic, is beginning to give the illusion of volume. The second thing this does is unburden my mind from having to remember what all of these lines are. By filling in the shadows with a light value, it immediately puts the line of termination to use and successfully divides the lit side of the volumes from the shadowed side. Remember, at this point, we haven't differentiated between core shadows and reflected light. The form shadows had been drawn in in the simplest possible way. Regardless of how many details and subtleties we add in the drawing as the process goes on, it is critical that we maintain this clear division between light and shadow. Next, you'll see me define the cast shadows. There are two kinds of cast shadows that were working with. The first cast shadow you'll see me draw is cast by the object onto another part of the object itself. The second kind of cast shadow is cast by the entire subject onto the ground plane. It's important to remember that the cast shadows are going to contain the darkest values in the drawing. The cast shadows should appear distinct from the lighter form shadows. After defining the edges of the cast shadows, you'll see me lay in a wash of value that is darker than the value I used in the form shadows. I'll also take this opportunity to darken the occlusion shadows that occur along the lines where one flat volume is stacked upon another. Finally, you'll see me darken the shadows cast by the rims of the two small circular concavities that have been hollowed out of our subject. Even though we've only drawn using two values, we can see the light logic beginning to emerge. At this point in the drawing, if for any reason the light and shadow patterns you've drawn are failing to communicate volumetric form, do not go past this point. The problem almost certainly lies in the foundational drawing of basic values, or in the improper drawing of the shapes of either the form shadows, the cast shadows, or both. Before we darken or refine these values any further, we want to be certain that our drawing of the basic volumes, as well as the basic light and shadow patterns, are accurate. Once we're certain they are, we can move to the next step of the shading process. Now, you'll see me darken the core shadows. To my eyes, this is when the drawing really starts to appear dimensional. With the core shadows distinguished from the reflected light, this spherical and cylindrical volumes really begin to appear rounded. Once again, I'd like to reiterate that I'm applying each step of the shading process to all of the volumes in the drawing before moving on to the next step. This makes it much easier to keep track of which shadows have been drawn in, and which haven't. By following this shading process that I'm demonstrating here, you'll always know what to do next in the shading process. By focusing on one shadow condition at a time, you're practically guaranteed to include all of the important shadow conditions in your drawing. It's all too common that when students abandoned no cohesive shading process and begin chasing shadows around, they end up missing essential light and shadow patterns and often struggled to remember what they've already completed and which parts of the drawing still need work. Hopefully, you're beginning to see the value of rendering each light and shadow condition in succession. Once all of the core shadows have been addressed, I can begin adding the darkest values to the cast shadows. Even though the drawing is already looking dimensional, it is lacking in drama and contrast. In the occlusion section of the cast shadow, we have an opportunity to push the pencil to its darkest limits. While the rest of the shading process has been done using the side of my pencil. You can see that I'm drawing using the Tripod Grip when darkening the cast shadows. This allows me to bear down on the tip of the pencil without fear of it breaking. When drawing cast shadows, keep in mind that they lighten the further they get away from the object casting them. This is a subtle detail that is all too often missed, giving the impression that the darkened area is a hole instead of his shadow. At this point, the core shadows, cast shadows and reflected light have all been drawn in. But you'll notice that the drawing does not yet appear finished. It appears washed out. There are two reasons for this. The first, is that in reality, the core shadows and reflected light are not uniformly dark. There are areas in the drawing in which both the core shadows and the reflected light will need to be darkened. The second reason that the drawing doesn't yet appear finished is because there are no mid tones on the lit side of the line of termination. Now let's take a look at the last step in this shading process. To complete the shading process and thereby complete the drawing, we need to refine the values. It's important for you to remember that core shadows, cast shadows and reflected light, are the three essential values that you're drawing needs in order to communicate the illusion of light and shadow on volumes. Everything else is just refinement. When refining values in a drawing, there are two important ideas that you need to keep in mind. The first is that, this is an opportunity to add subtlety and sophistication to your drawing. This is the place in the shading process where you can begin to add all of this small light and shadow details that haven't been captured in the shading process this far. But the second thing you need to keep in mind is that, while you're refining this shadows and adding subtlety in detail, it's critical that you maintain a clear separation between the different light and shadow patterns that we've established. All too often when refining shadows in a drawing, students will muddy and obscure their lighting patterns. Refinement in details should never come at the expense of clear light logic. Here's a great rule that will help you keep it clear division between different light and shadow conditions. No value on the lit side of the line of termination should be as dark as any value on the shadow side. Conversely, no value on the shadow side of the line of termination should be as light as any value on the lit side. This simple rule will help you keep it clear division between your lights and your shadows while giving you the flexibility to add as many subtleties and details as you like. Drawing in a wash of value in the background of the drawing is an excellent way to give it a sense of finish. There isn't a right or wrong way to shape the background. It's okay if some parts of the background are the exact same value as the object itself. Giving the background of your subjects some value helps ground it in an environment. One technique that I often use while adding value in the background is to put the darkest value in the background right next to one of the lightest parts of the object. You can see this technique illustrated here, where the top of the volume representing this smokestack of the train is right up against the darkest value of the background. You can also see the reverse of this rule at the bottom left of this drawing. Where the lightest part of the background is right up against the dark cast shadow underneath the front section of the train. Ultimately, the decision of when a drawing is finished is entirely up to you. Often times, I spread the process of refinement over days. By getting a break from the drawing, I can often come back and see it with fresh eyes. It's often only after getting some distance from the drawing that I find important details that I've missed or get a sense of what it might need to appear finished. But ultimately, the decision is yours and yours alone. It's worth considering what a finished drawing looks like to you. For today's project, you're going to apply the shading process that you've just seen me demonstrate, to a complex subject. Whatever subject you choose to work with today should contain multiple hybrid volumes. Now, there are some important restrictions I'm going to give you for the subject that you work with today. I'm going to ask you not to draw from any organic forms. This means no fruit or vegetables, no plants, and certainly no figures or faces. If you're looking for a subject that is made up of multiple hybrid volumes, but that is not organic, you can use wooden children's toys like you've seen me use today, or small household appliances can work great. Things like lamps, hairdryers, handheld vacuums. Now because you're going to be working with a much more complex subject today, I'm only going to ask you to do one drawing. Just as a reminder, once again, here is the shading process that you're going to go through. Remember, you're going to be applying each of these steps to every form in the drawing before moving on to the next step. The first step is preparing to shade. This means drawing your basic volumes on the page in proper perspective and proportion. Next, you're going to define the formed shadows by placing it in a line of termination followed by a light wash of value that's going to separate your lights from your shadows. Next, you're going to define the cast shadows by first drawing in their shape and then drawing in a value that is slightly darker than the value used in the form shadows. But at this stage you don't want it dark in them all the way. We still want to leave room for any corrections before we really commit to our darkest values. Next, you're going to add the core shadows. The core shadows of course are only going to be found on rounded forms. This is usually when you'll really see the drawing take on some dimensionality. Next, you're going to darken the cast shadows. This should only be done once you're absolutely positive that the drawing is working, as well as the light and shadow patterns. Finally, you're going to refine the drawing by adding mid tones and making any value adjustments that you deem necessary. During the refinement process, you want to look back and forth at your subject to see what kinds of things haven't been addressed yet. This the point where you can start to comfortably add details. Now, during the refinement process, don't be afraid to get a good long break from your drawing and come back to it so you can view it with fresh eyes. I wish you the best of luck on your practice today, and I will see you back here for the next lesson when you are going to learn how to shade organic forms.
6. Organic Form: Welcome to the fourth day of Shading Beyond the Basics. Today, you're going to learn how to shade organic form. Organic form usually refers to natural objects, and in drawing and painting, we're usually talking about things like fruit and vegetables, and even the human figure. Organic forms usually differ from human-made forms because they have a lot of irregularities to them. Because of these irregularities, organic forms are usually much more complex than human-made forms. Now, organic forms pose some interesting drawing quandaries. They're generally more complex than human-made forms, but they also have a larger margin of error. This means that if you don't get the proportions or forms rendered exactly as they appear on the actual subject, most viewers will not know or care. This gives us the opportunity to draw more freely. We can exaggerate forms if we want to or alter things for other aesthetic reasons. We can also be a little more expressive with our drawings. That being said, if at some point you're interested in doing either figure drawing or portraiture, drawing your subjects now as accurately as possible is a really important preparation. While you're drawing organic forms, I'm not encouraging you so much to be sloppy in your drawing process, just that you can free yourself up a little and explore some expression in some exaggeration if you choose to. Now, as long as you're drawing follows the laws of perspective, and your shading follows the laws of light logic, the viewer will usually accept any changes that you've made. Now, when you're shading organic form, you're going to follow all of the same processes and rules that you've been introduced to thus far, but with one important addition. When you first start to shade in organic form, you want to think about the light and shadow patterns as simply as you possibly can first before slowly layering on complexity. What that means is that you're not going to try and capture all of the complexity and, say, the line of termination on your first pass. It's the idea that you start with a general information first and then move to specifics. You want to start with the most basic conception of your form first before adding details. To get a sense of what I mean, let's take a look at today's subject. The butternut squash is an excellent subject to draw while you're learning to render light and shadow on complex organic forms. It's rooted in our familiar basic volumes but provides us with some unique variations on the fundamental forms. Take a look at the line of termination on the far right of the squash. Starting at the top of the line of termination, follow it down with your eyes. This line of termination is wonderfully complex. It's rich with subtlety in detail and has almost decelerated quality that wonderfully describes each bulbous section as it turns away from the light. Before jumping into a more finished drawing and immediately trying to grapple with all of this complexity, I find it immensely useful to do a simple quick sketch that distills the subject down into its fundamental volumes and values. Before you shade any organic form, you should analyze the patterns of light and shadow at both the macro and micro level. I would recommend always beginning your light logic analysis at the macro level, which simply means the big picture. When drawing and shading, most beginning students become immediately consumed with tiny details, but usually miss the larger organization of light and shadow patterns that give the details a sense of structure. To do a macro analysis of the light and shadow patterns of this squash, we first need to simplify it into its most basic volumes. The biggest simple volume that this squash is made up of is the large ovoid or egg shape on the right side. On the bottom left side of this ovoid, we have a cylinder projecting downward into the left, and on its left side, this cylinder is kept by a half a sphere. The light source that is lighting these volumes is coming from the upper left. With this knowledge and our knowledge of light logic, we should be able to predict what this basic lighting scheme would look like. We know that the large ovoid on the right would have a core shadow running down its right side and curving around toward the bottom left of the ovoid. The core shadow of the ovoid would be intercepted by the shadow cast by the cylinder. The cylinder, of course, would have its own straighter core shadow. Finally, we'd be able to see a more subtle core shadow curving down into the left on the smaller half sphere. This basic macro analysis of the light and shadow patterns only contains three values that describe three basic volumes. But it's important for you to understand that these basic shadow patterns are providing the organization for all of the smaller details we're going to draw. To understand what I mean, now let's do a micro-analysis of the light and shadow patterns. The surface of a butternut squash can be divided into several segments. Let's focus on the far right section of one of these segments. As the squash gets bigger on the right, so do each of the segments. At their largest, each segment culminates in a bulbous, egg-like shape that is oriented more horizontally. You can think of this egg shape as if it were placed on top of the larger ovoid. This smaller egg shape would catch the light a little differently from the larger ovoid. Its core shadow would be closer to horizontal, and of course, each segment would have a similar bulbous egg shape on the right side, each with its own deviation from the more basic core shadow of the larger ovoid. It's critical for you to understand that all of these deviations from the more simple core shadow of the larger ovoid, are all aligned directly on top of it. The serrated line of termination created by the core shadows of these smaller egg forms are all perfectly lined up on the original line of termination of our larger ovoid. This is a critical organizing element that you're likely to miss if you don't do a macro-analysis of the light and shadow patterns before shading the smaller details. Now, let's take this micro-analysis one step further by adding some cross contour lines to one of the segments. We know that the light is coming from the upper left, which means that the top left of this segment is getting hit with the most direct light. With the bottom of this segment, as it curves away from the light, we would find a midtone. Before this midtone gives way to a core shadow, the segment right below it pushes out into the light. During today's demonstration, you'll see that each segment has a very similar lighting pattern to the one we've just been focusing on. When confronted with a complex form, I would highly recommend doing a quick study just like the one you've seen me to here. By quickly sketching out the biggest volumes of your subject and doing a macro and micro analysis of the lighting patterns, you'll be much more likely to have success when you do a more finished drawing of your subject. Even though I'm intending to do a fully shaded and render drawing of the squash, you'll still see me begin this drawing with the same basic shapes that I used in the previous sketch. No matter how detailed the drawing I'm intending to do, I still never begin with details. Once the basic forms are down on the page, you'll see me use line quality and overlaps to begin to finding this segments. You'll see me go through a similar process as I defined the stem. One of my favorite things about drawing organic forms like this one is that despite their complexity, they can be quite irregular and unpredictable. This gives us more freedom as artists. Although it's my intention to draw the squash accurately, I know that if I don't capture the forums perfectly, that viewers will never know the difference. They'll just assume that's what the squash looked like. This allows for a more free and fluid drawing process. Once I'm satisfied with my light foundation of basic volumes, I can begin the shading process. You should already be familiar with the first step of the shading process, which is separating the lights from the shadows using the line of termination. However, I'm not going to try and capture all of the complexity of the line of termination in the first pass. To understand why, let's revisit a familiar fundamental volume, the egg. The line of termination on the egg is even smooth and predictable. This is of course, because the surface of the egg is smooth and consistently curved. Now compare the line of termination on the egg to the line of termination on the butternut squash. This line of termination is irregular. It's the richly textured and detailed. Instead of trying to capture all of this detail on my first pass, you'll see me simplify the line of termination into a series of curved lines. This is essentially just a gesture of the line of termination. It's drawn lightly and softly enough for me to continue to add detail as the drawing evolves. I'd also like you to notice that all of these curved lines that make up the line of termination, all line up in the same way that you saw I demonstrated in my previous sketch. The squash is a complex organic form, and the line of termination continues into the smaller left-side of the squash. These two areas of form shadows are connected by this cast shadow, which you should remember from the previous demonstration. Now that I have drawn a light, soft and simple first attempt at the line of termination, you'll see me lay a light washer value into the entire shadow section. Now remember the rule you learned yesterday, while learning how to manage complexity. We want to apply each step of the shading process to all parts of the subject. This means that before we move on to the cast shadow, I'll need to add the line of termination, and a light washer value to the stem. Now I'm ready to define the shape of the cast shadow. Once it's defined, I'll lay in a washer value that is a bit darker than the value that I used in the form shadows. At this stage in the drawing, we've divided our subject into 3 areas of value. We have our lights which have been left to the value of the paper, our form shadows which have been filled in with a light washer value, and our cast shadow which has been filled in with the darkest value we've used thus far. Now it's time to make a second pass at the line of termination. On the second pass at the line of termination, I can begin to address the organic complexity found on the surface of our subject. As I'm making my second pass, there are a few things I'd like to point out. The first is the line quality I'm using. Just like the first pass at the line of termination, on my second pass, the line is still soft and thick, but it is darker than the first pass. This allows the second pass to take visual precedent over the first. It also gets us closer to the actual value of the core shadow. The second thing I'd like you to notice, is that I'm not doing getting erasing before going over the line of termination a second time. Students often don't realize how malleable a drawing can be. Just like a painting. A drawing is created in layers. Each new layer helps refine the layers underneath. The third thing I'd like you to notice is how richly detailed this second pass at the line of termination is. All of these details are organized directly on top of the original line of termination. If I had attempted to capture all of these details in my first pass, I would've likely missed the overall lighting pattern that all of the details are arranged on. At this stage of the shading process, this is your last chance to make any corrections before adding the darkest values. Once you're confident that the basic volumes and shadow patterns you've drawn are correct, you can begin darkening the cast shadow. Up until this point in the drawing, I've been using the overhand grip for all of the drawing and shading I've done thus far. While darkening the cast shadow and pushing the pencil to its darkest limits, I've switched to the tripod grip. Once again, this allows me to bear down on the tip of the pencil without fear of it breaking. Even though the cast shadow has been darkened, it's not yet brought to a level of completion. Before refining and finishing the cast shadow, you'll see me add that darker values to the form shadows. This will require a third pass at the line of termination. Instead of just tracing over what I've already drawn with a darker line, I'm taking this as an opportunity to layer on another level of detail and complexity. After capturing more details on the serrated line of termination of the larger ovoid shape on the right of the squash, I'll begin to darken and refine the straighter core shadows on the more cylindrical sections on the left side of the squash. Although the core shadows, cast shadow, and reflected light will continue to be refined, I now feel comfortable adding the mid-tones and the center lights. This is another opportunity for a macro, and a micro analysis. On a macro level, the entire gourd has a center light that is brighter on the upper left, and gets dimmer as the form turns away from the light toward the bottom right. Additionally, each individual segment has a center light that is brighter on the upper left, and gets dimmer as this segment turns away from the light toward the bottom right. As the drawing evolves, see if you can observe this phenomenon occurring at both the macro, and micro levels. Now that all of the values in our subjects have undergone at least one iteration, and in some cases three, or four, the rest of the shading process is going to be all about refinement and detail. The process of refinement changes from drawing to drawing, and from subject to subject. Remember, you get to decide what it means for a drawing to be finished. To bring this drawing to completion, you'll see me do things like darken the shadow cast by the cylindrical part of the subject onto the larger ovoid section, as well as refined the values on the stem. You can also see that I've lifted out the highlights using an eraser. This is the final drawing. You'll notice that I've added a washer value in the background that begins darker on the upper left, and gets lighter as it moves towards the bottom right of the picture. This is the opposite of the shifter value from light to dark on the subject itself. This arrangement of opposing values creates a nice contrast between the subject and the background, because it allows the darker part of the background to be right next to the lightest part of the squash, and the dark cast shadow to be right next to the lighter part of the ground plane. It's very possible that long after the filming of this lesson, I'll go back into this drawing and make the occasional change or refinement. All in all, I feel that this drawing does what I set out for it to do. It captures an organic form using dramatic light and shadow. Here's your project for today. You're going to find and draw an organic form using the shading process that you've just seen demonstrated. Now you're going to be the best judge of what level of complexity is right for you. Fruit and vegetables work great for this project. Remember, you want to choose a subject that will challenge you but not overwhelm you. You'll want to choose something probably more complex than an orange, but less complex than say, a pineapple. Remember, the whole goal of today is to teach you to break up the complexity while shading organic forms, to take the light and shadow patterns from the most basic conception, and slowly layer complexity on top of those. As always, if you want more practice, try drawing your subject two or three times, and each time I change the position of the light, or you can grab a few different organics subjects, and do a drawing of each of them. Well, I wish you the best of luck with your project today, and I will see you back here for the final lesson in the course when you're going to learn how to shade dynamically.
7. Dynamic Shading: Welcome to the final lesson. The focus of today is dynamic shading. The point of today's lesson is to inspire you to draw and shade in unpredictable, expressive, and dynamic ways. Now, when you are first learning to shade, I do think it's important that you begin by making thoughtfully observed and highly rendered drawings. But the more competent you become at recognizing and rendering values, the more you can begin to experiment with expression and dynamic mark-making. The first thing you have to understand about shading dynamically is that as long as your drawings follow the laws of perspective and the loss of light logic, you can use almost any form of mark-making in your drawings. Today is going to be all about exploring some of the different kinds of dynamic and expressive marks you can use to draw and shade with. We're going to start this lesson by teaching you how to shade using crosshatching, which is one of the most sought after drawing skills. Let's get started by first teaching you the technique of hatching. Before you learn how to crosshatch, you first need to learn how to hatch. Hatch marks are essentially a series of equally spaced parallel lines. The first skill you need to learn in order to hatch is drawing a series of lines going in the exact same direction. It's important to remember that there are probably many different ways to hatch and crosshatch, but you'll see me demonstrate the way that I do it and the way that I think that you as a student will have the most success. Most of the time I crosshatch, I use the overhand grip so I can engage the tip of the pencil. You'll also notice that I'm only making marks on the down stroke and then lifting my pencil, placing it back at the top, and drawing on the down stroke once again. To practice making lines that are going the same direction, I would recommend keeping your hand in a fixed location and moving the pencil using your fingers. To practice hatching, I would recommend making the same mark over and over again, one directly on top of the next. As you can see, if all of your lines are going the same direction, the result should appear to be one dark line. This is the first skill you need to master before moving on. When I was first learning to hatch, I fill dozens of pages with hundreds of marks, just like the ones you see here. Once you're comfortable drawing lines that go the same direction, you are going to combine this action with a second motion. Now, watch my hand carefully. Holding the pencil in the tripod grip, I'm going to push my fingers outward. With my fingers extended, I'm going to pull the pencil inward back toward my palm. Watch as I demonstrate this once again. Starting with my fingers extended, I'm going to pull the pencil back toward my palm. To help you get a better understanding of this motion, here's what it looks like while viewing the underside of my hand. We're now going to put these two actions together. Here's what the motion should look like. With my hand in a fixed location and my fingers extended, you'll see me pull my fingers inward toward my palm while simultaneously making the motion for hatch marks. To practice this, you can start making hatch marks one on top of another. Once you're confident that your hatch marks are all going the same direction, keep this motion going while pulling your pencil in toward your palm. Once you're comfortable with that, you can try immediately combining both of these actions without beginning by making hatch marks one over another. It's important for you to note that the length of each individual line is not as important as the lines being parallel and evenly spaced. Now, there are times when you're hatching that the range of motion you can achieve by using your fingers to pull the pencil inward toward your palm will not be enough. In this case, instead of using your fingers to pull the pencil and space the hatch marks, you can use your entire arm, starting from the shoulder to pull the pencil in any direction you desire. To practice this, I would once again recommend beginning making hatch marks one on top of another. Once you're comfortable, add in the movement of your arm. Just like when you used your fingers, I would recommend starting with your arm extended and pulling it inward towards your body. Once you've got these techniques down, you can begin practicing changing the value of your hatch marks by varying the speed at which you're pulling the pencil using either your fingers or your arm. The slower you go, the closer the hatch marks will be, and the darker the value will appear. As you increase the speed, the further apart the hatch marks will be, and the lighter the value will appear. Now, the angle of the hatch marks that I've been making is simply derived from the direction my fingers naturally go when I make the hatching motion. At this point, I wouldn't overthink it. Whatever direction comes naturally to you while you make these lines is the direction your hatch lines should go. Once you're comfortable with all of these hatching skills, next, you can try your hand at crosshatching. To crosshatch, you're going to begin by making a series of hatch marks, just like you've seen me demonstrate. Hatching becomes crosshatching when you place a second set of lines that cross over the initial set of hatch marks. This second set of lines needs to be going in a different direction than the first set, but the second set of lines that cross over the first only need to be going a slightly different direction. One of the most common problems I see, when students are learning to crosshatch, is that there are two sets of crossing hatch marks are too close to being perpendicular or at a right angle to one another. The closer you're crossing hatch marks are to being perpendicular, the more they tend to flatten out any illusion of volume. There are no hard rules here, but I would say that the sweet spot in the difference between the angles of the sets of hatch marks is usually between 20 and 40 degrees. Of course, just like hatching, you can crosshatch by pulling the pencil using your fingers or your entire arm. In addition to being able to modify the value by increasing and decreasing the amount of space in between your hatch marks, you can also change the value of your crosshatching simply by using lighter lines with which to hatch. Finally, you can also hatch and crosshatch with a side of your pencil using the overhand grip. This technique produces much thicker and softer hatch marks. Hatching and crosshatching require a good amount of practice to master, but once you've got the fundamentals down, I would encourage you to experiment. See if you can design or discover any unique variations on these crosshatching techniques. Next, you'll learn how to use crosshatching to render shadow patterns on basic volumes. Let's start with this sphere. After drawing the circular shape of the sphere, the line of termination, and the shape of the cast, shadow. I can begin applying crosshatching, on my first pass. The angle of the lines, is the angle that is most comfortable for me and naturally made when I move my fingers in this way. This first pass, simply lays in a light washer value, that separates the lit side of the line of termination, from the shadowed side. After reinforcing the contour on the lower left of the sphere, I'll begin using dark hatch marks, to fill in the cast shadow. To further darken the cast shadow, you'll see me change the direction of the lines and make a second pass. Just like the tonal shading process that you've seen me demonstrate in the previous lessons. Shading with crosshatching is done in layers, regardless of what kinds of, marks you're using to lay in your values, there really is no difference in the steps you would take in the shading process. Here, you can see me lightly to finding the shape of the core shadow, and then crosshatching, using the shape as a guide. As I darken and refine the shadows, you can see me slightly changed the direction of the hatch marks with each new Pass. As the layering of hatch marks continues. We become less conscious of individual lines, and more aware of the illusion of value and form that they create. After adding the center light and the highlight with a white pencil, the illusion of a sphere lit by a single light source becomes even stronger. Next, you'll see me go through the exact same steps while drawing and shading a cylinder using cross hatching. The only difference, is that you'll notice, that the direction of the hatch marks is derived, from the ellipses at either end of the cylinder. I'm essentially using hatch marks as cross contour lines. This can be a great way to accentuate the roundness of a volume. You can see me use the same technique to add the center light with a white pencil. Finally, I'll use hatch marks to lighten the flat plane at the front of the cylinder. These two cross hatching techniques, are the most common you're likely to see. But as with everything else and drawing, there are no hard rules. I would encourage you to explore and experiment with crosshatching, to see what works for you. Now, I'll show you a figure drawing of mine, where I've used crosshatching in a variety of ways. The first thing I'd like you to notice about this drawing, is the angle that the majority of the hatching marks are going. During the hatching Practice Demonstration, you'll remember that my hatch marks moved down and to the left. This was the most natural, and most comfortable way, for me to draw a hatch marks. This is why the majority of the hatch marks in this drawing are approximately at that angle. Remember, your angle will likely be different from mine, particularly if you're left-handed, there's no right angle with which to hatch. The next thing I'd like you to notice is that the individual hatch marks appear to have been drawn very quickly. Again, there is no right speed at which to hatch. But a viewer can usually tell the difference between a line that was drawn quickly, and a line that was drawn slowly. I prefer to draw quickly, because of the sense of dynamism and energy that it brings to a drawing. Next, I'd like to introduce the idea of resolution in a drawing. By resolution, I'm referring to the level of focus in detail, of any part of a drawing. For example, take a look at the arm at the top of the page with the elbow pointing up. Each individual hatch mark is crisp and clear. I've rendered the skeletal and muscular features of the arm, at a high level of detail. This high resolution form of drawing, brings the arm into sharp focus. Now, let's compare the quality of hatching that I've used to draw this arm, with a hatch marks on the other arm. On this arm, we find that the hatch marks are drawn lighter, and softer. There are also fewer of them. This lower resolution form of drawing allows this arm to drop into the background. While the higher contrast and higher resolution drawing of the other arm, allows it to come toward us. The last thing I'd like to address in this drawing is that even though every individual hatch mark is visible to the viewer, it's critical that they appear to be unified with a hatch marks around them. If a group of hatch marks are unevenly spaced or if they're not all going the same direction, the hatching pattern becomes broken and with it the illusion of value. This is why it's important to practice hatching, before applying it to drawings. Now, let's take a look at how to combine crosshatching with tonal shading. This is another figure drawing of mine. The human figure is a Highly complex organic form, but just like any other drawing subject, the figure can be understood through basic volumes, and shaded using the same techniques you've learned in this course. There's not a single lighter shadow condition in this drawing, that you haven't already learned about. But in this drawing, I've tried to use the principles of light logic, in some expressive and dynamic ways. Take a look at the shadowed side of the line of termination. You can see evidence of traditional hatch marks, but these hatch marks have been softened with a washer value made with this side of the pencil. Now, take a look at the lit side of the line of termination. You can see that many of the mid tones follow the contours of the body, acting essentially as cross contour lines. In the lower legs, you can see very soft and light hatch marks, that allow the legs to fade out of focus. Finally, I actually liked to draw, with my hand resting on the paper. Although, it does smear the pigment, I like the evidence that it leaves behind of my hand whipping around the page as I draw, constantly, reminding the viewer of the artist's hand. This final demonstration is designed to prove to you, one simple thing. As long as you establish a clear pattern of light and shadow in your drawings, you can draw using almost any Mark making, imaginable. In this drawing, I'm making a tangle of lines, without so much as a discernible contour and yet because these scribbles adhere to the laws of light logic, our minds have little trouble assembling these scribbles into a lit sphere. Once you've got a handle, on rendering light and shadow, I would encourage you to experiment, explore, push a mark-making into unknown territory. There, you will discover the marks that truly represent you, as an artist. I'd like to share with you, some final thoughts on the drawing process. Some of these lessons come from earlier courses in the art and science of drawing series. The most important thing to keep in mind is this: Drawing is both an art, and a science. Drawing as a science. Because many of the tools and techniques we use, to represent form on a page, come from both science and mathematics. Light logic is a form of physics. It adheres to very specific and unbreakable natural laws. Once you understand how light operates, you understand how it interacts with volumetric forms. Drawing is related to mathematics, because of the geometry involved. Every time, you draw a volumetric three-dimensional form, properly diminishing and perspective, you're using geometry. Now, to master the craft of drawing, you have to become so familiar with these rules that they become second nature to you. However, in my opinion, a drawing does not become art, until it transcends these rules. A drawing that simply follows all of these rules, although accurate, produces nothing more that a technical exercise. I'm encouraging you to go beyond these rules, to see what else you can add into the process. That's when you become an artist. That is when your drawings, go from being something not just technical, but expressive. Something that tells us about you as an individual. As you move forward with your drawing education, I'd like you to keep this idea at the front of your mind. How you draw, how you put down the lines on the page, and what they communicate to a viewer says more about you as an artist, than the subjects you choose to draw. In the final lesson of this series, your project is simple. Go out into the world, find subjects that fascinate you and draw them in ways that excite you. Well, congratulations on completing shading beyond the basics. If you're going through the art and science of drawing series in order, you've just completed the final course in the series. Here at the end, there are a few things I'd like to share with you. The first, is that getting good at drawing, takes a much more practice than most people realize. Even if you've watched every lesson and done every project, you still need much more practice to truly master these skills. Remember, all of the tools and techniques I'm teaching in the art and science of drawing series, are fundamental and you cannot practice the fundamentals too much. Everything I teach in the art and science of drawing series, I still practice on a regular basis. It's how I keep my skills up. Without this regular practice of fundamentals, I would not have the skills necessary to do much more complex and challenging drawings. Because of that, I highly encourage you to do what many students do, which is go through the art and science of drawing series a number of times, watching these lessons once is not enough. I've tried to include a huge amount of information in these lessons. Going through the series multiple times and practicing what you've learned, is a great way to make sure these skills become second nature. You want to get these ideas and tools and techniques so ingrained in your mind that you don't have to think about them. They just become a natural part of your drawing process. And that requires study and practice. Here's a list of all of the courses in the art and science of drawing series, in their intended order. Now once you've got a handle on the fundamentals of drawing, I encourage you to continue your drawing evolution with figure drawing. The human figure is one of the most challenging and rewarding subjects you can draw. It's often said that once you can draw the human figure, you can draw anything. Here's a list of all of the courses in the art and science of figure drawing series, in their intended order. All of these courses are available right here on skill share. Once again, I'd like to remind you to share your drawings. Share your drawings with family and friends, share them on social media, and of course share them right here on skill share. When you share your drawings on social media, I encourage you to include the hashtag, ''evolve your art''. Now, for more information on my courses, as well as numerous drawing resources including an in-depth look at materials. Please visit, evolveyourart.com. Well, once again, congratulations. It has been an honor and a privilege to have you as a student, and I truly hope to see you in future courses.
Brent Eviston, Master Artist & Instructor
