Shading: Part 4 of The Drawing Laboratory

1. Shading Trailer : When we draw something, we are not merely drawing the subject itself, we are drawing the effects of light on that subject. The same subject, lit in different ways, will yield completely different drawings. Light and shadow will determine what your drawings look and feel like. I'm Brent Eviston. Welcome to the fourth and final course in the drawing laboratory series shading. In this course, you are going to learn how to render three dimensional forms with dramatic light and shadow. Shading is the most sought after drawing skill. It's also an essential skill for painting. A well shaded drawing has areas of beautiful bright light, as well as deep rich shadows. In this course, you'll start by learning how to shade simple three dimensional objects like spheres, cubes, and cylinders. You'll learn how to draw with a full range of values with bright white and dark shadows. You'll learn a straightforward process for shading that you can apply to any subject. You'll learn how to organize the values in your drawings and how to keep a clear division between light and shadow. You'll learn how to identify and draw different kinds of shadows and areas of light. Finally, you'll learn how to cross hatch and how to draw using colored pencils on colored paper. By the end of this course, you will have a deep understanding of light and shadow. You'll also have a straightforward shading process that you can apply to any subject, no matter how complex. Understanding light and shadow is the essential element that will pull all of your other drawing skills together. Shading with beautiful areas of bright lights and deep rich shadows will bring your drawings to life in gorgeous and dramatic ways. So join me in this course, shading. Learn to draw with dramatic light and shadow here on Skill Share. 2. Introduction: Welcome to the fourth and final course in the drawing Laboratory series. For those of you who have been taking the entire drawing laboratory series in order, everything has been heading to this moment. Shading is the most sought after skill in drawing and it's one of the most important. In this course, you're going to learn how to render three dimensional form with dramatic light and shadow. To do this, you're first going to learn how to draw with a complete range of values from bright lights to rich darks. You're going to learn how to properly light objects and how to reveal their three dimensionality using light and shadow. Next, you're going to learn how to shade simple three dimensional forms like spheres, cubes, and cylinders. While doing this, you're going to learn how to identify all of the different kinds of light and shadows you'll find while drawing. You're also going to learn a straightforward shading process that you can apply to any subject no matter how complex. At the end of this course, you're even going to learn about cross hatching and how to draw on colored paper. By the end of this course, you will have a deep understanding of light and shadow and you will have the skills necessary to shade any subject. For those of you interested in color and painting, you must learn shading. Shading is a prerequisite to color theory in painting. Painting requires you to have a deep understanding of light and shadow, and a course like this is exactly where you're going to learn that skill. Here in the introduction, before we get to the actual lessons, there are a few things I'd like to address. First, this course contains eight lessons. Each lesson focuses on a specific shading skill. At the end of each lesson, you'll have a project. Once you've watched a lesson and completed the project, you'll be ready for the next lesson. I recommend going through no more than one lesson per day and it is critical that you do the project before you move on to the next lesson. Remember, practice is key. Practice is the most important ingredient you're going to bring to this process. Now, if one lesson in project per day seems too much for you, you are welcome to adopt this course to meet your needs, even if you only get to one lesson per week. The most important thing is that you're watching the lessons, doing the projects, and continuing to move forward. It's also important to note that in this course, I'm going to be giving you the minimum amount of practice. You should always be looking for ways to practice more, not less. If you want to improve faster, I highly recommend increasing the amount of practice. Do a practice project two or three times. When you're learning a new skill, this repetition is exactly what you need. I always want you to feel free to increase the amount of practice you're doing in between each lesson. Next, you need to know that this is not a beginning drawing course. Earlier on in the drawing laboratory series, I introduced the idea that all form, no matter how complex, can be simplified into basic three dimensional forms like spheres, cubes, and cylinders and these are the forms you're going to learn to shade. But in order to shade these forms, you must already know how to properly draw them. In this course, I am assuming that you already know how to simplify subjects into basic shapes, how to draw three dimensionally in proper perspective, how to measure, and how to use descriptive line quality to bring your drawings to life. If you don't already have these skills, I highly recommend going back and taking the other three courses in the drawing laboratory series. In those three earlier courses, I teach all of the prerequisite skills necessary for this shading course. Assuming that you already have these prerequisite skills and that you're ready for the shading course, let's move on to materials. If you've already gone through the other courses in the drawing laboratory series, you should already have materials you're comfortable using, including a dark pencil and white drawing paper. You're welcome to go through this course using those same materials. But in addition to white paper and dark pencil, you're also going to see me do drawings on toned paper with black pencil and white pencil. You'll even see me do some drawings with colored pencil on colored paper. Here's the basic materials list for this course. You'll need white drawing paper, a dark drawing pencil of any kind, a kneaded eraser, and a vinyl eraser. You are welcome to go through this course using white paper and dark pencil. But here is an optional materials list if you want to explore drawing on toned paper and colored paper. To fully participate in all of the projects in this course, you'll need toned paper. Tone paper just means gray paper. Now, if you're drawing on toned paper, you'll need a white pencil. You'll need this white pencil to create lighting effects. You'll use white pencil to draw on the light and dark pencil to draw on the shadows. If you're really looking for a challenge, you can even draw on colored paper with colored pencil. But again, this is not a requirement for this course. Now, in addition to the paper, pencils and erasers you'll need for this course, there are a couple more things that I want you to get. In this course, I'm going to ask you to keep a light logic sketchbook. The sketchbook can be any size you want it to be, but you need a place to explore and record what you're learning about light and shadow. Your light logic sketchbook is going to be an important part of your practice and process. Finally, you're going to need a lamp. In this course, I'm going to ask you to find your own objects to draw and I'm going to teach you how to light them so you can draw from life. Now I will be including reference photos for you to draw from if you absolutely need them. But if at all possible, I highly recommend finding your own objects, lighting them, and drawing from life. You don't need any specialized or expensive lighting for this course. Even a simple desk lamp will work. All you need is a shade that will allow you to direct the light onto an object. Now that we've gone through the prerequisites and the materials, let me introduce the star of this course, light. Imagine we have an object that we want to draw, but this object has no light on it. What does this object look like? Nothing, complete darkness. Without light, there is no way to discern the object from its surroundings or anything else, there is nothing to draw. But when we illuminate the object, now we have something to draw. When we draw and paint, we are not merely drawing objects themselves. We are drawing the effects of light on those objects. This is critical for you to understand because the same object lit in different ways will appear completely different. Every time we move the light, we have different light and shadow patterns, which of course will yield different kinds of drawings. How a subject is lit and how the resulting light and shadow patterns are drawn will determine the look and feel of the drawing. How a subject is lit is one of the most important decisions you will make in your drawing and it will happen before your pencil ever touches the paper. In this course, you're going to learn how to reveal the three dimensional forms of your subjects before you draw them. Of course, you'll learn how to properly capture those light and shadow patterns in your drawings. Next, I'd like to talk about the act of shading itself. In this course, you're going to see me primarily shade using the overhand grip and making contact with the paper with the side of the pencil lead. This kind of shading will create what I call a wash of value. The term wash actually comes from watercolor. Now, most people don't think about drawing this way, but both drawing and watercolor painting are transparent mediums. This means that we can see through each layer we put down. With both watercolor and drawing, we layer washes of value over one another to build up values. In this course, you're often going to hear me refer to laying down washes of value. Is what I mean. We are laying down a transparent layer of value. We can layer washes of value over one another to darken values. Now, this kind of shading is sometimes referred to as graining. It's called this because shading with the side of the pencil will reveal the texture or grain of the paper. Now in this course, you're not required to use the overhand grip or to lay down this kind of mark making. You're welcome to use whatever grip and whatever kind of mark making work best for you to create value. But I just wanted to explain what you're going to see me do. Next, I'd like to talk about some of the reference images you're going to be drawing from. In the earlier lessons in this course, most of the images we're going to be looking at will be in black and white. This is because when you are learning about light and shadow, color can be a confusing distraction. So first, we just want to explore light and shadow on their own without the added complications of color. But once you have a better understanding of light and shadow, we will add color back into the mix. By the end of this course, you will understand how color relates to value. You'll be able to simulate color using the shading process. Near the end of this course, you're going to learn how to pair colored pencils with colored paper to create the illusion of color in your drawings, even though you'll be shading using a simple value scale, not a full range of colors. Now for more information on specific materials, I recommend visiting my website at brndfston.com. There you'll find more information about materials as well as numerous other drawing resources. So once you've gathered your materials, you'll be ready to begin the lessons. I will see you in Lesson one, where you're going to learn about value and how to light objects using a single light source. 3. Light, Shadow and Value: Welcome to the first lesson in the final course in the drawing Laboratory series. This course focuses on shading. In this lesson, I'm going to introduce the fundamental ideas that you need to understand before you start learning the shading process. In this lesson, we're going to define light and shadow, and I'm going to introduce you to the five step value scale we'll be using in this course. First, we're going to begin by talking about light sources. One of the most important decisions you're going to make about your drawing is going to happen long before your pencil ever touches the paper. I'm referring to how your subject is lit. The way you light your subject is going to determine the look and feel of your final drawing. Most of the lines and marks you make in a drawing are there for shading. Remember, when we draw and when we paint, we are not merely drawing the object itself. We are drawing the effect of light on that object. The light itself is a subject and it will determine what your drawing looks like and feels like. So in this course, we are going to focus on single source lighting. In this course, you're going to learn how to draw and shade objects that have been lit with a single light source. Now, of course, the sun is the most obvious single source of light. For hundreds of thousands of years, our eyes and mind have evolved to recognize objects and people lit by the sun. Light from the sun comes down in straight lines and illuminates anything in its path. Creates areas of bright light and deep shadow. This combination of illumination and shadow helps to describe three dimensional forms in a very clear and precise way. This type of lighting seems right to our eyes. It feels very natural. We can create very similar effects by using something as simple as a single desk lamp. Helps tremendously if that lamp has a shade that will allow you to direct the light on an object. Lighting an object with a single desk lamp will create light and shadow patterns that are very similar to those created by the sun. Now, the cast shadows created with a desk lamp won't be quite as crisp as those created by the sun. But again, lighting something with a desk lamp will work very well for what we're doing in this course. Now in this course, you're going to see me light my objects with a studio light. But remember, you don't need to use any specialized or expensive lighting. You are welcome to use a simple cheap desk lamp. For whatever reason you don't have access to that, experiment to see what kind of single light sources you can find. Setting up a subject next to an open window in an otherwise darkened room will work great. Now, even if you eventually want to draw from objects lit with multiple light sources, then studying single source lighting is still the best way to familiarize yourself with how light works. No matter what you want to do, starting by studying single source lighting is absolutely the place to begin. Next, I'd like to explore how light actually operates. By studying how light works, you'll have a much better understanding of why it creates the light and shadow patterns it does. Now when we turn a light on in a room, it's easy to assume that light is a still and static thing, but that is not how light actually works. Imagine this. When you turn on a lamp, I want you to envision millions of photons spraying out from that lamp just like water would spray out from a fire hose. Is what's actually happening when we turn on a light. But unlike water, photons, the smallest particles of light, do not have any mass, so they're not affected by gravity. To understand how light works, you must envision photons leaving the light source and traveling in straight paths. Whatever is in the direct path of these photons is illuminated. It is bathed in light. We talk about light in a drawing, this is what we are referring to the parts of the subject that are hit with light directly from the light source. But any part of our subject that is not hit with light directly from the light source is left in shadow. We can define a shadow as any part of an object that is not in the direct path of light from the light source. Now, these definitions may seem obvious, but there's a reason that they really matter. Take a look at the lit side of this sphere. You can see that the part of the sphere nearest to the light source is actually brighter than the lit area of the sphere that is further away from the light source. The lit areas of our subject are not all the same value. Now, just because one part of a subject is darker than another does not mean it's a shadow. This is such a common mistake that beginners make. They assume, this part's darker. It must be a shadow, not necessarily. I also want you to note that in the shadows, we find a wide range of values as well. But just because one part of a shadow is brighter than another does not mean that it is lit, at least not with light directly from the light source. In this course, you're going to learn to keep a clear division between your lights and darks. Now, we're going to go over this in much more depth later on in this course. But for now, I just want you to understand the difference between light and shadow. So, single source lighting creates a full range of values from light to dark. We see bright highlights and deep rich shadows. When we draw, we want to show the full spectrum of light to dark. This brings us to value in drawing, we refer to the spectrum of light to dark as value. We can draw using lighter values and we can draw using darker values. Now, these values can be represented on a scale. In this course, we're going to be using a five step value scale. Now, a value scale can have as many values as you can tolerate, but I find that a five step value scale makes by far the most sense. This is because each value on a five step scale corresponds to a very specific light or shadow condition. Now, as the course progresses, you are going to learn how to use these five values to shade any subject. But for now, I just want to familiarize you with a five step value scale. Now, in just a moment, I'm going to demonstrate how to create a five step value scale. But before we do, I want to talk about different kinds of paper. Now, most of you are going to be drawing on white paper with dark pencil. So during today's demo, I'll spend most of that time showing you how to create a value scale on white paper. But in this course, in addition to drawing on white paper, I'm also going to ask you to draw on toned paper. The word toned simply refers to the gray scale. Toned paper is gray paper. After you see me demonstrate a value scale on white paper, I'm going to demonstrate a value scale on gray paper using black pencil for the shadow values and white pencil for the light values. Is an excellent way to study light and shadow. Drawing on gray paper is not a requirement for this course, but I highly recommend you try it. Now let's head to the drawing board where I'm going to demonstrate how to create a five step value scale. The first step to creating our five step value scale is to create five boxes of equal size. Like any drawing, I want to begin these boxes with very light lines. I'll be using a ruler to draw these boxes. I'll begin by drawing two light horizontal lines. I'll make my boxes the same height as this ruler. Remember, the exact size and shape of the boxes is not important as long as they are all the same. These lines represent the top and bottom of my value scale. Next, I need to draw the individual boxes. Once again, I'm going to use my ruler. Each box is going to be about an inch wide, so I'm going to mark 5 " on this line, and I'll do the same on the other line. Next, I will draw the divisions between the boxes. Again, I want to keep these lines very light. So here we have our five boxes for our value scale. The first thing we want to do is to establish our lightest and our darkest values. Let's begin with value number one over here on the left. This first value is going to be our lightest value. Now, when you are drawing on a white sheet of paper, the lightest value will be the color of the white paper. You can't get any brighter than a clean white sheet of paper. When you're drawing on white paper, value number one is easy. For the brightest value, you simply leave that area of your drawing alone. You let the white of the paper shine through. Next, let's go to the other side of the scale. Let's look at value number five. Value number five is going to be the darkest value we can create with whatever tool we're using. I'm using a black pencil. Using the tripod grip, I'm going to bear down on the tip of the pencil to create the darkest black I can. Now, one reason you don't want to make the boxes in your value scale too big is they do take some time to fill. Remember, when you're drawing dark values, you need to bear down on the pencil. The tripod grip works best for this because it allows you to put the full weight on the tip of the pencil. If you were to try this using the overhand grip, the tip of the pencil would likely break. Drawing dark values is one of the few times in my drawings where I intentionally use the tripod grip instead of the overhand grip. One thing I want you to notice while making these values is that it's a process of layering. I tend not to arrive at the exact value the first time. This is perfectly normal when you're learning. You should expect that you're going to need to go over your values again and again until you arrive at the right one. Now, in each value box, we want the value to appear even. We don't want one section of the box to appear darker or lighter than any other. Now, creating a value scale seems simple until you start to actually make one. They can be a little more challenging than people realize. Now after many layers, our value number five is starting to work. Our entire box is filled. It has nice crisp edges, and our value is even from corner to corner. At this stage, we've established our brightest value, value number one, and our darkest value, value number five. These are the easiest values to create. The remaining three values need to be drawn with a lot of care. Now let's go over to value number two. Value number two is our second brightest value. Now, when you're creating values two, three, and four, you want to draw them lighter than you think they need to be. This is because we know that it is very likely we are going to make adjustments. It is much easier to darken a value than it is to lighten a value. Other than value number five, you're going to see me use the overhand grip to draw the remaining values. With value number two, using the overhand grip, I'm going to very lightly lay down a wash of value. Remember, this value is going to be very light. After my first pass using horizontal lines, I'm going to make a second pass using vertical lines. Now, I think I will likely need to make this value slightly darker as we go on, but for now, I'm going to leave it alone. It's much easier to adjust the values once we have all five of them in place. Now let's go to value number four. Value number four is going to be our second darkest value. Once again, using the overhand grip, I am going to lay down a darker wash of value, first using horizontal lines and next using vertical lines. Varying the direction of the lines helps to make the value even. I want to pay close attention that I'm keeping these values in their respective boxes. I'm going to continue to make this value a little darker but not too dark. Now, let's go to our number three value. Our number three value should appear to be directly in between white and black. It should be a middle gray. Of course, our number three value needs to be darker. The number two, but lighter than value four. So here we have our first pass at all five values. Our next goal is to adjust the values so there appears to be an even jump from one value to the next. We don't want any two values to appear too close in value, nor do we want any of these two values to appear too far apart in value. For example, take a look at values one and two. Values one and two appear closer in value than do four and five. I am going to darken value four. I don't want to go too dark, but I think value four needs to be closer in value to value number five. Now I'm doing this subtly. I'm not applying a lot of pressure. Again, I want to carefully layer each value. I think values four and five are working, but now values two and three are looking too close in value. Next, I'm going to darken value number three. Now these values are starting to work. I'm going to darken value number two just slightly. Remember, the goal here is that each value appears to be right in the middle of the two adjacent values. We want four to appear that it is right in 3-5. I think four could go even a little bit darker. I'm going to darken it just slightly. Now, these adjustments can take time. It's almost as if you need to let your eyes adjust to each value. Many times you'll be making very minute adjustments to each value. It can also help to get a little space from your value scale to step back and then look at it later with fresh eyes. I think this value scale is starting to work. Each value appears to be occupying a distinct place in the scale. The jump from each value to the next appears to be pretty even with no two values too close to one another or too far apart. Here we have a five step value scale that is working reasonably well. So here we have a gray piece of paper. You're going to see me do a lot of drawings on gray paper in this course. So I want to make sure you understand the similarities and differences between doing a value scale on gray paper versus white paper. Now, the darkest values are usually the same. To create our darkest black, we need to bear down on the tip of the pencil using the tripod grip. Now the blacks drawn on gray paper can look a little bit darker than the blacks drawn on white paper because we don't have the bright white paper shining through underneath. Remember, drawing is a transparent medium. We tend to see the color of the paper through our individual strokes. Of course, we can see many layers of strokes in each drawing. Drawing on toned or colored paper can bring deeper, richer darks to your drawings. The biggest difference between doing a value scale on gray paper versus white paper is value number one. When drawing on white paper, value number one, our brightest value is created by simply leaving that part of the paper blank. But when drawing on toned or colored paper, we need to add our brightest value with a white pencil. Just like our darkest value, I am bearing down on the tip of the white pencil to create the brightest white this pencil can make. One of the reasons I love drawing on toned or colored paper is because these number one values created with white pencil really tend to shimmer and glow. It's a very beautiful look. Now we have our three remaining values. So here's an important thing to consider whenever you're drawing on toned or colored paper. One of these values is going to be very close to the color of the paper. And oftentimes the color of the paper will occupy its own square unadulterated by light or dark pencil. Now, this paper is not so dark where I think it's going to occupy the number four value. So I'm going to draw the number four value in. Just like with white paper, I don't want to get too dark too quickly. I want to leave room for adjustment. I think this paper might be pretty close to the number three value. Whenever you try and draw on a new toned or colored sheet of paper, you want to take some time to figure out how the value scale works on that paper. I think even our number two value may need just a little bit of light at it. Now that I'm seeing it, I think I can add a little more of the white pencil to our number two value, just to brighten it a little bit. So to complete the value scale, I'm going to add a small amount of value in our number three box. I'm going to darken it just slightly. I think that was the right decision, and I think this value scale is really starting to pull together now. Here is our final value scale. To me, we appear to have even jumps from values five to four, four to three, three d two, and two to one. I want you to notice that value scales drawn on gray paper tend to have a completely different look and feel from value scales drawn on white paper. Now, ultimately, what you choose to do is entirely up to you. It is completely your preference. But I just want to make sure you understand the difference between value scales drawn on white paper and value scales drawn on gray paper because you're going to see me use both kinds of paper in this course. I highly recommend practicing both kinds of value scales. So once you're able to draw a working five step value scale, the next skill you need is to be able to replicate these values on command. You need to be able to draw any of these five values without consulting your value scale. For each of the five values, you need to know what they look like and what they feel like to make. Now, you're going to see me demonstrate how you should practice creating any of the five values on command. The goal is that if I ask you to draw a number five value, you know what that looks and feels like. If I ask you to draw number two or three value, you don't have to consult your value scale. You simply know what it looks and feels like to make those values. Values number one and number five are the easiest, white and black. But values two, three, and four may require some additional practice. Let's head to the drawing board. I'm going to show you how to practice this skill to make sure that you can draw any of these five values on command. Once you begin shading your drawings, you need to become so familiar with these five values that you can replicate them on command. The best way to do this is to practice these values right next to your value scale. On white paper, one is the easiest. To create a bright number one value, you simply need to leave that part of the paper bare. Five is the next easiest. To replicate a number five value, you simply need to bear down with the tip of the pencil. Remember, this is one of the only times I use the tripod grip. You want to see what it feels like to create that number five value. The remaining three values I tend to make using the overhand grip. I like to lay a light wash of value down with the side of the pencil. You want to get a sense of what kind of pressure you need to use to get each value. Four is dark but not as dark as number five. To make a number three value, we use slightly less pressure. Two, less pressure still. You want to practice these values over and over again. So if I ask you to make a number two value, you don't need to consult a scale. You know what that feels like. You know what it looks like. Here's a number three. Each value should have a distinct feel. Now a number four, you need to know how much pressure to use to draw each value on command. And remember, it is okay to layer your values. If you don't get it on the first pass, you can come back and do another pass. Remember, it is always easier to darken a value than it is to lighten it. And finally, switching to the tripod grip value number five. Bearing down on the tip of the pencil to create the darkest value that your drawing tool can make. You want to ingrain these values into your mind and hand. You want to know what they look like and you want to know what they feel like to make. Remember, as we go on, each of these values is going to correspond with a specific light or shadow condition. You want to practice replicating these values so often that they become second nature. With this stage, you should understand how to create a five step value scale and how to practice to make sure you can create any of these values on command without always having to consult your value scale. Now, my goal with this lesson has been to provide you with the fundamental skills that you need to have before you begin shading. I've given you some working definitions for light, shadow, and value. Now you're ready for your project. For your project today, I want you to create a five step value scale on white paper, just as you saw me demonstrate earlier. Remember, the goal is that no two adjacent values are too close in value or too far apart. You want to make a value scale that appears to step evenly from one value to the next. Now remember, you may need to draw more than one value scale before you get it right, and I highly recommend as you're doing this, you refer back to my completed value scale that you saw earlier in this lesson. Once you have a working value scale, I want you to practice replicating these values just as you saw me do. I recommend spending at least 15 minutes simply doing what I demonstrated. Right underneath each value of your scale, try making that value freehand. You want to train your eyes, your mind, and your hand to know what these values look like and what they feel like to make. You'll know when you've practiced enough when you can create any of the five values on command without having to consult your value scale. Now, this may take more practice than you realize, so give yourself some time. But I promise this is an essential skill that will make shaving actual objects so much easier. A bonus challenge, I want you to create a value scale on toned paper. You want your tone paper to be somewhere in the range of a number two or number three value. You don't want your tone paper to be too light or too dark. I'm going to be demonstrating on toned paper a lot in this course, it'll be very helpful for you to understand how values work on gray paper. Remember, whenever you're drawing on toned or colored paper, you're going to be using a dark pencil for the shadow values and a white pencil for the light values. Once you've completed today's projects, you'll be ready to begin learning how to shade actual objects. Well, thank you so much for joining me in this lesson. I am very excited to get into the actual shading process. So I will see you in the next lesson where you're going to learn how to keep a clear division between light and shadow. 4. Dividing Light from Shadow: Welcome to Lesson two. In this lesson, we're going to begin exploring how light interacts with our three primary solids, the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder. You're going to learn what happens when we change the position of the light and how that impacts the appearance of these objects. You'll learn how to create ideal lighting on most subjects, and finally, you're going to learn the first step in the shading process. You'll learn how to divide light from shadow. Keeping your light values separated from your shadow values is one of the most critical but also most overlooked skills in the shading process. In the previous lesson, you learned about the five step value skill we'll be using in this course. You also learned about single source lighting. Today, I'd like to begin by exploring single source lighting further. The vast majority of the drawings that I do and that you're going to do are going to be lit with a single light source, but the position of that light is critical. Now let's take a look at how the position of the single light source affects whatever it is you're drawing. In just a moment, I'm going to show you what I consider to be ideal lighting for drawing and painting. But first, I want to show you lighting that is not so good for drawing and painting. Here we see our three primary solids, the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder, lit with light coming from the front. This is the lighting we get when we take a photo with a flash coming from the camera. With a light coming from the front, we see no dark values on the objects themselves. We also barely see any cast shadows. The cast shadows are hidden behind the objects only awkwardly peeping out from behind the edges. Kind of lighting tends to make objects appear flat and uninteresting. For example, it makes a round sphere appear to be nothing more than a flat circle. Each plane of the cube is pretty much the same value, making it two appear flat. We want to avoid this kind of lighting. Now, of course, technically, the image you just saw was lit with a single light source, but again, the positioning is critical. Now let's see what happens when we move the light. It is coming from above, from the left and from the front. Now, this is how we want to light the subjects we draw. When we draw and paint, we most often want to light our subjects with the light coming from above, from the side, and from the front. Generally, we want anywhere from two thirds to three quarters of our subject to be hit with light, leaving one third to one quarter of it in shadow. Generally, we want anywhere from two thirds to three quarters of our subject to be hit with light directly from the light source, leaving only one third to one quarter of it in shadow. This is what I consider to be ideal lighting for drawing and painting. Let's pause here to explore why this lighting works so well. First of all, most of our subject is in the light. This is enough light to feel we are really getting to know the subject, but there is also substantial shadow. The shadow provides drama and mystery. It provides a beautiful contrast to the light. The light appears brighter due to the amount of deep rich shadows present. Notice that the shadow of the sphere is crescent in shape. The curved shadow emphasizes the spheres roundness. Now, let's take a look at the cube. Each plane of the cube is a different value, emphasizing each individual plane facing a different direction. This enhances the appearance of three dimensionality. Now the cylinder. This lighting emphasizes both the flat plane at the top of the cylinder as well as the roundness of the shaft. The cast shadows are bold and dark. They project the shapes of the objects onto the surface they are sitting upon. Everything about this lighting reveals the three dimensionality of these objects in a beautiful and dramatic way. Even the simple objects appear stunningly striking and beautiful. This lighting helps describe our subject in beautiful detail. This lighting also works well for more complex subjects, even the human figure. This is the light you want to draw from most often. When you light your own subjects, this is how you should do it. Now, depending on the subject, you may need to move the light a little more up or down or off to the side. You need to figure out what the best lighting is for whatever it is you're drawing. The ability to do this comes with experience. Now, I'm using the studio light, but you can create this effect by using a simple desk lamp. Let me show you how to do it. If your subject is sitting on the surface of a table, place the desk lamp a few feet away from it. You want the light to be coming from the front of the object off to one side and somewhat from above. Remember, the ideal position of the light source will depend on the object you are drawing. You'll need to experiment a bit. Feel free to move the light to figure out what kind of lighting works best for whatever it is you're drawing. Now you should understand the importance of single source lighting and you should understand how to create these effects for yourself. Now let's explore this idea further. There are two kinds of shadows we're going to talk about in this course, form shadows and cast shadows. To understand the difference, let's take a look at a sphere. Form shadows occur on the object itself as it turns away from the light. Cast shadows occur when the object blocks light from hitting an adjacent surface. In the next lesson, you're going to learn all about cast shadows. But in this lesson, we are only going to focus on form shadows. In fact, we are focusing on a very specific part of the form shadow, the boundary that divides light from shadow. Now it's time to learn one of the most essential shading skills, how to divide light from shadow. When we light an object with a single light source, there is a specific moment where the object turns away from the light and goes into shadow. We can observe this boundary between light and shadow on the surface of the object. This boundary goes by many names. Some people call it the terminator, some people call it the turning edge. Some people call it the shadows edge, but they are all referring to the same thing. The moment where the object turns away from the light and goes into shadow, the line that divides light from shadow. I call this line that divides light from shadow the line of termination. This line is where light terminates and shadow begins. This is the boundary between light and shadow. Now, it doesn't really matter what you call it, but you must understand what it is and how it works. The first and most fundamental step of the shading process is locating and drawing the line of termination. To understand why let's take a look at how values are distributed. So now let's revisit our five step value scale from the previous lesson. We understand that single source lighting creates a range of values, but these values are distributed in a very specific way. Here we have an ideally lit sphere. Let's take a look at only the lit side of the sphere. Here, we only find values number one and two. On the lit side of the line of termination, there are no values darker than a number two value. Now let's take a look at the values on the shadow side of the line of termination. Here, we only see values three, four, and below. We see no values lighter than a number three. Our darkest value, number five is generally reserved for the cast shadow. You'll learn more about cast shadows in the next lesson. But for now, let's keep our attention on the form shadows. There is a clear division between the lighter values on the scale and the darker values on the scale. We never see values one or two in the shadows and we never see values three, four or five in the light. Our first goal when drawing is to divide light from shadow. Light has an entirely different set of values than shadows. The line of termination divides them. One of the biggest shading mistakes that beginners make is to scatter their values all over the drawing. They put shadow values in the lit area and bright values in the shadow areas. We want to avoid this scattershot shading. We want to keep a clear division between light and shadow in our drawings. Now, let's explore the line of termination in more detail. It presents very differently depending on the object and the position of the light. So here is an ideally lit cube. I wanted to start with a cube because the line of termination is crisp and obvious. We have two planes of the cube being hit with light directly from the light source and one plane left in shadow. Here is the line of termination dividing light from dark. It occurs where the planes meet. On an object where flat planes meet, the line of termination will be hard edged. Let's pause here to explore what happens when we change the position of the light source. Right now, the light source is currently positioned more to the side than from above, meaning that the plane on the left side of the cube is being hit with light more directly than the top plane. This means that the side plane appears brighter than the top plane. But let's see what happens when we move the light source up. Now the top plane is being hit with light more directly than the side plane. The top plane is now the brightest plane, but the plane on the left is still receiving light directly from the light source. Because the light source is still coming from the left, the right plane of the cube still remains in shadow. This is a good example of lid areas of a subject being different values from one another. But despite that, there is only one shadow plane on this cube, the plane on the right. Values of individual planes may change depending on the position of the light source, but the line of termination on a cube is always going to occur where the planes meet. It will always be hard edged. To locate the line of termination, we must know which planes are in the direct path of the light and which are left in shadow. Here is an ideally lit sphere. On a cube, the line of termination was hard edged, but the sphere is rounded, so the line of termination is not hard edged, it's diffused, it's softened. Beginners often make one of two mistakes when drawing the edge of the shadow on a sphere. Either they make it too hard edged or they create a gradation of value that too slowly shifts from light to dark. But I want you to study the quality of the line of termination on this sphere. The edge is diffused, but it still has a definite location. When you draw the line of termination on a sphere, you will use a soft edged line, not a hard line. I'll demonstrate how to draw all of this in just a few minutes. But for now, I want you to get a sense of the quality of the line of termination. It's not too hard and it's not too soft. When shading rounded objects, we don't want to make the line of termination too hard edged, but we don't want to soften it too much either. The line of termination on a sphere creates a crescent shaped shadow. If we were to draw a line from corner to corner of the crescent it would divide the sphere in half. This geometry should be familiar to you from the volumetric spheres you learned in drawing in three dimensions. You'll notice that on a sphere, the line of termination is half of an ellipse. The axis line for the ellipse is perpendicular or at a 90 degree angle to the direction of the light source. Watch what happens when we move the light source upward. The axis of the curved line of termination rotates along with the direction of the light source and remains perpendicular to it. On a sphere, the line of termination will always be perpendicular to the direction of the light source. Now, let's return to our ideally lit sphere. You should always be aware of where the light source is coming from because this will determine the axis of the line of termination on a sphere as well as its curvature. When we move the light source more to the front of the sphere, we see more light on the sphere and less shadow. The line of termination becomes more curved and moves more toward the edge of the sphere. Once again, the line of termination is half of an ellipse. But now that the light is coming more from the front, this ellipse is more open. This is one of the reasons we study three dimensional drawings before attempting shading. The ellipse of the line of termination will open or close depending on how far in front of the sphere it is or how far to the side it is. Now, watch what happens when we pull the light so that it is coming directly from the side of the sphere. Here, the line of termination appears almost straight and divides the sphere approximately in half. Now, generally, I don't recommend drawing with this light as the straight line of termination does not accentuate the roundness of the sphere. But I think it's important that you see this type of lighting and understand the effect it has. Now let's see what happens when we pull the light source so that it is further behind the sphere. Here, we now see that most of the sphere is in shadow. Now we see a crescent shaped area of light. We see this lighting often on the moon. Even though the line of termination has swung the other direction, it still creates an ellipse with an axis perpendicular to the direction of the light. Now, once again, let's return to our ideally lit sphere. Hopefully, this has given you a sense of how the location of the light impacts the line of termination and the shape of the shadow on the sphere. Now in just a few minutes, I'm going to demonstrate how to draw all of this. But for now, let's move on to the cylinder. Here is an ideally lit cylinder. The cylinder has a diffused line of termination on its rounded shaft and a hard edged line of termination where the flat circular plane at the top meets the shaft. Note that the line of termination on the rounded shaft of the cylinder is straight as opposed to the curved line of termination of the sphere. If we move the light more toward the front of the cylinder, we see more light and less shadow. The line of termination moves toward the side opposite to the light source. If we position the light coming more from behind the cylinder, now we see only a sliver of light with most of the cylinder in shadow. Because the light is coming more from above, the top plane is still lit. Unlike the Cuban sphere, the cylinder can be laid down which can change the effect light has on it. In this position, the flat circular plane at the visible end of the cylinder appears very bright, but the shadow edges remain similar. The line of termination is hard edged where the flat plane meets the rounded shaft and more diffused on the rounded shaft itself. When drawing a cylinder, you will need to determine if the flat visible plane is lit or in shadow. You will also need to determine how much of the shaft of the cylinder is lit and how much is in shadow. Hopefully now you have a good sense of how the position of the l impacts the appearance of each of these solids. Regardless of what you are drawing, you always need to be aware of the position of the light source. You always need to know where the light is coming from. This will determine how much of your subject is in the light and how much is left in shadow. Now it is finally time to show you how to divide light from shadow in your drawings. When you are ready to shade a drawing, your first goal is to divide light from shadow. You're going to do this by first drawing the line of termination and then applying a light wash of value in the shadow areas. Once this has been accomplished, you are going to keep this division between light and shadow throughout the entire life of the drawing. Now before we start today's demonstrations, I want to talk to you about the projects you're going to be doing over the next few lessons. In this lesson and the next few lessons, we are going to be creating three drawings, a drawing of a sphere, a drawing of a cube, and a drawing of a cylinder. In each of the next few lessons, I'm going to introduce you to a new step in the shading process that you're going to apply to each of these drawings. At the end of these lessons, you're going to have three finished reference drawings that show these effects of light and shadow. In this lesson, you're going to begin each drawing. You're going to start by creating a simple linear drawing of each of the three primary solids. Next, you're going to find the line of termination and then shade in the shadow areas with a simple light wash of value. That's it for today. Now, in the demonstration you're about to see, I'm going to be drawing on gray paper. I highly recommend trying this out. Now, if you really don't have access to gray paper and a white pencil, you can always draw on white paper, but at some point you should try drawing on toned or gray paper. With all of this in mind, let's head to the drawing board. We're going to start off with the cube. Now remember, over the next few lessons, we're going to be working on three detailed finished drawings. You'll be drawing one image of a cube, one image of a sphere, and one image of a cylinder. In each of the next few lessons, we're going to be focusing on one step of the shading process that you're going to apply to each of these drawings. Each of these drawings, I want you to place the object on the left side of the page to make sure that we have room for the cast shadow on the right. Now, in today's lesson, we are not going to be dealing with the cast shadow, but I want you to leave room for the cast shadow on the right side of the page because we will be addressing it in the next lesson. You can see here that I've already drawn my cube on the left side of the page. Now, you should already understand how to draw a cube. Now, I've already taught cube drawing in depth in my drawing and three dimensions course, the second course in the drawing laboratory series. For any reason you are struggling with cube drawing, I highly recommend going back and taking that course. Assuming that you know how to draw a cube and that you're ready to start the shading process, let's get into it. For today's lesson, once we've drawn a simple linear version of our subject, we need to find the line of termination. Our goal in this drawing is to divide light from shadow. We're starting with the cube because the cube is the easiest to shade. All we need to do is figure out which planes are in the light and which planes are in shadow. Now, right next to this drawing, you should see a photograph of an ideally lit cube. As you can clearly see, these two planes are being hit with light directly from the light source, leaving this plane in shadow. So this becomes our line of termination where light ends and shadow begins. So for this drawing, all we need to do is shade this one plane. Now when you begin the shading process, you never want to get too dark too quickly. Remember, for today, we are only using two values, the value of the paper and the value that we're going to shade with our pencil. For today, we're going to shade at about a number three value. Now, in a few lessons when we get to the end of this drawing, this plane will get darker. But for now, our only goal is to divide light from shadow. We don't want to get too dark too quickly, so we're only going to draw at about a number three value. Try to make the value of this plane as even as you can. You don't want any area of it to be darker or lighter than any other area. It helps to change the direction of the strokes so they layer over one another. For the cube, this is it. We know these two planes are being hit with light directly from the source, so we're going to leave those planes alone. This plane is left in shadow, so we're going to shade it with a number three value. We have now divided light from shadow. Remember, because the planes of the cube are coming together and meeting at hard edges, the line of termination will be a hard edge. There are no soft gradations here. For today's lesson, I only want you to take your drawing about this far. Now let's move on to the sphere. So four hour drawing of a sphere, I've already drawn a simple circle. I've taught circle drawing in depth in my beginner's guide to drawing, the first course in the drawing laboratory series. I've also taught sphere drawing in depth in the second course of my drawing laboratory series, drawing in three dimensions. If you need a refresher on any of these skills, I highly recommend going back and revisiting those courses. Now in order to find and draw the line of termination on a sphere require some additional steps. We know that the line of termination is going to be half of an ellipse. We also know that that ellipse has an axis. The first thing we need to do is draw the axis of the ellipse for the line of termination. I've used angle citing to figure out the exact tilt of this axis line. Now, I've drawn this axis line a little darker than I normally would have so you can see it. But when you are drawing on your own, you may want to draw it even lighter than this. Once we've drawn the axis line for the ellipse of the line of termination, we need to figure out how open or closed the ellipse is going to be. So I'm going to make a mark right here that shows about where the ellipse for the line of termination is going to go. Now remember, because a sphere is curved, the line of termination is going to be soft. It is not going to be hard edged like on a cube. When we draw the line of termination, we want to make sure to use the broad side of our pencil lead to create a soft line. First, I'll just make the motion of the ellipse. Once I'm ready, I'm going to draw. You'll note that I only apply pressure on one side of the ellipse. This is, of course, because we only need half of the ellipse for our line of termination. Once I'm confident of its placement, I'm going to darken this line just slightly. Note that the corners of this ellipse round very nicely into the contours of the sphere. Once we have the line of termination, dividing light from shadow, I'm going to apply a number three value on the shadow side. Remember, our only goal with these drawings today is to divide light from shadow. We're only going to be drawing two values, and one of those values is the value of the paper. Here you can see a nice soft edged crescent shape. Once you've done this simple two value drawing, you can go back and erase the axis line for the ellipse. This is about as far as I want you to take your sphere drawing for today. Drawing has achieved the first step of the shading process. We have divided light from shadow by first finding the line of termination where light ends and shadow begins and then to add a wash of our shadow value. This drawing achieves the first step of the shading process. We first found the line of termination where light ends and shadow begins. Next, we lay down a wash of our lightest shadow value. We have successfully divided light from shadow in this drawing. Remember, over the next few days, this drawing is going to go through the entire shading process, but this is all we need to do for this lesson. So now let's move on to the cylinder. Here, we have a drawing of a simple cylinder. Once again, I am placing the cylinder on the left side of the page to make sure I have room for the cast shadow I'm going to add in a few lessons. And of course, you should already be very familiar with cylinder. I've taught cylinder drawing in depth in my drawing in three dimensions course. Assuming you know how to get your drawing to this stage, let's move on to the first step of the shading process. Now a cylinder has qualities of both the sphere and the cube. Like a sphere, we have a part of the cylinder that is rounded. Remember, a rounded form will have a soft edge to line of termination. But like a cube, a cylinder also has some flat planes. So where this flat circular plane meets the rounded shaft of the cylinder, we will find a hard edge. Once we've drawn the basic geometry of our cylinder, we will already have drawn part of the line of termination right here where the flat plane at the top of the cylinder meets the rounded shaft. Next, we need to draw the soft edged line of termination that runs down the shaft of the cylinder. Now, because the shaft of the cylinder has straight edges, the line of termination is going to be straight. We need to figure out its location. Where exactly does the line of termination fall between the edges of the cylinder? It appears to me that we have about two thirds of this cylinder in light and one third in shadow. I'll start by drawing a light, soft line of termination. I'm satisfied with its placement, once again, I will add a number three value on the shadow side. Remember, this is our lightest shadow value. We know that no part of the shadow is going to be lighter than a number three. You can see once again I'm varying the direction of my strokes so that they appear to blend together. Of course, I'm making sure to keep the edge of the shadow soft. We have now divided light from shadow on this cylinder. The top lane is being hit with light and most of the shaft of the cylinder is being hit with light. We have one third of the shaft of the cylinder in shadow. Remember, dividing light from shadow may seem simple, but this is one of the most critical steps of the shading process. From here on out, we will only use values three, four, and five in the shadows and we will only use values one and two in the light. This is how you're going to begin nearly every single shaded drawing you do by first finding the line of termination and then separating light from shadow by simplifying the values. Hopefully, you now have a good idea of how single source lighting works and how to divide light from shadow in your drawings. Now, today, you saw me draw on toned paper, but this step works exactly the same on white paper. You draw the shape of the object, draw the line of termination, and darken the shadow areas with about a number three value. Now, as important as these drawings are, it is not the only way you're going to practice shading. So now I'd like to talk to you about the other project you'll be working on. Of course, there's a lot more to lighting than just the idealized lighting you're going to be drawing from most of the time. To truly master shading, you must be able to draw objects that are lit with light coming from any direction. In addition to the sphere, cylinder, and cube drawings you just saw me demonstrate, you are also going to keep a light logic sketchbook. The term light logic refers to the mechanics of light. Light operates in very predictable and logical ways. To master shading, you must understand the logic behind how light operates. The next few lessons, as you're introduced to different kinds of light and shadow conditions, you are going to do quick, simple sketches in your light logic sketchbook exploring each idea. For this lesson, you're going to create drawings that only have two values, the value of the paper for the lights, and the number three value for the shadows. In your light logic sketchbook today, I only want you to do simple two value drawings of the basic three dimensional solids with light coming from different directions. I recommend having a page of spheres, a page of cubes, and a page of cylinders. You can even include arrows to show the direction the light is coming from in each drawing. By working back and forth between more detailed and rendered drawings and these quick sketches, you will really get these ideas into your consciousness. I want you to repeat this process so many times that it becomes second nature. In your light logic sketchbook, you're going to be creating simple drawings over and over again, exploring how light operates on basic objects. By the end of the next few lessons, you will have drawn so many simple objects that you will never be able to forget how light works. My goal is to have you repeat these skills over and over again until they are truly embedded in your mind. That is the path to mastery. Now, when I draw in my light logic sketchbook, I tend to use a ballpoint pen. I really like using ballpoint pen because it's not precious and it helps me keep the drawing simple. Now, of course, when using a ballpoint pen, it's difficult to create a soft edged line of termination, but that's okay. I simply draw it lightly and hatch in the shadow areas. Of course, you are welcome to use a pencil or whatever drawing material suits you for your light logic sketchbook. The goal here is to keep the drawings quick and simple. These are not precious drawings. This sketchbook is a place for you to learn and explore and you will make some mistakes, and that is completely fine. We have covered a lot today, now let's get you to your projects. Today, you have two projects. First, I want you to create your two value drawings of a cube, a sphere, and a cylinder. Just as you saw me demonstrate today, you're going to begin with a simple linear drawing of each object. Next, you'll draw the line of termination, paying close attention to how hard or soft the edges. Finally, you'll fill in the shadow area with about a number three value. Remember, over the next few lessons, we're going to continue to work on these three drawings. By the end of these lessons, you will have a fully rendered and detailed set of drawings of these three primary solids. Now for the second part of your project, I want you to create a series of simple two value drawings in your light logic sketchbook. I want you to light each solid in multiple different ways. Some should have the light coming more from the front, some more from behind, some higher up, some lower down. You want to experiment with different kinds of lighting on each of the solids. You can also make any notes that seem useful to you in your light logic sketchbook. This sketchbook is just a place to explore and to collect your ideas and thoughts about the shading process. Is your own private place to explore light and shadow. Now while you're doing this, I highly recommend finding a spherical object, a cubicle object, any cylindrical object that you can light on your own. I want you to see the effects of light and shadow in person right in front of you. Now, if you truly cannot do this, I have included some reference photos in this course, but it's so important for you to experience this first hand, if possible. All you need is a simple desk lamp and to keep the rest of the room dimly lit. So you've got your projects. Get to it, and I will see you back here for the next lesson when you're going to learn about cast shadows. 5. Cast Shadows: Hey. Welcome to Lesson three. In the previous lesson, you learned how to divide light from shadow. This simplifies the light and shadow patterns in your drawing. Simplifying light and shadow is the first step of the shading process. In this lesson, you're going to learn about cast shadows. A cast shadow occurs when an object blocks light from hitting an adjacent surface. Cast shadows will contain the darkest values in your drawings. All too often, I see beginners draw their cast shadows by just scribbling some dark lines. Common cast shadow mistakes include not drawing them dark enough or drawing them without any specific shape without a shape that relates to the subject. But cast shadows have a specific shape and occupy a very specific location of the value scale. This lesson, you're going to learn to treat the cast shadow as a subject in and of itself. A well drawn cast shadow will work with your form shadows to create a complete range of values and to create a sense of drama in your drawings. By the end of this lesson, you will understand how cast shadows work and how to draw them. Now let's begin by exploring the different elements of a cast shadow. Every cast shadow has a shape. The shape of the cast shadow is determined by the object that is casting it. Now this seems obvious, but there are two other elements that help determine the shape of a cast shadow, the position of the light, and the surface that the shadow is casting over. Now for this lesson, we're only going to look at objects that are casting their shadow over a flat surface that they're resting upon. Now let's go into more detail about the shape of cast shadows. The cast shadow will mimic the shape of whatever object is casting. The direction that cast shadow travels and its length are determined by the position of the light source. Remember, now that we're learning about light and shadow, we always want to be aware of exactly where the light is coming from. Even minute shifts in the light source will change the appearance of the shadows. If the light source is coming more from above the object, the cast shadow will appear shorter. If the light source is lower, the cast shadow will lengthen. Position of the light source also determines the direction of the cast shadow. If the light is coming more from the front, the cast shadow will appear to angle upward and away from us. If the light is coming more from behind, the cast shadow tends to angle downward toward us. Now that you have a sense of how the position of the light impacts the length and direction of the cast shadow, let's talk about the different parts within a cast shadow. We'll start with the occlusion shadow. Occlusion shadow, also known as the umbra occurs directly underneath or immediately to the side of the object casting it. The occlusion shadow is the darkest part of the cast shadow. It occurs when light is completely blocked from hitting an adjacent surface. The further away the cast shadow gets from the object casting it, the lighter it becomes until we get to what is called the penumbra. The penumbra is the far edge of the cast shadow. The penumbra tends to be diffused as it blends with the light surrounding the cast shadow. Now, even though the edge of the cast shadow at the penumbra is diffused, we can still determine its shape. It's not so diffused where it becomes completely amorphous. These are the elements we want to look for when observing and drawing cast shadows. We want to know its shape and its length, as well as what direction it's traveling across the ground plane. Also want to know where the cast shadow is darkest and how its edges change as it gets further away from the object casting it. The edges of the cast shadow will be most defined nearest the object and the further away the cast shadow gets from the object, the more diffused the edges will become. Now that you know what to look for when observing a cast shadow, let's see how they manifest differently on our three primary solids, the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder. Here we see an ideally lit sphere. The cast shadow of a sphere appears ovular. The length of the cast shadow is determined by the location of the light source. In fact, we can plot a line from the light source to the edge of the sphere and then to the edge of the cast shadow. If we move the light source up, the cast shadow appears shorter. Note that there is a relationship between the cast shadow and the axis of the line of termination on the spirit itself. Remember, on a sphere, the axis of the line of termination is always perpendicular to the direction of the light source. The line of termination and the cast shadow shift together with the direction of the light. If we move the light source back down, we can see the cast shadow lengthen. The further down the light source is, the longer the oval of the cast shadow will become. We always want to pay attention to the length of the cast shadow and its relationship to the light source. When you learn how to draw the shape of the cast shadow, the first step will be to use angle sighting to determine the tilt of the line from the top of the object to the end of the cast shadow. Now we know that the cast shadow of a sphere will always appear ovular. We know from our earlier studies that every oval has an axis. In addition to the shape and length of the cast shadow, we must also know its axis. We can use angle sighting to determine this when drawing. Watch now what happens when we pull the light more around to the front of the sphere. Note that the axis of the cast shadow changes. With the light moved more toward the front, the cast shadow travels upward at a more acute angle. If we move the light so that it is coming more from behind, we see the axis of the cast shadow change so that it is now angling downward toward the bottom edge of the picture plane. Once again, let's return to our ideally lit sphere. Now let's talk about the occlusion shadow, the darkest shadow value. No matter where the light source is, we will always find the occlusion shadow underneath the sphere where light is blocked completely. Our darkest number five value should be reserved for this area. As the cast shadow travels away from the sphere, it lightens slightly. Now let's look at the edges of the cast shadow. You can see that the edges of the cast shadow closest to the sphere are more defined and harder edged. But the further we get from the light source, the more diffused the edges become. The far edge of the cast shadow is the penumbra. Just how diffused the penumbra is will be determined by the type of light source you are using to light your subject. For example, the penumbra of a cast shadow of an object lit by the sun will not be as diffused as that of a subject lit by a lamp. This is because the rays of light from the sun travel in parallel lines and the rays of light from a lamp tend to radiate outward. When you draw the edge of a cast shadow, regardless of the light source, the edge nearest the object casting it should be more defined, but you'll need to pay attention to just how diffused the penumbra appears. By studying the cast shadow of a sphere, we've learned most of what we need to know about how cast shadows work. Remember, other than the shape of the cast shadow, the other elements will be remarkably similar regardless of the object casting it. Nevertheless, let's take a look at the cube and the cylinder to see how their cast shadow shapes change and how this affects the other elements. Here is an ideally lit cube. The biggest difference between shadows cast by different objects will be their shape. Whereas the cast shadow of the sphere was round, the cast shadow of a cube will have straight edges that meet at corners. Remember, the cast shadow is a projection of the shape of the object itself. In fact, we can plot the shape of the cast shadow of a cube by running lines from the light source through the corners of the cube and then on down to the ground plane. To properly draw the cast shadow of a cube, we must properly locate its corners just as we would the corners of the cube itself. When drawing, we can use angle sighting to help us figure out where the corners of the cast shadow are in relationship to the corners of the cube itself. Just like the sphere, the direction and length of the cast shadow changes if the position of the light source changes. Here we see the light source moved up, which shortens the length of the cast shadow and changes its shape. Here, the light source has been moved more behind the cube, angling the cast shadow toward us and once again altering its shape. But no matter where the light source is, the cast shadow of a cube will always have straight edges meeting at angles. Now let's return to our ideally lit cube. Just like the sphere, we see the darkest and most defined part of the cast shadow right next to the cube itself. The further away the cast shadow gets from the cube, the more diffused its edges become. But we can still make out each side of the shape of the cast shadow and where they meet at the corners. Even though the shape of a cast shadow may appear diffused, it still has a discernible shape. Finally, let's take a look at the cylinder. Everything you've learned about cast shadow so far applies equally to the cylinder. Remember, the only element that changes substantially is the shape of the cast shadow. The cast shadow of a cylinder has straight edges and a rounded top, just like the cylinder itself. Just like the sphere in the cube, the length and shape of the cast shadow of the cylinder will change Length and direction as the light source is moved into different positions. If we move the light source more toward the front, the cast shadow angles upward more acutely. I'd like to take a moment to call your attention to the line of termination. Remember, when we move the light source, it affects both the line of termination and the cast shadow. With the light coming more from the front, in addition to the cast shadow angling back, we also see more light and less shadow on the cylinder. If we move the light source more behind the cylinder, the cast shadow comes toward us, angling downward toward the bottom of the picture plane. This also creates more shadow and less light on the shaft of the cylinder itself. Remember, each time we move the light source, we are changing the location of the line of termination as well as the cast shadow. They are both in relationship to the direction of the light source, especially when it comes to spears and cylinders. Now let's return to our ideally lit cylinder. Just like our other two solids, the cast shadow is darker with more defined edges nearest to the cylinder itself. As the cast shadow gets further away from the cylinder, we see it gets a bit lighter and its edges become more diffused at the penumbra. The cube and the sphere tend to appear the same no matter which way you turn them, but the cylinder looks different depending on how it's viewed. Watch what happens to the cast shadow when we turn the cylinder on its side. The cast shadow changes its shape, but is still in relationship to the object and the location of the light source. Hopefully, at this point, you have a good idea of how cast shadows work and the elements required to draw them successfully. So now let's head to the drawing board where I will show you how to put all of this into action in your drawings. In the following demonstration, you're going to see me add cast shadows to the three drawings that we began in the previous lesson. In the previous lesson, we took you through the process of drawing the line of termination and then applying a light wash of value into the shadow side. We divided the light part of the sphere from the shadow side. Now we're going to draw the cast shadow. We know that the cast shadow of this sphere is going to be ovular. We need to figure out its length, its axis, and how open it. So first, we just want to plot out the basic shape of the oval for the cast shadow. This part of the cast shadow is very close to the location where the line of termination comes in contact with the contour of the sphere. From there, it comes down just slightly. I'm going to use a light line to just start the cast shadow. We can also see that it comes out from behind the sphere not quite halfway up. Now, as with all drawing, our first goal is just to get something on the page. We can always go back and refine. First, we just need to sketch out the basic shape. Now before we go any further, I want to know the axis of the cast shadow. We can see in the reference photograph that it is tilting upward as it travels away from the sphere. We can use angle siting to determine the exact axis of this shape. So we know that the axis line for this cast shadow is traveling up as it travels away from the sphere. Once I've made my first attempt at the axis, I'll use angle sighting to make sure it's correct. The angle is looking pretty good. I can also use angle siting to figure out the exact tilt of the line from the top of the sphere to the far end of the cast shadow. That puts the end of the cast shadow right around here. Another way you can figure out the length of the cast shadow is using proportional measuring. It turns out that the distance from one edge of the sphere to the other is about the same as the distance from the edge of the sphere to the end of the cast shadow. I can mark the distance from one side of the sphere to the other on my pencil and then bring that distance over. Luckily, it matches up with the angle site I took. Now I've plotted out the basic dimensions of the oval for the cast shadow. I know the cast shadow emerges from the sphere at the bottom, from the side, and I know how long it is. I'll make my first light attempt and then evaluate. Here we have the basic shape for our cast shadow. I want to make sure that I'm happy with the length and the openness. Remember, at this stage, everything about this cast shadow can be changed. But as soon as we add dark values to it, it makes it much harder to correct. I want to make any necessary corrections to the shape of the cast shadow now before I apply any dark values. So once I'm feeling confident about the shape of the cast shadow, I can begin to shade it in. I'll begin with the darkest part of the cast shadow, the occlusion shadow right underneath the sphere. From there, the cast shadow is going to lighten slightly as it travels away from the sphere. Remember, at the penumbra, it's going to be lighter and much softer edged. I'm going to begin by defining the very edge of our sphere with a nice dark line. Remember, our cast shadow is going to be a number five value, so we need to bear down on the tip of the pencil. I'm also going to draw a nice firm edge of the cast shadow right underneath the sphere. Remember, right underneath the sphere is where the cast shadow is going to have its firmest edge. From here, the edge will soften as it gets further away. Once I'm ready, I'm going to start shading in the cast shadow. Now, right now, I'm not going all the way to a number five value, but I'm drawing pretty dark. One thing you'll notice with all of these values is that I work my way up to them. I rarely try and get the exact value on my first pass. Shading is a process of layering. It's okay to go over your shadows again and again until you arrive at the right value. As I'm applying value to the cast shadow, I want you to notice how much it changes the drawing. It suddenly goes from a very simple drawing of a circle with a dark area to a more three dimensional drawing. The presence of the cast shadow really allows the sphere itself to stand out. Now, as I've mentioned, shading is a process of layering and once we get all of the values drawn, we're going to go back and refine them all in relationship to one another. But this is about as far as I want you to take your drawing for now. For your project today, you're going to draw the shape of the cast shadow and then shade it. You want to keep the edges closest to the sphere firmer and the edges further away softer. Right next to the sphere, you want to bear down on the tip of the pencil to create about a number five value. But as you get further away, the value should travel more toward a number four and you should expect to layer your shading lines. You don't need to draw the exact value the first time around. This is about the level I want you to bring your drawing to for today's project. Now let's move on to the cube. The only significant difference between the cast shadow of a cube and the cast shadow of a sphere is their shape. The cast shadow of a sphere is, of course, ovular, but the cast shadow of a cube has straight lines that meet at angles. To draw the shape of the cast shadow of this cube, I'm going to start by trying to draw the angles. I'll start with this lower edge. You can use angle sighting to figure out the specific tilt of this line first on the cube itself, and then you can transfer that line over to the drawing. I've taught angle siting in depth in how to draw a beginner's guide, the first course in the drawing laboratory series. If you need a refresher on angle siting, I highly recommend revisiting that course. Next, I'll draw the top line of the cast shadow. I want to figure out where along this edge of the cube it comes out. It looks like it's a little more than halfway up. Next, I'll construct the remaining edges of the cast shadow. This edge of the cast shadow appears to line up with this edge of the cube. Now, this is something particular to this drawing. Whenever you're drawing the cast shadow of a cube, you will need to measure and figure out the specific directions of each line. So through a combination of angle sighting and observation, I will finish constructing the rest of this cast shadow shape. Now, remember, we can make adjustments later on. We just need to arrive at a basic shape. Before you darken it, you'll want to make any corrections necessary. Once we've got our basic shape, we can begin to darken it. I'll switch over to the tripod grip so I can bear down on the tip of the pencil to create a number five value. Next, I'll begin shading in the rest of the cast shadow. Just like our sphere, the edges of the cast shadow will be most defined right next to the cube itself. As the cast shadow travels further away from the cube, its value will slightly lighten and its edges will soften. I want to remind you once again that shading is a process of layering. I can change the directions of my strokes to make sure that individual strokes fade away and leave a shape of value. Once again, we'll have plenty of time to refine the shape and value of this cast shadow later on. For today we're just doing a first pass. This is about as far as I recommend you take your cast shadow for this lesson. Now let's move on to the cylinder. Finally, we have the cylinder. Once again, the only significant difference here is going to be the shape of the cast shadow. The two lines projecting out from the cylinder will be straight. You'll want to pay attention to the distance from the top of the cast shadow to the bottom. We can use angle siting to capture the tilt of each of these lines. Of course, we can use angle siting to sit a line from the very top of the cylinder to the very end of the cast shadow. I'm finding the end of the cast shadow for this cylinder over here. This cylinder is taller than both the cube and the sphere. Even though the light source has been in the same place for all three of these, this cast shadow will appear longer. Once we're happy with the shape of the cast shadow, we can start to darken it. Once again, you'll see me vary the direction of mice strokes. This is a great way to hide individual strokes. Once again, just like before, the further we get away from the cylinder itself, the edges of the cast shadow will begin to soften and the value will lighten. Right next to the cylinder, we have a number five value, the darkest value in the drank. But as we travel away from the cylinder, the cast shadow lightens to closer to a number four value. The parts of the cast shadow right next to the cylinder will have harder edges as the cast shadow travels away from the cylinder, the edges will soften and diffuse. Once again, this is about as far as I want you to take your cast shadow in your drawings today. We will have plenty of time to go back and refine them. Hopefully, these three demos have given you a sense of how to draw cast shadows. We put all of the elements we've talked about so far in this lesson into practice here. Remember, the only significant difference between the cast shadows of different objects will be their shape. The values, the edges, and the process for drawing the cast shadows will be remarkably similar. Now we know that some of you are doing these three drawings on white paper instead of toned paper. Just like the previous step, drawing the cast shadow works the same regardless of the color of paper you're using. First, you'll draw the shape of the cast shadow. Next, you'll shade it in, starting with a number five value at the occlusion shadow and lightning toward a number four value at the penumbra. The edges of the cast shadow nearest the object should be clearly defined and get more diffused toward the penumbra. Now, in addition to these three longer, more finished drawings, you're also going to draw in your light logic sketchbook. It is such great practice to work back and forth from more finished rendered drawings to more simple quick studies. Remember, the drawings you'll do in your light logic sketchbook are not precious. This is a place for you to explore and experiment with light. Your light logic sketchbook is not about making good drawings, it is about learning. The process you'll go through in your light logic sketchbook is exactly the same as the process I just demonstrated, except you're going to do it much more quickly and simply. You'll begin by drawing the shape of the solid. Next, you'll determine the direction the light is coming from. Then you'll find the line of termination on the object itself and shade in the shadow side of the object using about a number three value. Next, you'll draw the shape of the cast shadow in relationship to the light source. Finally, you'll shade it in, starting with the number five value right next to the object and lightening toward a number four value at the Panumbra. For this lesson, you'll be combining what you learned in the previous lesson with what you've just learned about cast shadows. In your light logic sketchbook, I want you to do all new drawings. Remember, the line of termination and the cast shadow will always be in relationship to the light source. When you change the position of the light, it tends to change both the line of termination and the shape and direction of the cast shadow. On cubes, the line of termination tends to be more fixed and always occurs where the planes meet. But of course, you still need to figure out which planes of the cube are lit and which are in shadow. Now, I'll be providing some reference photos for you to draw from. But if at all possible, I want you to find your own objects and light them in real life with a lamp. Go find a spherical object, a cubicle object, and a cylindrical object. Set them up on a surface in a dimly lit room, get a lamp and explore. See what happens when you change the position of the light. See how it changes the line of termination. See how it changes the shape and length of the cast shadow. Observing this in real life, where you actually get to move the light and see the effects for yourself is one of the best ways to start to understand light and shadow. Of course, you'll be drawing what you observe in your light logic sketchbook. Doing these quick studies is one of the best ways to truly embed these ideas into your mind. Throughout the course of my career, I have done thousands of these quick light logic sketches. The more of these quick sketches you do, the quicker they will become second nature. You want to engage in this process so many times that you no longer have to think about it. Okay. With all of this in mind, let's get you to today's project. For the first part of your project today, I want you to add cast shadows to the three drawings that you began in the previous lesson. You'll go through the exact same process that I demonstrated today. You'll begin by defining the shape of the cast shadow. Start with a number five value at the occlusion shadow and then get lighter as you move toward the Penumbra. You'll also want to pay attention to the edges. The cast shadow will be most defined right next to the object casting it and will become more diffused the further away the shadow gets. Once you've added cast shadows to the three longer studies, it's then time to draw in your light logic sketchbook. In your light logic sketchbook, I want you to do a minimum of three drawings of each of our primary solids. Each of these drawings should be lit with light coming from a different direction. You'll begin by drawing the shape of the object itself. Next, you'll determine what direction the light is coming from. Next, you'll draw the line of termination and shade in the form shadow at about a number three value, and finally, you'll draw the cast shadow, making it darker nearest the object, and letting it get lighter the further away it gets. I know you've heard me repeat this many, many times, but this is how learning occurs. You want to keep hearing these ideas and keep practicing them until they become second nature. Remember, if at all possible when you're drawing your light logic sketchbook, you want to draw from observation. Find actual objects, bring them into a dimly lit room and put light on want to see these effects in real life. You want to find actual objects and light them yourself. You want to be able to move the light source around and see its effects in real time. This is how you become an expert in light and shadow and a master of shading. Okay, so you've got your projects for today. I will see you back here for the next lesson when you're going to learn about core shadows. 6. Core Shadows: Welcome to Lesson four. In this lesson, we're going to return to form shadows. Remember, form shadows are the shadows that occur on the objects themselves, not cast shadows. And as you already know, form shadows are not all the same value. On the surfaces of curved objects, form shadows have two distinct areas core shadows and reflected light. The core shadow is the dark band of shadow right next to the line of termination. But as we move further away from the line of termination, you'll notice that the shadow actually becomes brighter. This lighter part of the shadow is called reflected light. In this lesson, we're going to explore why core shadows and reflected light occur and of course, how to draw them. But core shadows only occur on objects with curved surfaces like cylinders and spears. In this lesson, we're also going to learn more about the shadow side of the cube. The cube has only flat planes and no curved surfaces. So by the end of this lesson, you should have a good understanding of how all shadows work and how to draw them. This lesson will complete your fundamental knowledge and skills regarding shadows. Let's begin by learning about reflected light. In this lesson, we'll begin with the cylinder laying on its side. You can clearly see the dark band of the core shadow. You can also see the lighter area of reflected light. To understand why this happens, we need to learn more about light itself. You should already understand that light travels in straight lines. Photons spray out from the light source and whatever they hit is illuminated. Anything not directly in the path of the light is left in shadow. But once light hits something, it does not end its journey. Light bounces off of whatever surface it hits. The more reflective the surface, the more light reflects off of it. Here we see light travel down from the light source, bounce off of the surface the cylinder is sitting upon, and then gently illuminating the underside of the cylinder. This is why the underside of the cylinder appears brighter than the rest of the form shadow. Reflected light is not as bright as light coming directly from the source. This is because depending on the surface it hits, some of the light is absorbed by the surface and some of it is scattered, but some light travels on to illuminate other things. In this case, the underside of the cylinder. I'd like to take a moment and remind you of our definitions of light and shadow. Something to be considered in the light, it must be hit with light directly from the light source. Anything not hit with light directly from the source is considered to be in shadow. The key word here is directly. The underside of the cylinder is lit with reflected light, not with light coming directly from the light source. The light illuminating the underside of the cylinder is reflecting off of another surface. This means that despite the fact that the area of reflected light is illuminated, it is still considered part of the shadow. This cylinder is placed upon a flat piece of fabric, which is not particularly reflective. Even so we see light reflecting off of it and lighting the underside of the cylinder. The more reflective the surface the light reflects off of, the brighter the reflected light will be. We'll explore this idea more later on. Now that you have an understanding of how reflected light works, let's look more closely at the core shadow. Every core shadow has a shape. The shape of the core shadow is determined by the shape of the object in relationship to the direction the light is coming from. Now, the cylinder only curves in one direction, but the sides of the shaft of the cylinder are straight. This creates a core shadow that appears as a straight band of shadow. When drawing the core shadow on a cylinder, you should always pay attention to how thick it is in relationship to the reflected light. For example, on this cylinder, the core shadow occupies a little less than half of the total area of the forms. Now let's talk about the value of each of these shadow conditions. The reflected light is generally around a number three value. The core shadow is generally around a number four value, although both the reflected light and the core shadow can appear brighter or darker depending on the situation. Now let's take a look at their edges. This core shadow has two edges. One edge of the core shadow is at the line of termination, where the cylinder turns away from the light and goes into shadow. You should already be familiar with the diffused edge of the core shadow at the line of termination. We studied this in Lesson two of this course. The other edge of the core shadow is the boundary where it transitions to the reflected light. The edge of the core shadow that meets the reflected light appears quite a bit more diffused than the edge of the core shadow at the line of termination. We'll revisit this idea during today's drawing demonstration. But for now, I just want you to understand that these edges are different. The edge of the core shadow at the line of termination is diffused, but has a firmer edge than the edge between the core shadow and the reflected light. The edge between the core shadow and the reflected light appears softer and more diffused. Now let's see what happens to the core shadow and the reflected light when we stand the cylinder upright. Now we see much less reflected light. This means that the dark band of the core shadow is less visible. Most of the shadow side of the cylinder is around a number four value or darker. Near the base of the cylinder, we do see some reflected light bouncing up from the surface the cylinder is resting upon and making the bottom of the shadow side of the cylinder a bit brighter. But the characteristic dark band of the core shadow is not as obvious when the cylinder is upright. This is because there is nothing to the right of the cylinder to reflect light back onto the shadow side. Remember, for reflected light to occur in the shadow of an object, we need something nearby to reflect it. We'll revisit this idea when we begin drawing and shading multiple objects in a single drawing. Now let's explore the core shadow and reflected light on the sphere. Unlike the cylinder, the surface of the sphere curves in more than one direction. This means that not only does the sphere have a core shadow and reflected light, but the core shadow appears curved. On a sphere, the reflected light is brightest at the underside of the sphere. The reflected light that is further away from the surface the sphere is resting upon is at about a number four value. The reflected light gets brighter, approaching a number three value as it gets closer to the surface the sphere is resting upon. Now let's take a look at the core shadow. We know that one edge of the core shadow is at the line of termination. Because the boundary between the core shadow and the reflected light is so diffused, nailing down the exact shape can be a bit of a challenge. But here is how I see it. The shape of the core shadow on a sphere tends to have two distinct areas. First, we find a crescent shape near the top of the sphere. This crescent shape is wider at the top and narrows as it moves toward the bottom of the sphere due to the increase in reflected light. Underneath this crescent shape, we also see a tail of the core shadow continuing on, following the line of termination. Like the reflected light, the core shadow is darkest near the top, approaching a number five value and gets brighter as it travels toward the bottom of the sphere. Now watch as I remove the lines of the diagram. Can you see the shape of the core shadow? Draw the core shadow of a sphere, pay particular attention to its shape and values as they can change depending on the position of the light source as well as nearby surfaces reflecting light. Of course, I'll be demonstrating all of this in a drawing in just a few minutes. Now let's see what happens when we move the light more toward the front of our sphere. The line of termination shifts toward the right, making the lit area of the sphere larger overall and the shadow side smaller. As you learned in Lesson two, the line of termination becomes more curved as it gets closer to the edge of the sphere. The core shadow and reflected light both appear more narrow but are still both present. We still see a crescent shape near the top of the core shadow and the tail of the core shadow below it. Once again, watch as I remove the diagram lines. Hopefully you can still see the shape of the core shadow with your eyes alone. Whenever you draw the core shadow and the reflected light, you must always pay attention to their shapes. They can change depending on the position of the light. Finally, let's take a look at the cube. You now know that we only find core shadows on objects with curved surfaces. The cube has no curved surfaces, only flat planes. Therefore, the cube has no core shadows. But there are still two areas of shadow that we find on the shadow plane of the cube. If we isolate the shadow plane, the changes in value are easier to see. Now, we find a triangular shape of darker value at the bottom of this plane. This is known as a reflected cast shadow. This reflected shadow is the darkest part of the form shadow on a cube. In this scenario, it is nearing a number five value, almost as dark as the cast shadow. The rest of the shadow plane of the cube is around a number four value. Now, it's up to you whether or not you want to include the reflected shadow in your drawings. When drawing, our goal is to present a clean and concise set of values that make visual sense to the viewer. When drawing the cube, I usually include the reflected cast shadow. But let's return now to our cylinder. If you look closely at the bottom of the straight edge of the cylinder, you can actually see some reflected cast shadow. Whether or not the reflected shadow is visible near the base of a sphere or cylinder depends on the exact lighting scenario and your viewpoint. But when drawing spheres and cylinders, I tend not to include the reflected cast shadows, even if they are visible on the actual objects. This is because they tend to obscure the edge between the object and the cast shadow and can distort the shape of the objects themselves. If you look closely in this image, you can see that the reflected cast shadow makes the straight bottom edge of the cylinder appear slightly curved. Make sure I'm presenting clear patterns of light and shadow, I tend to edit out this reflected shadow except when I'm drawing cubes. We have covered a lot in this lesson, now it's time for you to learn how to apply all of this in your drawings. In just a moment, we're going to head to the drawing board for a demonstration. But before we do, I just want to lay out the entire shading process so far. You started by drawing the basic shapes of your subject. Next, you drew the line of termination and shaded in the shadow side using a number three. Now the reason I have you shade in the shadow area with the number three value is because it is the lightest value we are likely to find on the shadow side of the line of termination. Remember, the number three value is roughly the value of the reflected light. In the demo you're about to see, I'm going to focus more on the core shadow because we have already drawn the value of the reflected light. After you divide light from shadow using the line of termination and a number three value, you then learned how to draw a cast shadow. The cast shadow starts at a number five value with the occlusion shadow and then moves toward a number four value at the Penumbra. Today, you're going to learn how to draw the core shadow. First define the shape of the core shadow and next, you'll shade it in at approximately a number four value. Once you've drawn all of this, I'm going to show you how to refine your values to get them closer to what you see in the reference photo. This is the basic process you're about to see me demonstrate. With all of this in mind, let's head to the drawing board. So far in this drawing, we have divided light from shadow by first drawing the line of termination and then shading the entire shadow side of the sphere in at about a number three value. Next, we define the shape of the cast shadow and then shaded it in, starting with a number five value and moving toward a number four value. In this demonstration, we're going to return to the form shadow on the sphere itself. The reason we shade it in the shadow side of the sphere using a number three value is because the number three value is the lightest value we are likely to find in the shadows. Now I am ready to draw the core shadow. First, we need to define the shape of the core shadow. Now we have already drawn one edge of the core shadow when we drew the line of termination. Now I need to define the other edge. I need to define the boundary between the core shadow and the reflected light. I'm going to start by drawing the crescent shape near the top of the sphere. I'll do this using a very soft line. I'm using such a soft line because the boundary between the core shadow and the reflected light is very diffused. Now you can see that we have the crescent shape that forms the top section of the core shadow. Next, I want to define the shape of the tail that curves around the bottom of the sphere. Once again, I'll do this using a very soft edged line. Once I've completed the shape of the core shadow, I'm ready to shade it in. I'll begin by darkening the core shadow to about a number four value. But remember, as the core shadow gets near the bottom of the sphere, it tends to light as always, it's important for you to remember that shading is a process of layering. We don't expect to capture the exact right value on the first pass. We expect to go over each shadow a number of times. Now we see the core shadow taking shape. Despite the soft edges, we can still make out the crescent at the top, as well as the tail of the core shadow near the bottom. Now I'd like to note once the shape of the core shadow has been drawn and it's been shaded in, it leaves the area of reflected light. So in this shading process, the first shadow you're going to lay down is the number three value on the shadow side of the line of termination. With this already drawn, once you draw and shade in the core shadow, it will leave the reflected light at the proper value. Now, even though we've shaded in the core shadow, leaving the area of reflected light, we are not done yet. Just like we did with the cast shadow, we're going to refine the shape, value, and edges of the core shadow and the reflected light. Now we've drawn the core shadow as a number four value and left the reflected light as a number three value. But these values are just starting points. If we look at the actual sphere, we can see that the top of the core shadow is actually darker. The very top of the core shadow is nearing a number five value. And it gets lighter as we go down. Now in comparing my drawing to the actual sphere, I'm also seeing that the edge between the core shadow and reflected light needs to be more diffused. Not only that, the upper area of the reflected light needs to be a little darker. Here you can see I'm darkening this upper area of the reflected light and at the same time softening the edge between the core shadow and the reflected light. This refinement is incredibly common while shading. Remember, you are unlikely to capture the exact value of any shadow on your first pass. The last thing I'm going to do in this demonstration of a sphere is refine the edge of the core shadow at the line of termination. Using a soft line, I'm going to define that edge just a little further. Now in the next lesson, we're going to shift to the lit side of the sphere and we'll have another opportunity to refine this edge further. But for now, I just want to make sure that the edge of the core shadow at the line of termination is diffused but firmer than the edge between the core shadow and the reflected light. Hopefully you can see how much the addition of the core shadow transforms this drawing. It is now starting to appear much more dimensional. Now remember, the very final step of the shading process is to refine all of the values together once they're all on the page. But this is about as far as I want you to take your drawings today. So here we have our drawing of the cylinder. Now, because this cylinder is upright, we don't see as much of the core shadow. We only see a small area of reflected light near the bottom right side of this cylinder. But if you look closely at the reference photo, you can see a small amount of core shadow all the way up. It's most apparent down here where the reflected light is brightest. So we'll begin by shading in the dark band of the core shadow. Remember, the core shadow of the cylinder is going to be straight. This is because the sides of the shaft of the cylinder are straight. Once I've drawn this dark vertical band for the core shadow, I'm going to begin shading in the upper section of the form shadow, starting at around number four value, but getting lighter as I approach the reflected light at the bottom of the cylinder. As always, I'll need to make a number of different passes. I vary the direction of my strokes to make sure that no individual strokes stand out. Now here you can see that the dark band of the core shadow doesn't change value much from the top of the cylinder to the bottom. What does change is the value of the reflected light. Now, this upper area of the form shadow is a little darker. But again, the most dramatic value shift happens lower down near the reflected light, where light is traveling down from the light source, bouncing off of the surface the cylinder is sitting upon and lighting the bottom of the cylinder. The last thing I'm going to do is soften the edge between the core shadow and the reflected light. I think I'm going to darken the value of this reflected light just a little more. Remember, the core shadow being a number four value and the reflected light being a number three value, these are just starting points. I'll define the edge of the core shadow with the line of termination just a little more. Once again, we'll have plenty of time to refine these values once we have them all on the page. But this is about as far as I want you to take your cylinder drawing today. Now here we are at the cube. Now, of course, the cube is made up of flat planes. This means that the cube will not have a core shadow, but on the cube, we do see a triangular shape of reflected cast shadow. Now, it's possible to see a reflected cast shadow on any of our three solids, but it is usually most visible on the cube. When drawing the cube, we rarely see a number three value on the shadow plane. The first thing I'm going to do is drop this value down to about a number four value. Although on this cube, it appears that the final value will be a little darker than a number four, although not as dark as a number five. Now, in most of the shadow plane, you want to keep the value pretty even. Because it's a flat plane, with the exception of the reflected shadow, we don't want to see any areas that stand out as brighter or darker than any other. You'll see that I'm varying the direction of my strokes so that no individual strokes stand out. Once the shadow point of the cube is at about a number four value, I can then shift to the reflected cast shadow. Just like with the core shadow, I'll begin by defining its shape. In this scenario, the reflected cast shadow is a triangular shape that widens as it travels toward the right. Finally, I will darken the reflected cast shadow to nearly a number five value. It is just slightly lighter than the cast shadow, and of course, I'll diffuse the edge slightly. As I've mentioned twice already, we will have an opportunity to refine all of these values once they're all on the page. But this is about as far as I want you to take this drawing of your cube today. So at this point, you should understand how core shadows and reflected light work and, of course, how to draw them. So now it's time for you to put all of this into practice. So here are your projects for today. First, I want you to add core shadows to each of the three drawings you've been working on. Once you've added the core shadows, I want you to refine the edges, shapes, and values of both the core shadow and the reflected light. If you need any review, please feel free to re watch any of the lessons or demos in this video. Once you've added the core shadows and the reflected light to your three main drawings, it's time for you to explore them further in your light logic sketchbook. Once again, I want you to draw each of the three solids, the sphere, the cylinder, and the cube three times each. Each solid should be lit in three different ways. Start by drawing the basic shapes. Next, divide light from shadow using the line of termination and shade in the shadow side at a number three value. Next, draw the shape of the cast shadow and shade it in. Finally, add the core shadow and refine the shape, value, and edges of the core shadow and the reflected light. In your light logic sketchbook, I've been asking you to start three new drawings of each of your three solids at the end of every lesson. Now, I know this may seem repetitive, but that's the point. Repeating this process over and over again is the best way to drill these ideas into your consciousness. By the end of this course, I want you to have gone through this process so many times that it becomes second nature. Doing these quick sketches over and over will really help instill these ideas in your mind. Remember, in your light logic sketchbook, you're not simply doing the same drawing over and over again. Each of your solids should be lit in a different way. This will help keep these drawings fresh, as well as give you an opportunity to do your own experimentation to see how light impacts objects when we change its position. I want you to experiment on your own how the shapes of the core shadow and the reflected light may change if you pull the light source behind the subject or put it side. Now, as we add more steps, the process becomes more complex. I want you to feel free to take notes in your light logic sketchbook. Write down any observations you make that you want to remember. I'm giving you the fundamentals of light and shadow, but it's up to you to do further exploration to see how these conditions change when we change the position of the light source. These kinds of quick sketches and doing your own experimentation with light is one of the best ways to master light and shadow. Well, thank you so much for joining me here in this lesson. It is an absolute privilege to be able to share with you my passion for shading. I will see you back here for the next lesson when we're going to move out of the shadows and into the light. 7. Drawing Light: Welcome to Lesson five. In the previous view lessons, you learned how to recognize and draw the core shadow, reflected light, and the cast shadow. So far, everything you've drawn has been on the shadow side of the line of termination. In this lesson, we're going to move out from the shadows and into the light. You're going to learn how to draw the areas of your subject that are being hit with light directly from the light source. You'll learn how light operates differently on objects with flat planes versus objects with curved surfaces. Once you've learned how to draw light conditions, you'll then learn how to refine all of the values in your drawing and how to complete it. By the end of this lesson, you will know how to complete a fully shaded and rendered drawing. Now before we explore light, I want to talk about the five step value scale that we've been using. As you know, each of the five steps on this value scale correspond to a specific light or shadow condition. Value number five represents the cast shadow. Value number four represents the core shadow. Value number three represents the reflected light and so on. But as our drawings advance, particularly as we refine the values, we will need to deviate from this five step value scale. For example, there are areas of the core shadow which may appear darker than a number four value. The five step value scale allows us to think about light and shadow in a straightforward way. But as you refine your values, you may need to deviate from this five step scale to capture the full richness and variation in the values that you see. With this in mind, let's begin our explorations of light. We'll begin with our ideally lit cube. In this lighting scenario, there are two lit planes being hit with light directly from the light source. We have already explored the shadow plane in the previous lesson. Now let's focus on the lit planes. Both the left plane and the top plane of the cube are lit. However, you will notice that they are not the same value. The plane on the left appears brighter than the top plane. This is because the light source is more to the side of the cube. The light is hitting the left plane more directly. Now watch what happens when we move the light source up so that the light is coming more from above. With the light coming more from above, the top plane now appears brighter. In both cases, the shadow plane remains mostly unchanged. Let's once again lower the light source so that it is coming more from the side. When we draw the lit planes of a cube, we need to figure out what value each plane is. With our five value scale now visible, ask yourself, what value is each lit plane? Hopefully you can see that the plane on the left is closer to a number one value and the top plane is closer to a number two value. This is when it can be helpful to deviate from our five step value scale. We know that our number one value should be reserved for highlights, the brightest possible values in our drawings. This lit left plane is very bright, but it is not as bright as a highlight. You'll learn more about highlights a bit later in this lesson. But for now, let's just assume that the plane on the left is nearly but not quite as bright as a number one value. On a value scale, we might represent it as a 1.5. The plane on the top is a bit brighter than a number two value, but not quite as bright as value number one. If we move the light source back up so that the top plane is getting more direct light, these values switch. The top plane is now closer to a number one value and the plane on the left is closer to a number two value. Before we move on, there is just one more concept I'd like to address. One common mistake I see beginners make is to draw one part of a flat plane darker than another. But let me ask you, is that what you see? If we isolate only the top plane, you can see that it is one single value corner to corner. No area of this plane is lighter or darker. We see the same thing if we isolate the side plane. Each lit plane is a single flat value from corner to corner. It's important that you draw them that. So we now know that flat planes receiving light directly from the light source are an even value all the way across and that the brightness of each plane will depend on the position of the light source. The more direct the light a plane is receiving, the brighter it will appear. With this understanding, it's time to explore our next lighting condition, the center light. Our next two light conditions, the center light and the highlight, only occur on objects with rounded surfaces like the sphere and the cylinder. To best observe a center light will begin with a cylinder. Take a look at the lit area of the cylinder. You will quickly see that just like the shadows, the lit area is not all one value. It is a range of values. In this position, the cylinder appears brightest all along the left edge, the edge closest to the light source. This bright area that receives the most direct light from the light source is called the center light. But as the surface of the cylinder curves away from the light source, it gradually gets dimmer until we get to the line of termination, where as you know, the surface of the cylinder curves away from the light entirely and goes into shadow. So the center light begins at almost but not quite a number one value and transitions to a number two value as it approaches the line of termination. From there, the values go into shadow. These darker areas on the lit side of the line of termination are referred to as mid tones or half tones. But these mid tone values are not shadows and should not be drawn below a number three value. So on a curved surface, the area facing the light directly will be the brightest and the object will become gradually dimmer as the surface curves away from the light source, going down from almost a number one value to approximately a number two value just before the line of termination. From there, the surface of the object curves away from the light entirely and goes into shadow. Before we move on, let's take a look at the flat circular plane at the top of the cylinder. Because it is a flat plane, it will follow the same rules as the flat planes of the cube. When lit, it will be a single value all the way across and will be somewhere in the number one or two value range. The specific value will depend on its relationship to the light source. The flat plane at the top of this cylinder appears to be closer to a number two value. Now let's take a look at the center light on a sphere. For the moment, let's ignore the highlight so we can focus solely on the center light. We'll come back to the highlight in just a moment. Just like the cylinder, the sphere is brightest at the edge facing the light source most directly. We know that the light source is coming from above and from the left. Sure enough, we find that the center light on the sphere is brightest at the upper left edge, nearing a number one value. And once again, we see the light gradually becomes dimmer as the surface of the sphere curves away from the light source. As we get closer to the line of termination, the light dims to a mid tone value at approximately number two on our five step value scale. Now that you understand how center lights work on spheres and cylinders, let's explore highlights. You will most often see highlights on spherical objects. The highlight is the area on a curved object where light from the light source reflects directly into our eyes. On most spherical objects, the highlight appears as a bright round shape of light with diffused edges. The more reflective the surface of an object, the brighter and more defined the highlight will appear. The highlight will be the brightest area on any object and the only area in your drawing that will be a pure number one value. The location of the highlight moves in relationship to the light source. Keep your eyes on the highlight as we move the light source more toward the front of the object. You can see that the highlight moved toward the right along with the form shadows. Now watch what happens when we move the light more behind the sphere. Now the highlight has moved toward the upper left of the sphere. You'll also notice that it has become elongated. When you draw a highlight, you always want to check its position and its shape. Properly placing the highlight is essential to the believability of your light and shadow patterns. We began exploring highlights on a sphere because as long as a spherical object is even moderately reflective, you will likely see a highlight. But additionally, you will occasionally see highlights on cylindrical objects, although they must be quite reflective and the position of the cylinder and the light must be just right. Here is a painted wood cylinder positioned and lit so that a highlight is visible. When you do see a highlight on a cylindrical object, it will appear as a straight band of light running down the length of the shaft. You will very rarely see a highlight on a cube. If a cube is reflective enough and at just the right angle, you can get it to flash a highlight at you. But this is pretty rare and typically not something you'd want to draw. If you did draw it, the entire highlighted plane would of course be at a number one value. So hopefully you now understand the three lighting conditions you will draw, highlights, center lights, and mid tones. Now it's time for you to learn how to draw these light conditions, but a couple of notes before we get to the demonstration. First, all of the previous steps of the shading process have been the same whether you're drawing on white paper or toned paper. But how we draw the light on white paper is different from how we draw it on toned paper. On toned paper, you'll see me draw the light using a white pencil. On white paper, we will use our dark pencil to shade in the mid tones. In fact, we need to add a small amount of pigment to the entire lit side of the line of termination with the exception of the highlight. On white paper, the highlight is the only area of your drawing that will be left pure white. On toned or colored paper, the highlight is created by bearing down on the tip of the white pencil, bringing it to its brightest. You'll see me demonstrate both of these in just a moment. Second, after adding the light values that we've just explored, you'll need to refine all values in your drawing. As I previously mentioned, the five step value scale is a starting point. It helps us to organize and simplify the values. But in order to capture the full range of values that we observe on an object, we may need to deviate from this five step scale. For example, your core shadow may need to drop down to a 4.5 value. Your reflected light may need to drop down to a 3.5 value. But even when deviating from the simplified five step value scale, you still want to keep a clear division between light and shadow. No area on the lit side of the line of termination should be drawn darker than a number three value. Now, with all of this in mind, let's head to the drawing board. Mm hmm. We're going to begin with our drawing of a cube. Now, the first thing you want to do before you apply any white pencil to a drawing is to clean the area where that white pencil is going to be applied. I'm going to be using my kaded eraser to remove any dark pigment from the lit planes of this cube. Even a small amount of dark pigment can muddy the white pencil. There are a couple of areas that the kdt eraser isn't quite getting, so I'm going to bring in my vinyl eraser and carefully remove these excess lines. Now, I'm even going to want to remove this line that separates the side plane from the top plane. I don't want a dark edge there. Ultimately, I want it to appear that these two planes of different values are meeting at that edge. Having a dark line there will obscure that illusion. Once I've cleaned up the areas where I'm going to apply white pencil, I can begin to draw the lit planes. In the reference image we've been working from, the light is coming more from the side, so the side plane is brighter. But the top plane is still receiving some light, although not directly. In this top plane, we will apply some white, but we don't want the top plane as bright as the side plane. I'll begin by very carefully defining the edges. Next, I'm going to brighten this plane of the cube. This is going to be the brightest area in this drawing. It is nearly but not quite a number one value. Now, just like our other values, I don't want to rush into brightening it all the way up on the first pass. I find it works best to layer passes, to build up values over time. Just like before, you can see me varying the direction of my strokes. The ultimate effect of this will be fewer individual strokes visible. Remember, the goal here is to make this appear as a flat plane that is lit evenly across the entire surface. We don't want any one area of this plane to appear brighter or dimmer than any other part. So it can take some time to build up these values. But hopefully, you can see that with each new pass, the plane gets a little brighter and a little more evenly lit. Now it is very likely I will come back to this plane in just a few minutes. But before I bring this plane to its full level of brightness, I want to get some light on the top plane as well. This top plane is being hit with light directly from the light source, but because the light is coming more from the side, it's not receiving light as directly. Whereas the side plane is pretty close to a number one value, this top plane is much closer to a number two value. This is about as bright as I think I want to make this top plane. I think we can go just a bit brighter with the side plane. Again, I don't want to bring the side plane all the way up to a number one value, but it's pretty close. Now, I think this drawing is really starting to work. Hopefully, you can see that by adding this light, it really transforms the drawing. At this stage, I've addressed all of my light and shadow conditions, but we are not yet finished. Once I've made my first pass at all of the light and shadow, I need to refine the drawing. At this stage, I'll be looking back and forth from my drawing to the reference photo to see how they're different, to see what values need to be changed. Two things strike me immediately. First, the cast shadow can be much darker and the darkness of the cast shadow can extend much further. When I compare my drawing to the reference photo, I see that even closer to the penumbra, it should be much darker. Now I find these evaluations much easier to make once we have all five values represented in the drawing. The second thing that strikes me is that this entire shadow plane could go darker. Now, initially, I drew it as a number four value. But in looking at the reference photo, it appears to me to be closer to a 4.5 value or perhaps a bit darker. Remember, the five step value scale is merely a starting point. We use the five step value scale to organize the values. To give us a reasonable approximation, but the specifics of light and shadow can change depending on the color of the object. Even ambient light in the room can affect how light or dark any shadow appears. You see I'm also darkening the reflected shadow. This darkening of both the cast shadow and the form shadows is creating a much more dramatic effect. I also want to pay close attention to the edges of the cast shadow. Right underneath the cube, the edge of the cast shadow appears hard edged. But remember, the further away we get from the object, the more it begins to soften. By the time we get to the penumbra, the edge of the cast shadow is quite soft. That being said, it still has a definite and discernible shape. Now it is very likely that I will come back and make further refinements to this drawing, but I think this is starting to work. The values represented in the drawing are starting to match what I'm seeing in the reference photo. Now let's move on to the cylinder. On this particular cylinder, we see a center light but not a highlight. Nevertheless, the first step is to clean up the area that I'm going to apply white pencil. Remember, we don't want any dark pigment in these areas. I'm even going to knock back the edge where the flat circular plane at the top of the cylinder meets the rounded shaft. I want the value of the flat plane at the top and the rounded shaft to meet. I don't want a dark line between them. Once these areas have been cleaned up, I'm ready to use my white pencil. I'll begin with the center light. The center light will be brightest on this left edge because the light is coming from the left. The center light is going to be nearly but not quite a number one value. But remember, as the center light gets further away from the light source and approaches the line of termination, it is going to get dimmer. Once again, you'll see me slowly build up these values. I'm making multiple passes to help obscure individual strokes. Now, you'll notice an area right here where I'm leaving the cylinder the color of the paper. Remember, we want to smooth gradation from the brightest value of the center light to the line of termination. I'm going to brighten the left edge of the cylinder just a little more, just to make that center light stand out and really shine. But I'm being careful not to brighten it to a number one value. Remember, the number one value will be reserved for highlights only. Hopefully, you can already start to see how much the addition of the center light makes the cylinder appear round. Next, I'll add some light on the top plane of the cylinder. This top plane is receiving direct light from the light source, but because the light is coming more from the side, the center light will appear brighter than the top plane. The top plane is receiving light less directly. Now, once again, we have made our first pass at all values. Now it's time to refine the drawing. Once again, I'm immediately noticing that the cast shadow could be darkened. And the number five value of the cast shadow can be extended much further into it. When I draw, I rarely darken the cast shadow all the way to its darkest values on my first pass. I like to save this for the refinement stage. This is because experience has taught me that changes often need to be made to the shape of the cast shadow. And remember, once something has been darkened, it is very difficult to lighten it. Here you see me sharpening the edge right at the base of the cylinder. But the further we get out, the cast shadow becomes more diffused. I feel like the cast shadow is now starting to work better. It's darker overall and its edges are more refined. I also think that the form shadows can be darkened. This edge right here where the right side of the shaft of the cylinder meets the top plane, I think could be quite a bit darker. It is nearly but not quite a number five value. I also feel like the whole form shadow could drop down in value just a little bit, and I think the core shadow could be darkened slightly near the top. I'm also going to add just a little bit of value in the midtone area. Remember, right now, the midtone is mostly just the color of the paper, but by adding just a little dark pigment, it helps to create a more rounded effect. I also want to sharpen this edge of the cylinder just a little bit. Once again, during the process of refinement, you want to look back and forth from your drawing to the reference photo to see how they differ. You want to ask yourself what changes you can make in your drawing so that it better reflects the values you're observing on the reference. You should be doing this regardless of whether your reference is a photograph or a real life setup with a real object and a real light source. Once again, I think it is very possible that I will come back and refine this drawing further, but I really think this drawing is starting to work. I'm going to add just a little more white value at the top plane. Once again, I will brighten the center light just slightly, but I'm not yet bearing down on the tip of the pencil, bringing it to its full brightness. Now that I've done most of the refinement for the cylinder, let's move on to the sphere. Here we are back at the sphere. The first step is to clean up any pigment that might be in the area you're going to draw with white pencil. This includes the axis line that we drew at the very beginning. You may not be able to remove every tiny bit of pigment, but you want to get pretty close. Now the sphere has both a center light and a highlight. You can clearly see in the reference that the center light is brightest on this upper left edge. The center light dims as it gets closer to the line of termination, and we can see a curved area of mid tone right next to the line of termination. I'm going to begin with the center light. If we were to draw a line perpendicular to the axis line for the line of termination, we would find that the center light was brightest at the end of that line. I'll begin by defining the edge of the center light. And making sure it gets gradually dimmer the closer we get to the line of termination. Once again, I'm varying the direction of my lines to make sure that no individual lines stand out. I'm being very careful not to apply any white pencil in the curved area for the midtone. With each new pass, the center light appears to get a little brighter and a little more refined. Hopefully you can see that even without the highlight, this makes the sphere appear much more rounded. I will likely come back and brighten the center light more, but now it is time to place the highlight. The highlight appears to be approximately one third of the way from the edge of the sphere to the line of termination. This is the one area where I'm going to bear down on the tip of the pencil. I want to bring the highlight to a full number one value. This highlight appears circular and has diffused edges. Now, I find it much easier to draw the highlight after I've drawn the center light. Now with all five values represented, I can begin to refine. First, I think the center light needs to appear brighter. I think these values are really starting to pull together. With the brightening of the center light, the highlight doesn't appear quite so intense. Remember, it can take a lot of back and forth to get the values in your drawing to reflect what you see in the reference. I want you to take note of how many passes of white pencil I'm going through. Remember, shading is a process of layering. I rarely attempt to nail the exact right value the first time. Next, it's time to refine the shadows. Just like before, I think the cast shadow could go darker and I think the core shadow could drop down to a 4.5 value. I also think the reflected light could be a little darker. I'm also going to add a small amount of value in the midtone area. I want to soften this transition just a little bit. This refinement is incredibly common and necessary. You should not expect to properly draw each and every value the first time. As I've mentioned in previous courses, when I draw, I will often take a break for hours if not days and come back to the drawing with fresh eyes. Well, I think this refinement is paying off. I think this drawing is looking more and more realistic. The illusion of a volumetric sphere lit by a single light source is really starting to come through. Once again, I'm going to soften this area by adding a little more value to the mid tone. I'm going to further darken the occlusion shadow right underneath the sphere. As I stated before, I think it is very likely I will come back and refine this drawing further, but I really think it's starting to work. The illusion of light and shadow is really starting to come through. Now one thing you've heard me say over and over in this course is that drawing the shadows is the same whether you're using toned paper or white paper, but drawing in the light is different on white paper. Now let's head to a sphere drawn on white paper. When you draw on white paper, instead of adding the light with a white pencil, you actually need to apply dark pigment to the mid tone as well as the dimmer areas of the center light. To create a highlight, instead of adding white pencil, you're just going to leave the highlight area, the white of the paper. Just like before, we do want to clean up any stray lines on the lit side of the line of termination. Once this is done, I'm ready to start drawing the center light. Now on white paper, drawing the center light is a bit reversed. I'm actually going to start at the midtone value and I'm going to progressively get lighter as I approach the center light. Now, the process of layering is very similar. Now, as you approach the center light, you need to be aware of where the highlight is going to be. You actually have two options for drawing the highlight. You can draw around the highlight, leaving the high light area white, or you can do your best to draw the center light evenly and then come back and erase the highlight. This is the approach I'm going to take. Now remember, the midtone area should not drop below about a number two value. We want to keep a clear division between light and shadow, even though we're using the same pencil to create all values. Once again, this layering process is starting to take shape. The more passes I make the more even the center light appears to become. Of course, just like before, I'll be refining these values in just a little bit. Remember, even the brightest area of the center light is still going to contain a small amount of dark pigment. That is because it is not quite a number one value. The only area that should be a pure white number one value is the highlight. As you can see, I've tried to draw an even center light. Now I need to erase the highlight out of it. I'll begin with the needed eraser. I'm going to shape it into a circular tip and I'm going to place it where the highlight is going to be, I'm going to begin by lifting out the pigment. Hopefully, you can see the highlight coming through. I'm going to use the kneaded eraser to soften this edge just a little bit. Finally, I'm going to use a vinyl eraser to really remove any remaining pigment from the highlight area. We can now see the highlights starting to come through. Now, just like with the other drawings, it is time to refine the values. I think that both the core shadow and the reflected light could be darker. I'll drop the core shadow down to about a 4.5 value. I'm also going to drop the value of the reflected light. I'll also darken the mid tone. This will help accentuate the center light. From this point on the refinement process is very similar. Just need to remember that to draw the center light, you will be drawing the mid tone values and the dimmer areas of value of the center light. Of course, for the highlight, you are simply going to leave that area of the drawing white. Now the white of the paper shines through quite a bit. This means that you may need to spend more time layering your dark pigment to produce darker values. But nevertheless, the shading process remains remarkably similar. Hopefully, this gives you a sense of how to draw light values on a white sheet of paper. This demo has completed your fundamental knowledge of shading. Now it's time for you to apply these steps in your own drawings. Here is your project for today. I want you to complete your three shaded drawings of the primary solids, just as you saw me demonstrate a moment ago. For each of these three drawings, you will begin by drawing the light. Once you have addressed the highlight, the center light, and the midtones, it will then be time to refine all of the values. Whether you're working from photo reference or from real life, you want to compare your drawing to the reference and try and capture all of the richness and variation in values that you observe. You can even shade in some of the surface that the objects are resting upon. Once you've completed these three drawings, it will be time once again to draw in your light logic sketchbook. So for the second part of your project, you will do three quick sketches of each of the primary solids. Each solid should be lit in three different ways. In these sketches, you will go through the entire shading process. Once again, I want you to start all new drawings, even if you end up repeating similar lighting scenarios. Remember, this repetition is purposeful. You need to familiarize yourself with the shading process to the point it becomes automatic. You do not want to have to think about. Working back and forth between these longer, more finished drawings and quick sketches is one of the best ways to do that. Again, this process needs to become second nature. Upon completing this lesson and its projects, you will understand the entire shading process. This process will form the foundation of every drawing you do. Regardless of the subject, you will find that you can apply the same light and shadow principles that you learned while studying the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder. Once you know how to shade the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder, you can extrapolate that knowledge to any other subject no matter how complex. It doesn't matter what you want to draw and shade. You will be able to use the light and shadow patterns you just learned about. They are fundamental. This is why I've been having you practice them over and over again. For the rest of this course, I'm going to show you how to apply these basic light and shadow principles to any subject. In the next lesson, you're going to learn how to apply this shading process to more complex subjects. You'll also learn how to apply this process to multiple subjects that have been grouped together. This is where shading starts to get very interesting. I look forward to seeing you there. 8. Beyond the Basics: Welcome to Lesson six. So far, you have learned how light operates on spheres, cubes, and cylinders. But of course, you want to go beyond these more basic three dimensional forms. In this lesson, we're going to explore how light operates on more complex subjects. We're also going to group objects together to see how that changes the light and shadow conditions. You'll also see me demonstrate the entire shading process start to finish. By the end of this lesson, you should have a much more sophisticated mental model for how light and shadow operate. You'll also have a shading process that you can apply to any subject. Now, one quick note before we begin. In this lesson, I'm not going to outline every light and shadow condition like I have in the previous lessons. You need to be able to look at these objects and figure out the shadow shapes and values on your own without any aids. Today, I will be pointing out the areas that we're looking at, but again, I'm not going to be outlining the specific shapes. Sometimes I'm going to leave it to you to figure out what value the light and shadow conditions are. Remember, when you draw on your own, you're not going to have any help. You need to be able to discern light and shadow shapes and values all on your own. With that in mind, I'd like to begin this lesson by introducing two additional solids, the cone and the ovoid. I've already covered how to draw the basic shapes of these solids in my drawing and three dimensions course. Here, we are going to focus on shading them. First, let's take a look at the ovoid. The ovoid is essentially an elongated sphere. The light and shadow patterns on an ovoid are very similar to those on a sphere. On the upper right, we still see a crescent shaped core shadow, and to the left of that, we see the more narrow tail of the core shadow. The tail of the core shadow stretches along the length of the ovoid, appearing straighter than it would on a sphere. The reflected light also stretches along the length of the ovoid. Now this lesson is all about expanding your knowledge and understanding of light and shadow. I also want to point out that this ovoid is made of unfinished wood, so it's not as reflective as the plaster sphere we've been working with in previous lessons. As such, the highlight is not as bright or as defined, but it's still detectable. Now let's move on to the cone. Light and shadow patterns on a cone are very similar to those on a cylinder, both solids having round shafts with straight edges. The difference is that the cone tapers toward one end. As such, the light and shadow patterns appear triangular. The form shadows taper to a point as they approach the top of the cone and the cast shadow is triangular. Other than this more triangular geometry, cones and cylinders light very similarly. Before we move on, I want to take this opportunity to explore what happens when we group two objects together in close proximity and how this can impact the reflected light in the cast shadows. Here, we see the cone on its own. Take a look at the right bottom edge of the cone. I want you to note that we see very little reflected light. The shaft of the cone angles away from the ground plane the cone is resting upon, so very little light is able to reflect up onto it. Keeping your eye on the bottom right of the cone, watch what happens when we place an ovoid next to it. Did you see the reflected light near the base of the cone brighten? Watch again as I remove the ovoid and bring it back once more. Light is traveling down from the light source, hitting the surface of the ovoid and reflecting onto the right side of the cone. In this lesson, you're going to see many examples of light reflecting off nearby objects and brightening anything in its path. Because these two objects are made of unfinished wood, they are not particularly reflective, so the reflected light isn't very bright, but it is still observable. You'll see examples of brighter reflected light in just a moment. I'm going to remove the ovoid once again. Now I'd like to call your attention to the cast shadow. Here we can clearly see that the cast shadow of the cone is triangular with straight edges, meaning at a point on the far right. Now watch what happens to the cast shadow as I bring the ovoid back. The cast shadow now curves up and over the surface of the ovoid. In the previous lessons, you learn that the shape of the cast shadow is determined by the shape of the object, and this is true. But the surface the shadow is cast upon also impacts its shape. Here, the cast shadow of the cone is still triangular, but its edges are curved because it is cast over a round object. Now let's take a look at a cone paired with another solid, an octagonal prism. Unlike the wood cone and ovoid, these two forms are made from bright white plaster, so we see even more light reflected from the octagonal prism onto the right side of the cone. Because of this, we see a clear core shadow on the cone. Now look at the cast shadow of the cone. Can see its straight edges folding over the flat planes of the prism. Hopefully, this gives you a sense of how much the shape of the cast shadow can be impacted by the shape of the surface it's casting over. Before you start shading any subject, you need to analyze it to figure out what's going on with the light and shadow patterns. Remember, the more you understand about how light and shadow operate on objects, the more likely you are to draw a much more nuanced and accurate depiction of these light and shadow patterns. Now let's take a look at a composite object, an object made up of two or more forms. Here we see a horizontal cylinder intersecting a cone. On both the cone and the cylinder, we find familiar light and shadow patterns. But when these solids are joined, we find some fascinating variations. In addition to the cast shadow we find on the surface the object is resting upon, there are two areas where this form is casting shadows over itself. On the right side of the cylinder, we can clearly see the shadow cast by the triangular top of the cone. Note that this triangular shadow is slightly curved as it is cast over the curving shaft of the cylinder. This cast shadow is nearly as dark as the shadow cast on the ground plane. The reason it is not quite as dark as the shadow cast on the ground plane is because the ground plane is a darker value than the white of the plaster. The takeaway here is that the value of the cast shadow can be affected by the value of the surface it is casting over. With this in mind, let's take a look at the shadow the cylinder is casting over the bottom left area of the cone. This shadow takes the shape of the cylinder casting it with straight sides and a rounded end. Just like before, we see a subtle curve to the straighter sides of the cast shadow as it curves over the surface of the cone. I'd like you to note that this cast shadow is a brighter value than the other shadow this form is casting over itself. This is primarily due to reflected light. Light is bouncing off of the ground plane and brightening this cast shadow. This same reflected light is brightening the underside of the left side of the cylinder. Compare the value of the underside of the left side of the cylinder to that of the right. Hopefully, you can see that the underside of the right side of the cylinder appears darker. This is because the right side is receiving less reflected light. Directly below the right side of the cylinder is mostly shadow. But underneath the left side of the cylinder, everything is lit. In addition to light reflecting off of the ground plane, there is also light reflecting off of the side of the cone itself and lighting the underside of the cylinder. So in order to properly shade this form, we must make each cast shadow a slightly different value. We also need each area of reflected light to be a bit different. Now, this brings us to an important decision. When you shade, you need to decide whether or not you want to simplify your values or draw the entire range of values that you actually observe. For most drawings, you can keep the value simple. It should work in most drawings to keep all reflected light a number three value, to keep all core shadows a number four value, and to keep all cast shadows a number five value. Now, if you simplify your light and shadow patterns, your drawings will be believable. However, they won't capture all of the sophistication in detail as a more nuanced light and shadow pattern. Simplifying the light and shadow patterns is easier to shade, but it won't produce drawings that are quite as believable or accurate. Is entirely up to you. My job is to make sure you understand how light and shadow works so you can make your drawings as nuanced and sophisticated as you like. I just wanted to make sure you understood that keeping your value simple is an option. There are a few more things I'd like to address before we get to today's project. Now, let's return to our composite form, the cylinder intersecting the cone. Here, I've made one simple change. I have rotated the object so that it is facing a different direction. Other than that, the position has not changed, nor has the position of the light source. The only thing that has changed is the rotation of the object. But hopefully you can see that the light and shadow patterns appear completely different. My hope is that this gives you a sense of how dramatically different light and shadow present on objects depending on their position. When you light your own subject, I recommend trying many different positions for the object and the light source. You need to decide what kind of light and shadow patterns you want in your drawings. Now I'd like to look at one more set of solids before we get to the demo. Here, we have a cone on the left, an octagonal prism on the right, and a dodecahedron in the center. Dodecahedron may seem complex, but it follows the same rules as the cube. Each plane has its own value and is evenly lit across the entire surface. Once you draw the shape of the dodecahedron, shading it is pretty straightforward. You just need to figure out which value on the scale each plane is closest to and adjust the values accordingly. You'll see me demonstrate this later on in this lesson. Now let's take a look at the reflected light. We can see light coming down from the source, bouncing off of the plane on the left side of the dotecahedron, and reflecting onto the right side of the cone. Because these forms are made of bright white plaster, the reflected light appears very bright. But even with the reflected light being this bright, you can still see a clear division between the light and shadow values on this cone. We also see another interesting example of reflected light in this image. Look to the immediate left of the dodecahedron. On the ground plane, we see an area of brightness. This occurs because the down facing plane of the dotecahedron is reflecting light onto the ground plane. When you're drawing, it is very easy to miss these subtle shifts in light and shadow if you don't know what you're looking for. There's one more thing I'd like to explore. Now, take a look at the shadow plane on the right side of the octagonal prism. Ask yourself, is this plane the same value all the way across or is one side of this plane brighter than the other? To the uninitiated, it seems obvious that the right side of this plane is brighter and the left side is darker. But this is merely an optical illusion. In reality, this plane is the same value all the way across. It appears darker on the left because of the bright white plane immediately to its left. It appears brighter on the right because of the nearly black plane immediately to its right. But watch what happens when we isolate part of this plane. Hopefully now you can see that it is approximately the same value from side to side. Why is this important? If you properly capture the values in your drawings, this optical illusion will occur automatically. You should not try to draw a plane like this so that one side is actually brighter than the other. My goal in this lesson is to teach you to think through more complex light and shadow patterns. But hopefully, you've realized that everything you've learned today is merely an extension of what you've learned in the previous lessons. I haven't introduced any new light or shadow conditions. I've simply shown you how they can present differently when we increase the complexity. So now it's time to show you how to apply all of this in your own drawings. You're about to see me go through a series of demos based on the images that we've analyzed in this lesson. In the first demo, you'll see me shade a cone and an ovoid. In this demonstration, I'm going to go through the entire shading process so you can see how to apply it to a complex subject. Now, this is the first time I will have demonstrated the entire shading process start to finish. Before we get to the demo, I want to lay out the entire shading process phase by phase so you understand what it is you're about to see phase one. Draw all basic shapes that make up the subject, including cast shadow shapes. Phase two, divide light from shadow by first drawing the line of termination and then darkening all shadow areas to approximately a number three value. Phase three, darken the core shadows and the cast shadows. Phase four, draw the midtones, center lights and highlights, and finally, phase five, refine the values. This is the process that you're about to see me demonstrate. This is also the process that I recommend you use throughout the rest of this course and possibly after that. Whether I'm teaching or not, the shading process I've just laid out is the same shading process I tend to use in every single drawing I do. I do occasionally deviate to some degree, but this is the shading process that makes the most sense to me. I use it even when I'm doing complex figure drawings. Now, after this initial demonstration of the cone and the egg, I'm going to do a couple of other demonstrations to make sure you understand how to handle some of the variations you're likely to find when you practice all of this on your own. With all of this in mind, let's head to the drawing board for a demonstration. The first phase of the shading process is to draw all of the shapes necessary. I have already drawn the basic shapes for the cone and the ovoid. I have also drawn the shapes for the cast shadows with the exception of the shadow that curves up the surface of the ovoid. I wanted to show you how to draw this cast shadow in the demo. Using a light soft line, I am going to first sketch in the basic shape of the shadow. Remember, this is a curving triangle. Make it a little thicker at the bottom. The reason I wanted to draw the shape of this cast shadow in the demo is just because it can be a little confusing to see the object that's casting the shadow, in this case, a cone with straight edges and translate that onto the surface of a curved object. You just need to pay a little extra attention as you craft these kinds of cast shadow shapes. They can be a little counterintuitive. Now we have all of the basic shapes necessary for shading. We have the shapes of the objects themselves, as well as the shapes of the cast shadows. The cast shadow for the ovoid is, of course, an oval. The cast shadow of the cone begins as a triangle. But it's intersected by the ovoid. Instead of the tip of the cast shadow being on the ground plane, we see it climb up the surface of the ovoid. I want to call your attention to this area right here. Part of the cast shadow of the cone is underneath the ovoid. This means that there's a bit of a distance from where we see the cast shadow disappear under the ovoid and where we see it reappear. Again, these are the details you need to pay close attention to in your drawings. With phase one handled, it's time to move on to phase two. For phase two, we need to divide light from shadow. To do this, we're first going to draw the line of termination on each object. In the previous lessons, we've been focusing on single objects, but with multiple objects, we need to draw all of the lines of termination for all objects. Line of termination on the cone is, of course, going to be straight. I want to pay close attention to how much of the cone is in shadow. In this drawing, about two thirds of the cone is going to be in the light and one third of the cone is going to be in shadow. Now, this cone has a slightly rounded top that's almost spherical. The line of termination cuts over just a little bit. The bottom of the cone is also rounded underneath. You can see that the base of the cone is also rounded. This means that the line of termination travels along the bottom. Next, I need to draw the line of termination on the ovoid. I can see it curving around like this. Now with the ovoid in this particular position and the light source where it is, this line of termination appears very spherical. We're not seeing the core shadow as elongated as we saw earlier in this lesson. Now that I've drawn the lines of termination, to finish dividing life from shadow, I'm going to shade all shadow areas at about a number three value. Using the side of my pencil, I am going to lay a light wash of value in all shadow areas. Remember, the number three value is the lightest shadow value. So it's safe to assume that no shadow values are going to be lighter than this. This is why we begin with a number three value. Now, in addition to shading in the form shadows, next, I'll lay down a number three value in the form shadow area of the egg. Remember, you can always make shadows darker, but it is difficult to lighten them. This is why we want to start our shading gently. We really want to make sure it's working before we darken the values. Now, in addition to darkening the form shadows, I'm also going to darken the cast shadows. Now when I do this, I'm actually going to darken them with a number four value, and I'm going to have them get a little lighter as they get away from the objects. The number four value is the lightest value we are likely to find in a cast shadow. Remember, my goal here is to simply start the values. I'm not trying to capture the value that each shadow will be at the end of the drawing. Remember, shading is a process of layering. We're going to do a lot of refinement as the drawing goes on. Laying our first passive value at a number four in the cast shadows also helps to differentiate the edges of the objects and the beginning of the cast shadows. Of course, we don't want to forget the cast shadow climbing up the surface of the ovoid. At this point, we have successfully divided light from shadow. I first drew the line of termination and then shaded in all shadow areas. The form shadows I shaded in at roughly a number three value and the cast shadows I shaded in at roughly a number four value. I want you to take note of how rough the drawing looks at this stage. Many beginners often assume that a drawing should look good at all stages and that could not be further from the truth. Now, even though the shading is rough, it's already starting to work. It already adds some dimension to this drawing. Now we're ready to move on to phase three. We're going to darken the core shadows and cast shadows. I'm going to begin by darkening the core shadow on the cone. I'm going to draw a straight band of shadow. Remember, the core shadow on the cone is also triangular. It's more narrow at the top and widens at the base of the cone. I want to make sure there's a nice long gradation from the core shadow to the reflected light. Now a quick note here, in order for there to be a core shadow, we must have reflected light. They come as a pair. But in this particular setup, we're seeing far more reflected light near the base of the cone than at the top. The entire top of the cone appears to be closer to a number four value. It has very little reflected light. We really start to see the reflected light at the base of the cone. And this is where we really start to see the separation from the core shadow to the reflected light. I also want to make sure that I soften the edge at the line of termination. Now remember, later on, we're going to go through a process of refinement. At this point, we're not attempting to capture the final values. I like to take it slow and eyeshade. I like to make sure that the light and shadow patterns are working at each step of the way before I darken too much. This is about as far as I'm going to take the cone so far. Next, I'm going to darken the cast shadow. I'll begin here at the occlusion shadow at the base of the cone. Now is the time to darken this shadow to its full number five value. Now I want you to note that this cast shadow comes quite far below the cone itself. I want to make sure that I'm darkening the full length of the cast shadow seen underneath the cone. I want to be very careful next to the edge of the ovoid. I don't want to get any dark pigment in the lit area of the ovoid. Next, I'll darken the cast shadow. Now I'll shift to the core shadow of the ovoid. First, I'll define the shape of the core shadow. Here is that larger crescent shape here, followed by the more narrow tail. So here you'll see me darken the core shadow to about a number four value, and I'll lighten it as it travels down to the bottom of the ovoid, and I'll create a nice gradation from the core shadow to the reflected light. Next, I'll darken the cast shadow of the ovoid. Here I'm bearing down on the tip of my pencil to bring the cast shadow to a full number five value. At this stage, I also need to pay attention to shadow edges. Remember, the cast shadow is going to be sharpest right underneath the objects casting them and then become more diffuse the further away they get. Now, of course, I'll refine the shapes and values of these cast shadows further in just a little bit. Finally, I'm going to darken the cast shadow climbing up the surface of the ovoid. At the base of it, I'll pull it down to a number five value. And get a little lighter as it travels up. Once again, I'm going to make the edge a little firmer near the base and it can get a little more diffused as it gets further away. Now, there is a lot of refinement that eventually needs to happen, but these values are starting to work. With the core shadows and cast shadows starting to work, it's time to move on to phase four. In phase four, we're going to draw in the light. Now, just like on toned paper, I am going to clean the areas of light. You can see that I still have some construction lines from earlier in the drawing. I'm going to knock those back. Now because we're drawing on white paper, I'm going to need to apply pigment in order to capture both the mid tones and the center lights. Now, because both of these forms are made of unfinished wood, we don't see any really bright highlights. Nevertheless, we can see a brighter area about right here on the ovoid. I want to make sure that there's little to no pigment in that area. First, I'll draw the center light on the cone. You can see that the cone is brightest on this left edge and it gets progressively dimmer as we approach the line of termination. To draw this, I'm going to start at the line of termination and add small amounts of value, and I'm going to allow this value to become lighter and lighter as I approach the left edge. As always, shading is a process of layering, so I'm going to make multiple passes. I'm varying the direction of my strokes to make sure that no individual line is too prominent. Drawing the center light is a great way to start to add subtlety. That I've made my first pass at the center light on the cone, I'll add the center light to the ovoid. I'm planning on erasing out any highlight later on. This allows me to more freely draw the center light in the midtones. The center light is brightest near this upper left edge. Just as a reminder, the darkest areas on the lit side of the line of termination are going to be the mid tones. The mid tones occur right next to the line of termination, but even these mid tones should never drop below a number three value. Remember, we want to keep a clear division between light and shadow. The only values that should be in the shadows are three to five. Any value above a three should only be found on the lit side of the line of termination. We don't see any highlight on the cone, but we do have this brighter area on the ovoid right here. I'm going to use my kneaded eraser to lift out some of that value. But because this isn't a really bright highlight, I don't need to erase the value entirely. To me, that's looking about right. At this stage, all of our values have been addressed. It is now time to enter phase five refinement. Now, this phase can take the longest. In this phase, we're going to compare the drawing to the reference. We do this regardless of whether you're drawing from a real still life setup or a reference photo. Now, it is very likely in phase five that we will need to deviate from the five step value scale. For example, the top of the core shadow of the ovoid appears darker than a number four value. It's closer to, but not quite a number five value. Now this is very common for these areas of the core shadow. I'm going to darken that value. We can also see that the reflected light on the underside of the ovoid is much dimmer than a number three. It appears closer to a number four, so I'm going to darken this reflected light as well. The reflected light does get brighter at the very bottom of the ovoid, but up here, it's rather dark. But these refinements really start to add subtlety to your drawings, makes them look much more believable and sophisticated. Since I'm down here, I'm going to darken the edge between the ovoid and the cast shadows. Really want to make sure this edge stands out. I'm also going to refine the transition from the core shadow to the midtones. Right now it's looking a little rough. I want to smooth it out just a little bit. One thing I'd like you to note is that I am not smudging any of my shading lines. It's very common for people want to get their fingers in their drawings and smudge the value, but this isn't something I really recommend. By layering your line work, you should be able to achieve a pretty smooth effect. I think this reflected light could go even darker. Now we'll do the same thing on the core shadow of the cone. Once again, you're the top of the core shadow, we find something closer to a number five value than a number four. It's not quite as dark as a number five, but it's definitely darker than a number four. And this dark value continues on until we get closer to the reflected light at the bottom. I'm going to darken the entire shadow area at the top of the cone. In fact, I think the entire core shadow on the cone could get a little bit darker. Remember, the five step value scale is merely a starting point. At this stage of the drawing, we are adjusting these values to make sure they reflect what we actually see on the objects like on the egg, I think the reflected light on the cone should be quite a bit darker. I am going to now darken the reflected light area. Once again, this is adding a lot of subtlety and sophistication to the light and shadow patterns. For the most part, the more subtlety and detail we can capture in the shadows, the more believable the light and shadow patterns will appear. I think these refinements are really starting to pay off. Next, I'm going to refine the values and the shape of the cast shadow moving over the ovoid. I'm going to sharpen the edges of this shadow at the base of the ovoid and soften the edges near the top. The top of the shadow is quite diffused. Now if you get any excess pigment in your drawing while shading, you can always clean up the edges with a needed eraser. Now with the core shadows and cast shadows darkened, I'm also going to darken the mid tones just a little bit. Hopefully you can really start to see the values coming out now. Now, this refinement process can go on for quite some time. Often in my drawings, the refinement process can be just as long, if not longer as all of the previous four steps combined. Now at this stage, it's critical to note that the background itself has a value. In fact, for the light and shadow to appear correct, the background needs to have some value. Once you've done a good amount of refinement to the form shadows and cast shadows of the objects, you can start to add value in the background. Now, how far you really go with this process is entirely up to you. But adding value in the background is the final step that will truly bring your drawing to life. Now immediately upon adding value to the background, we can see the edge of the cone really stand out against the darker value. Now, some of the darkest values in the background are actually right behind the ovoid. Now, just like the rest of the drawing, these initial shading lines for the background will appear pretty rough. Once again, this is completely normal. I'm going to take a moment to sharpen the right edge of the cone to make sure it really stands out against the background. Again, this stage of refinement can go on for quite some time. At this point, I'm going to continue to fill in the background. We'll check back in with this drawing later on in this lesson. But for now, let's move on to another demo. So here we have a very similar drawing. But instead of an ovoid next to the cone, we have an octagonal prism. Now, I've already gone through most of the shading process, but I wanted to focus on the cast shadow of the cone. This section of the cast shadow appears trapezoidal on this plane. The top of the cast shadow is, of course, triangular. On the lowest plane of the prism, the cast shadow angles dramatically downward and meets the cast shadow on the ground plane. We see the same thing here. This area of the cast shadow is going to be very dark, nearly a number five value. It appears to merge with the cast shadow on the ground plane. Now, this section of the cast shadow is actually brighter. This is probably closer to a number four value. The reason this part of the cast shadow is brighter is because it's receiving some reflected light from the ground plane. We have light traveling down, hitting the surface that these objects are sitting upon, bouncing up and lighting this cast shadow. So this part of the cast shadow is dark, but it is not as dark as the cast shadows below it. The triangular top area of the cast shadow is darker at nearly a number five value. The reason this area of the cast shadow appears darker than this area is because this plane is angled upward and is not receiving reflected light off the ground plane. Hopefully, situations like this give you a sense of how important it is to understand how light works. By understanding the logic of light, you'll be much more likely to pick up on these subtle details. Before we move on, there are two other things I'd like to show you. First, each plane of the octagonal prism has a different value. This plane here is receiving the most light. It is nearly a number one value, but I am going to add a tiny amount of value just so it's not at a high light value because of course, this is not a highlight. This plane is the next brightest. It's probably around a 1.5 value. Plane on the top is still receiving light directly from the source, but it is less direct light. This is closer to a number two value. Of course, this plane is in shadow. It is not receiving any direct light and little reflected light. This plane underneath is close to a number two value. Despite the fact that the octagonal prism is more complex than a cube, it follows the same rules of light and shadow. Now, of course, these cast shadow edges are a bit diffused, so I'm going to soften them with my pencil. Right here, we can see a subtle bit of value as the penumbra slips over the top, subtle and interesting detail. The last thing I want to show you is how much more reflected light this cone is receiving than the cone in the previous drawing. If you remember, the cone in the previous drawing barely showed a core shadow. But here, because these objects are made of plaster and are a very bright white, this area of the cone is receiving a lot more reflected light from the octagonal prism. Now, of course, this drawing has a long way to go. I have not yet begun the refinement process for these values, but hopefully you can see that they're starting to work. One of the challenges of drawing on white paper is you are responsible for all of the values, even the values that occur in the background of the drawing. Drawing all of these values can take a very long time. In the next demo, we are once again going to be drawing on gray paper. So here we see a drawing on dark gray paper. This paper is quite a bit darker than the paper we've been working on. Whenever you use a new value or color of paper, I recommend creating a value scale before you do any shading. This sheet of paper is pretty close to a number three value. Remember, the number three value is our reflected light value. I've already done quite a bit of work on this drawing, but I wanted to point a few things out. Here, we have a dodecahedron, a 12 sided solid. Once again, despite its complexity, it still follows the same basic rules of a cube. Each plane has its own value. This plane is receiving the most light, so it is pretty close to a number one value. But of course, this plane is not as bright as a highlight, so I'm not bearing down on the tip of the pencil. But this value is pretty close to a number one, probably about 1.5 on our value scale. This top plane is pretty close to a number two value. This top plane is still receiving direct light, but the light it's receiving is not as direct as the light this plane is receiving. This plane is in shadow and is closer to a number four value. Now to achieve a number four value on this dark gray paper, I don't have to press nearly as hard as I do when I'm drawing on white paper. This is one of the reasons I enjoy drawing on toned and colored paper. I find it easier to achieve the values I want. I also think that adding light with white pencil makes the lit areas glow. This down facing plane is also in shadow, but it is receiving some reflected light from the ground plane. I think it needs to go just a tiny bit darker than it is. Here I'm adding a small amount of value to this plane. I think this makes a subtle but important difference. I'm doing my best to shade in this plane evenly. But here, once again, we have the illusion that this part of the plane is darker and this part is brighter. But remember not to be fooled. This illusion is created because this plane is very bright. By contrast, it makes this part of the plane appear darker. Of course, this plane and this plane are very dark. By contrast, they make this area of this down facing plane appear brighter. I've also worked hard to make sure that this plane was evenly shaded. This plane is in the light and needs a little more light added to it. Remember, if we capture the values properly, these optical illusions will be automatic. You don't want to go out of your way to make this side of this plane darker and this side lighter. If you properly capture the values, this illusion will occur automatically. Now, once again, this drawing needs quite a bit of refinement, but the values are starting to work. Because the paper itself is so dark, I don't need to draw all of the value in the background. It is already taken care of for me. The last thing I want to show you is this area here. We can see just a sliver of this lit down facing plane. We have light coming down from the light source, hitting this plane, bouncing down, and adding a small amount of light to the ground plane. I find this to be a fascinating contrast to the dark cast shadow on the other side of the dodecahedron. Once again, I want to reiterate, you are much more likely to find and draw these subtleties if you understand how light and shadow work. This is why we spend so much time 9. Shading Natural Forms: Welcome to Lesson seven. So far in this course, we've been studying the fundamentals of light and shadow on simple solids like spheres, cylinders, and cubes. But now it's time to move away from these more simple forms and start to apply the shading process to more complex objects. In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to apply the shading process to natural organic forms. Natural objects are objects that are formed by nature. They include things like plants, animals, minerals, and people. Natural objects deviate gloriously from the more perfect machine forms that we've been studying so far. So in this lesson, we're going to be focusing on simple natural objects like fruits and vegetables. By studying these simple forms, you'll develop the skills necessary to draw much more complex natural objects like botanicals, animals, and even people. But first, you need to understand how to apply the shading process to these more basic natural forms. Natural forms share many of the characteristics of the basic solids that we've been working with, but they tend to have a lot more irregularities. There are lumps, bumps, and crevices, but these are the things that make naturalistic objects so beautiful to look at. To get a better sense of what I mean, let's compare a sphere and an apple. For all intents and purposes, a sphere is perfect. It has no irregularities that deviate from a perfectly even and rounded surface. On the other hand, an apple is spherical, but it is certainly not a perfect sphere. This apple is taller than it is wide and has many bulges. There is a depression at the top, and of course, every apple is different. We could continue to look at Apple after apple and never find two that are identical. Each apple would essentially be spherical but would deviate from an ideal sphere. These irregularities are what give natural objects their beauty. Apple, of course, has only minor irregularities, but natural objects can be wildly irregular with forms that are highly complex and unpredictable. But with some additional knowledge and practice, you will be able to draw more and more complex naturalistic forms and understand how they operate in light and shadow. Now in this lesson, I'm going to be doing a series of demonstrations to show you how to apply the shading process to different kinds of naturalistic forms. But before we do that, there are a few ideas I'd like to share. First, I want to bring the idea of line quality back into the discussion. In the third course in the drawing laboratory series, I taught line quality, how to use different kinds of lines and marks to describe objects. Now a core part of that course was exploring contour drawing. Now, if you need a refresher on line quality, I highly recommend revisiting the language of line course. In that course, I talk about the different kinds of contours, outer contours, inner contours and cross contours. Also talk about overlaps. You're going to see me apply all of these lines to these shaded objects. In this lesson, I'm going to be combining line quality with the shading process. Drawings that successfully combine light and shadow with dynamic and descriptive contours can be especially beautiful and engaging. Next, I want to talk about local values. Every object has a color and a value. So far in this course, we've been working exclusively with very light objects. We've also been working without color. But in this lesson, I'm going to be drawing objects that have color and darker values. It's important to understand that every color has a value. We refer to how light or dark an object is as its local value. The local value is the value of an object where it is unaffected by extreme light or shadow. You can see the local value best in the midtones. To get a better sense of this, let's take a look at a sphere and a pair. This image is in full color. Here it is obvious that these two objects are different colors, but they are also different values. These values become more apparent when we remove the color and just focus on how light or dark the objects are. Local value refers to how light or dark an object is when it is unaffected by extreme light or shadow. If we ignore the form shadows and the highlights, we can see that the local value of the pair is darker than the local value of the sphere. When drawing an object with a darker local value, the values of the shadows may appear darker but will be similar to those of objects with lighter local values. Where we really see a difference is in the midtones, which must be drawn quite a bit darker when compared to objects with lighter local values. Finally, we will be exploring objects that operate with two or more sets of geometries, a primary geometry that describes the larger form and a secondary geometry that describes the details. Objects even have a tertiary geometry, but we'll get into that a little more during today's demos. To understand what I mean about primary and secondary geometries, let's take a look at a butternut squash. The primary forms that make up this object are spheres and a cylinder. At the top, we see a half sphere. Underneath that we see a cylindrical shaft and at the base, we find a large spherical form. We can see that the light and shadow patterns on the squash follow the rules we would expect them to on spheres and cylinders. But in addition to these larger forms, we also find smaller curved segments traveling up and over the surface of the squash. If we were to draw cross contour lines over the surface of the squash, they would curve up and over each of these individual segments. The light and shadow patterns we see on this object are responding to the larger cylinder and spheres, but also these smaller segments. So when you are drawing more naturalistic forms, it's important for you to be aware of the primary geometry that's driving the overall light and shadow patterns. But you should also be aware of any secondary or tertiary geometries that change and enhance the overall light and shadow patterns. So many natural objects will have combinations of both. Again, you will see me demonstrate all of this today. So with these three ideas in mind, let's head to the drawing board for some demos. Mm hmm. So here we have a simple drawing of an apple. Now, I've already done phase one of the shading process, which is to draw all of the basic shapes. I've worked out the basic shape of the apple itself. It's rather spherical. I've drawn the shape of the cast shadow. It's ovular. I've drawn a subtle indication of the depression at the top, and I've drawn a very light indication of where the stem will emerge. With all of this done, I'm ready for phase two. In phase two, we divide light from shadow. Now, when you're drawing a simple sphere, this is a pretty straightforward thing to do. Find the line of termination where the object goes from light into shadow. But on natural objects, the line of termination can be more complex. If we look at the details on the line of termination and the reference photo, we can see that it's very complicated. We can see numerous variations as it comes in and out all the way along the apple. But despite all of this complexity, when you're drawing more complex forms, I highly recommend simplifying the line of termination first. To start, I'm going to ignore all of those surface details that I see on the line of termination. I'm going to begin with a very simple, light, soft line that simply records the basic shape of the line of termination. Now, this line should appear very familiar to you. This is nearly identical to the line of termination we would find on a sphere. Rather than trying to capture all of the details in the line of termination on my first pass, I've just simplified it. Now, on my second pass, I can start to record all of these smaller details. But this first attempt gives me a simple framework, a path to follow. On the second pass, you can see that I've drawn what appears to be a more serrated edge to this line of termination. Now that the line of termination has been drawn, I'm going to shade in the shadow side at about a number three value. Next, I'm going to darken the cast shadow. But before I do, I need to further define the edge of the apple. Now, this is an excellent opportunity to bring the idea of contours back into the mix. In addition to defining this edge of the apple where it meets the cast shadow, I'm also going to define the edge of the entire apple. Now, of course, I already covered descriptive line quality in my language of line course. If you need a refresher on that, I highly recommend revisiting that course. But I'll describe what I'm drawing. To make an object appear heavier, we can use darker lines at its base. These lines can get lighter as they travel up and around the object. I also want to be sensitive to overlaps. Right here, I can see a line diving inside the contour of the apple just a bit and I can use a darker line to separate the apple from the cast shadow. I'll do more to construct the contours of the apple a little later, but I just wanted to start this process. With the edges more defined, I can now darken the cast shadow. Remember, the cast shadow is an area where you should be bearing down on the tip of the pencil, bringing it down to the darkest possible value at the occlusion shadow. As always, I can go back and refine the cast shadow shape a little later, but I just wanted to establish the darkest dark values in the drawing. This will help me relate all of the other values back to it. With the cast shadow darkened, I will continue on with phase three of the shading process and darken the core shadow. We've already drawn one edge of the core shadow at the line of termination. Now I need to draw the other edge of the core shadow where it meets the reflected light. It two has a more complex form than what we would find on a sphere. With this shape more defined, I'll begin darkening the core shadow to approximately a number four value. I'm also going to define the edge of the apple just a little more. Once again, you're seeing the very mice strokes. Now you'll notice that some of these strokes are following the direction of cross contour lines over the surface of the apple. We can see these lines implying that the surface of the apple goes up and over. Now while darkening the core shadow, I can also add additional details. As we approach the base of the apple, the value of the core shadow gets lighter. This is due to the amount of reflected light bouncing off of the surface the apple is sitting on and lighting the bottom. I want to soften the transition between the core shadow and the reflected light. With a darkened core shadow, the drawing is starting to come to life. Of course, this is not the only area of shadow we find on the apple. We also find a second core shadow in reflected light here. Once again, I'm going to draw some contours to define the edge. I want viewers to be able to feel this depression and from this edge, we see these lines come up and out of that depression and over the surface of the apple. Here we have some nice opportunities for overlaps. We can see a line emerging from the depression of the apple and traveling to the outside contour. This bulge at the top of the apple is rather spherical. Here we see a core shadow as this bulge turns away from the light. We can also see reflected light to its right. Just like before, I'll use directional lines to reinforce the cross contour of the surface of the apple. Before we go on, I wanted to find the stem just a little more. Of course, here we see that the stem is casting a shadow. This shadow travels up and over the surface of the apple. This is what makes natural objects so beautiful and interesting to look at. Have far more variations on these common light and shadow patterns. Of course, even the stem itself is a three dimensional object that has areas of light and shadow. The stem is essentially cylindrical and we see a core shadow running down the stem with a small amount of reflected light to its right. Now that I've made an attempt at all of the shadows on this form, it's time to move on to phase four, where we will draw the midtones, the center light, and the highlight. Now, the paper I'm drawing on is not pure white. It is an off white cream color. First, I want to keep the area where the highlight is going to be value free. This is because this piece of paper is so light, but because it's not perfectly white, I'm also going to add a small amount of white in the highlight. I'll begin with the mid tones. The mid tones are darkest right next to the line of termination. As we move away from the line of termination, we approach the center light on the upper left of the apple. Now, the apple is a darker value, rather than leaving this upper left edge just the color of the paper, I need to add some value there. I don't want to add a lot, but there must be some. Now, because the apple is a darker value, all of the mid tones need to appear darker. Remember, this is the biggest difference you'll find when drawing objects with darker local values. The mid tones must become darker. Finally, I'm going to lift out some pigment where the highlight will eventually go. Adding the white pencil for the highlight will be one of the final things I do in this drawing. So now with the mid tones, the center light, and the highlight addressed, it's time to refine the values. This drawing is already starting to work. But remember, phase five of the shading process can take as long as the entire rest of the drawing process that came before it. The first thing I'm noticing is that the core shadow should be darker at the top right. It still gets lighter as it moves down the surface of the apple, but even this lower section can be darkened slightly. I'm also seeing that the reflected light could be quite a bit darker, particularly at the upper right. Now I'd like to call your attention to something very subtle. The surface of the apple is reflective. So we can actually see a good portion of the cast shadow reflected in the right side of the apple. So you can darken that area just slightly. In some areas, it's actually difficult to tell where the apple ends and the cast shadow begins. It's okay to have areas in your drawing where these two shadow conditions appear to blend into one another. That is often how they appear in reality. Now I'll shift over to the cast shadow. The entire cast shadow needs to be refined and darkened, including both its value and its shape. I also want to pay attention to its edges. I want to keep the edge of the cast shadow right underneath the apple harder and have it get more diffused the further away from the apple it gets. By the time we get to the penumbra, it's going to be a very soft edge. As I continue to darken values, I'm seeing that I still need to darken the reflected light more. Now, I think these values are starting to come together. Another area that needs to be darkened significantly are the mid tones, particularly on the right side of the apple. At this point, I'm going to start to pay attention to some of the more subtle surface details on the apple. We can see some darker areas coming up and out of the depression at the top and curving over the surface of the apple. Now, these details are best ignored at the beginning of the drawing, but we're no longer at the beginning of the drawing. We are in the final phase of the drawing where all of these details are permissible. It's amazing how many of these subtle variations on the surface of the apple follow cross contour lines. This is why we studied cross contour lines in the language of line. As I mentioned before, this process of refinement can go on for a very long time. Often like to get distance from my drawings. When I come back, I start to see new things that I hadn't noticed before. Right now, what I'm noticing are all of these subtle textural elements to the surface of the apple. They really help to define the three dimensional shape of this apple. I'm noticing right at the center of the depression, there is a very dark value where light is not able to get. One of the more beautiful moments in this drawing happens around the stem. We can see that the shadow cast by the stem happens to be right over an area of the apple that is receiving a lot of direct light. I'll use my eraser to lift out some of the value next to that cast shadow. This contrast really allows the cast shadow to stand out. The dark cast shadow actually appears darker when it is cast over an area receiving a lot of direct light. The more I look, the more smaller details I'm able to see and draw. Now, you don't want to go overboard with detail, but you want to give enough to make it a believable drawing of a naturalistic apple. Right now, I think I've hit some of these details a little too hard. Some of these dark areas of value look splotchy, but I'm also seeing that the mid tones need to be darkened here as well. As I darken the midtones, many of these darker splotches are absorbed into it. They appear less extreme. At this stage, I feel this drawing is about 90% of the way there. There are still refinements that need to be made, but hopefully this gives you a sense of how to apply the shading process you've already learned to a more complex, naturalistic object. The final thing I want to do in this drawing is add the highlight. Now I'm going to use my kneaded eraser to lift pigment from the area the highlight is going to go, but also I'm going to dab around it just to slightly lighten the value. I want the value of the highlight to be very bright, but the areas around it to get subtly darker as they move away from the highlight. Really clean the direct area where the highlight is going to go, I'm going to move to my vinyl eraser. I'm going to scrub with it. Should remove any excess pigment. Remember, we don't want any pigment at all where we apply the highlight. Even small amounts of pigment can muddy the white pencil. White is incredibly delicate. With that area cleaned, I'm going to add the white pencil for the highlight. Now remember, this paper is very light already, the white highlight isn't going to stand out much. I'll just add a hint of brightness to the area. Now there is absolutely more work that can be done in this drawing, but I think this is a good representation of how to apply the shading process to a naturalistic object. Now let's take this idea further and apply the shading process to a more complex subject, a butternut squash. I wanted to do something a little different for this demonstration. Here, I have a drawing of a butternut squash. However, I have simplified it into its most basic geometric forms. At the top, we have half of a sphere. The shaft of the butternut squash is a cylinder and the base is spherical. The sphere has been slightly elongated into an ovoid. I have drawn each section of this butternut squash as if they were basic geometric solids. Now, ignoring the stem at the top, if I were to take a sheet of paper and cover up everything but the spherical top of this butternut squash, the light and shadow patterns are indistinguishable from those on a basic sphere. If I cover up the top, And bottom sections, we see that this area is indistinguishable from a simple cylinder. Finally, if I cover up everything but the bottom section of this form, once again, we see a form that is indistinguishable from a basic sphere. The primary geometry of this butternut squash includes half of a sphere at the top, a cylindrical shaft, and a spherical base. Now, what I find fascinating about this is that I don't have to erase any of this. I can simply draw right over it to transition the simplified form into the much more complex forms of the butternut squash. Once I have understood and drawn these basic light and shadow patterns, all of the details that make it more complex become so much easier. The most characteristic details that are missing are the striations that run up and down the surface of the butternut squash. I'll start right here. Going to pull this line down over the surface of the sphere. Down the surface of the shaft of the squash and then over the surface of the spherical base. Finally, it curves underneath. I can actually see a second line starting here and coming down and then curving the other way. Now, because I've used white pencil in this area, I'm actually going to draw this with an eraser. I'll pull this line down and have it curve just slightly. Once I remove the eraser shavings, we can see that line and make one more pass just to make sure it's visible and I'll add a small amount of value. Remember, you don't want to combine white pencil and dark pencil. You tend to want to keep them separate. Of course, down here at the bottom, we find the rest of this line. Now I'd like to focus on this segment here. This segment is in and of itself rather cylindrical. It even has its own core shadow starting right here. So I'm going to begin by darkening the core shadow here. Of course, we can see this shadow curve up and over the spherical section as well. This section of the shadow thickens as it travels over the surface of the spherical base. Of course, we can see the mid tones darker here and getting lighter as they move toward the light source. We can do something similar for each segment of this butternut squash. I can also use line quality to define the edges by simply adding the division between these segments at the base of the squash, I can complete this illusion. This strategy of starting off with the most basic shadows first and then adding details works pretty well. But I really want to make sure you understand how these primary geometries drive the light and shadow patterns just as much, if not more than the secondary geometries. These primary geometries inform the light and shadow patterns so much that we can draw them as simply as possible and then add to them. Now, this is not how I normally draw, but I just wanted to show you how this could work. Next, I'll start to refine these shadows. Because a real butternut squash is irregular, the shaft tends to narrow just slightly as it travels up and down. This causes this core shadow in this core shadow to merge and then separate again. I can apply this same process all over. Here I have another small line traveling up and down the surface of the squash. I can add some of the texture in the shadows. Of course, I can find more subtle striations all over. Here I'm adding some overlaps. The more these naturalistic details we add, the more believable the butternut squash becomes. But by simplifying the light and shadow patterns first, I did about 75% of the hard work toward creating this illusion. Adding the naturalistic details goes by pretty quick after that. While we're here, I wanted to show you that the stem is essentially a cylinder at the top with a more ovoidal form at the base. Once again, we can draw this cylindrical form at the top very basically, adding a core shadow, reflected light, and darkening the top plane because this top plane is not receiving direct light. It is in shadow. After adding some subtle mid tones, I can come in with a white pencil and add some of the details. Here's the highlight on this more ovoidal form. It's almost like a squashed sphere. Of course, we can see this core shadow on the cylindrical part of the stem transition into the curved core shadow on the ovoidal section and here's the reflected light. Finally, I can draw a cast shadow curving over the surface of the top of the squash and this cast shadow merges with the core shadow. Now, once again, I'd like to state, this is a simplified drawing of these forms. But hopefully you can see how easy it is to understand the light and shadow patterns by first thinking about the primary geometries driving the overall forms. Of course, we can also see that this section has its own centerlight it's lit on the left side and even has just a hint of a highlight. I would feel perfectly comfortable continuing to add details to this drawing until it reached a more naturalistic state. But hopefully, you can see how far this simple strategy goes to creating a naturalistic drawing. You can apply this powerful technique to nearly any subject. Here we see a much more extreme example of primary and secondary geometries. If we simplify this entire subject down, it's essentially spherical. We can even trace the path of how the line of termination would appear if this were just a simple sphere. Overlaid on top of that simple geometry are these segments. Now, these segments are much more bulbous than the ones we saw on the butternut squash. Each of these segments has its own light and shadow patterns. But at the same time, we can see that the overall form follows similar light and shadow patterns to the ones we would find on a sphere. Now a case could be made that we even have a tertiary geometry at play here. In addition to the overall sphere and the individual segments, we can also find many small lumps and bumps on the surface of each segment. These segments are not smooth. Each segment seems to be made up of a number of bulbous forms. We can see evidence of this at the contours of each of these segments as well as in the light and shadow patterns. To better understand this, let's go to some simpler sketches. Here I have two simple sketches to show the basic light and shadow patterns of the pumpkin. Here I've divided light from shadow. Next, I'll add a simple core shadow. I'll give just a hint of the cast shadow, although I'm not going to draw the entire cast shadow shape in this demo. Next, I'll add the midtones and finally, the center light. Here is a very simple sketch of the basic light and shadow patterns on a sphere lit in a very similar way to the pumpkin. I'll refine the values just a little bit, but again, this is a very simple sketch, the sketches we've been doing in our light logic sketchbook. This drawing, I have subdivided the basic spherical shape into segments. It was a first step to shading this form. I can draw the line of termination as it would appear on a simple sphere. I'll shade in the shadow side of the form and darken the cast shadow. Now, of course, instead of seeing a smooth contour on the underside of this form, we see evidence of individual segments. But you'll notice they still follow a curved line very similar to that of a sphere. Remember, the basic geometry of a sphere is what is organizing all of these more complex forms. In addition to this overall light and shadow pattern that is very similar to a sphere, each individual segment has its own light and shadow patterns. We can see the core shadow on this segment rise up here, but come down to meet where the line of termination would be on a more traditional sphere. This segment also has its own line of termination that comes down and once again meets the line of termination for the simpler sphere. Even this segment has just a hint of shadow as it begins to turn away from the light source. Next, I'll darken the core shadows on each of these segments. You can also see that some segments are casting shadows onto the segments next to them. Here I am darkening the cast shadow that is cast by this segment on top of this segment. We can also see this segment casting its shadow just slightly over the segment to its right. Even in this simple sketch, the values are starting to appear very intentional and organized. This is why I'm so encouraging of you doing these simple sketches before you attempt more complex drawings. Now, one of the biggest differences between this more complex form and the simple sphere is that each of these segments has its own highlight. Additionally, each of these segments has its own center light. But overall, hopefully you can see how similar these light and shadow patterns are to our more simple sphere. These things are so easy to miss if you are not well versed in the more basic geometries. You should always be looking for these more simple geometries whenever you're drawing more complex forms. Remember, no matter what you draw, it is very likely that underneath all of the complexity is a very simple form that's organizing the light and shadow patterns. Hopefully, these demos have shown you how you can apply the shading process you already know to much more complex natural objects. My hope is that you can now see why we spent so much time at the beginning of this course focusing on spheres, cylinders, and cubes. All of those ideas are relevant when drawing much more complex objects. Now it's time to get you to your projects. For your first project, I want you to draw and shade a single simple natural object. Simple fruits and vegetables will work best. Now, today, you saw me demonstrate an apple, but you can use other kinds of fruits or vegetables. Just remember to keep them pretty simple. You don't want to get too complex too quickly. For example, a banana will work great for this project. A pineapple is probably far too complex. For the next part of your project, I want you to draw two natural objects together. You want to pay close attention to how the light and shadow patterns change when you put two objects close together. I also want you to pay close attention to the local values of each object. Here, you see me drawing two apples, but you are welcome to draw two different fruits or vegetables if you like. While you're doing these drawings today, I also want you to pay close attention to how you're drawing the contours. Remember, we want to fold line quality into the shading process. We want to do drawings that have both descriptive and dynamic line quality combined with beautiful and dramatic light and shadow. Finally, I recommend that before you do either of these two drawings, do some sketches in your light logic sketchbook. Do quick studies where you can work out all of the light and shadow patterns and how they may change from what you're expecting on these naturalistic forms. During today's demos, you saw me demonstrate some very simple drawings of the pumpkin. Remember, those kinds of drawings are fantastic for figuring out how light and shadow works on objects before you start longer more finished drawings. Remember, your light logic sketchbook is there for you to use however you see fit. It is a tool that will help you explore and experiment with light and shadow. Once you've completed your project, I will see you back here for the final lesson in this course. In this final lesson, I'm going to teach you how to manage light and shadow on much more complex subjects. I'm also going to show you how to draw using colored pencils on colored paper, and how to cross hatch. Well, thank you so much for spending this time with me, and I look forward to seeing you in the final lesson. 10. Shading Complex Forms: Welcome to the final lesson. This is not only the final lesson in this shading course. It is also the final lesson for the entire drawing laboratory series. My goal in this lesson is to give you the additional information you need to shade increasingly complex subjects. Now that you know the fundamentals of light and shadow, you now need to learn how to manage more and more complex light and shadow patterns. With this final skill in place, you will be ready to draw and shade any subject no matter how complex. This final lesson, I'm going to demonstrate how to shade a very complex subject, a seashell. I'm also going to teach you how to pair colored pencils with colored paper to create dramatic light and shadow effects with the illusion of color. Finally, I'm going to teach you how to cross hatch, let's get into it. Once you've learned the fundamentals of good shading, you can apply these fundamentals to more and more complex subjects. But it's important to remember that no matter how complex your subjects get, the process of shading will remain the same. In this demonstration, you're going to see me apply the shading process that you've already learned to an incredibly complex subject, a seashell. This seashell contains more detail and complexity than anything we've drawn so far. Despite this complexity, you'll see me follow the same shading process that you've seen me apply to the more basic solids. Now for this demo, I'm going to start with the basic shapes of the subject already drawn. You should already be very familiar with that process. If not, I highly recommend going back to earlier courses in this series, in particular, how to draw a beginner's guide. I'm going to start this demo by applying the same familiar process that you've already seen me use over and over in this course. I'll begin by dividing light from shadow. Next, I'll darken the core and cast shadows. With the shadows drawn, I'll move into the light and draw the center light and the highlight. Finally, I will refine all of the values, adding more and more detail until I'm satisfied with the overall light and shadow patterns and the smaller details that use light and shadow. You'll also see me deviate from this familiar process from time to time. This is very common as you start to draw more and more complex subjects. The reality is, when I am not teaching, I don't follow the shading process as rigidly as you've seen me follow it in this course. But even though you'll see me draw more freely in this next demo, I still keep all of the same principles in mind. This will help ensure that the final drawing includes beautiful details, but is still accurately lit with beautiful lights and deep rich shadows. Now let's head to the drawing board where you will see me work through the shading process on a highly complex subject, a seashell. So in this drawing, I have already broken the shell down into its most basic shapes. I've worked out the basic edges of the contour and started to add some subtletine details. Now, at this point, you should already be pretty comfortable with getting the basic shapes of your subject down and drawing detailed contours. You should also be comfortable dividing light from shadow. Now, I've already divided much of the light from shadow, but there are a few areas I want to focus on. A subject like this has so many details and it can be hard to figure out what is in light and what is in shadow. One of the best things you can do is let your eyes go softly out of focus. This can help you see the values more clearly because the details tend to blur together. It becomes a little more obvious that areas like this are in shadow. Also wanted to call your attention to this area here. On the subject itself, we can see a number of striations of shadow coming into this area of light. But I'm going to simplify this into a much more basic shape. At this stage, I'm not going to include all of these shadow striations. I can come back and add those later. Remember, when we're drawing hyper complex subjects, we want to simplify first. We can come back and add details later. Even with subjects this complex, we want to strive for simplicity first. I want you to take note of what this drawing looks like right now. I always like to point out drawings at this stage. I think it's important as a student to note how rough this drawing is. Remember, your drawings don't need to be beautiful throughout their process. It is completely fine and should be expected that they will look rough throughout much of the drawing process. A few other details. Even though these forms at the front of the shell are very, very small, they still are in either light or shadow. Here we can see this smallest form at the tip of the shell casting a shadow over the cylindrical section below it. This cylindrical section here is also casting a shadow over the part of the shell right below it. So even though these details are small, they still follow the same rules of light and shadow we've been studying. Now at this stage, I've mostly simplified the light and shadow patterns. I want to keep this division between light and shadow throughout the life of the drawing. Now I'm going to start darkening core shadows and cast shadows. Now, when you're dealing with objects this complex, it's good to have a system. I'm going to start on the left and try and find as many core shadows as I can. Despite all of this complexity, we can still find familiar forms. For example, this section right here is a flat cylinder. Here is the flat plane of the cylinder and here is the rounded shaft. So we find a core shadow right here. You can see this part of the shell curving. We see a core shadow right here that lightens into reflected light below it. We see the same thing here, Core shadow lightning to reflected light, and here, core shadow lightning into reflected light. Remember, despite all of this complexity, there are no new light or shadow conditions. All of these light and shadow conditions should be familiar to you. Once again, core shadow moving into reflected light. You can see the same lightened shadow pattern all over. Once again, here we see a core shadow moving into reflected light as the light shines on this area, but then the shell curves away from the light right here at this edge. The more we look, the more we can find these core shadows. When I let my eyes go out of focus, I can see a darkened core shadow here as well. Now, I'm going to come back later and put in all of these textural lines, but for now, I'm still keeping it simple. Here we have a bit of a core shadow. Here we have another core shadow. Now this knob appears to be casting its shadow over the back rounded section of the shell. But here we have a number of core shadows. I know this might be getting a bit repetitive, but I want to encourage you to take your time. It is so easy to feel a sense of overwhelmed when you're dealing with a subject this complex, but you need to remind yourself you know all of these light and shadow conditions all ready. You just need to take it slow and figure out what light and shadow conditions they are. Right here, we see a larger core shadow as the curved back section of the shell turns away from the light. We have a very interesting moment when we have this ridge of the shell come up. This whole area of the ridge is in shadow, but we can see immediately on the other side it's receiving light. Next, I'm going to darken the cast shadow. Now, in order to do this, I need to define the outer contour of the shell a little more. This is a time where I can include all of these small details. Now I'm going to switch to the tripod grip so I can bear down on the tip of the pencil. This is establishing the darkest darks in the drawing. Now that I've established the darkest darks, I can compare all of the other values to it. Even though the drawing is still very rough, it now has a full range of values from bright number one values all the way to deep number five values. Now, a drawing like this will require a lot of refinement. I just want to get all of these values started. What we're trying to avoid is rushing into detail without figuring out the overall light and shadow patterns. Remember, every one of these subtle details is either in light or shadow and you need to be able to tell the difference. Now I'm going to go back and I'm going to start to add more detail to the core shadows. I'll start by darkening these striations. Now, all of these values and shapes are likely to get much darker, but I just need a starting point. One of the things that makes a subject like this so beautiful are all of these small lines that are moving over the surface of the shell. Now I'm going to start to record some of these. Starting at the tip, I'm going to start to draw all of these small lines and marks. I'm paying very close attention to their values. Now, with all of these small details, it can often be difficult to tell which are midtones and which are shadows. But this is why it's so helpful to be familiar with the value scale. Remember, if you feel like a detail ever gets a little too dark, you can bring your kneaded eraser in and just lift it out slightly. I can see here that I missed a cast shadow where this cylindrical section is casting its shadow over this part of the shell. This is pretty common when you're dealing with subjects this complex. It is very easy to miss things. But with careful observation and taking your time, you are very likely to figure out anything you've missed eventually. Here we have a cylindrical shape. The cylindrical shape has scalloped edges, but this is a rounded shaft of a cylinder. Here's the core shadow. Here is the reflected light underneath. All of the striations here are dark and in shadow, but all of the striations on the lit side of the line of termination are mid tones. I'll be drawing those no darker than a number 2.5 value. Now here we have some very beautiful details. We have these forms that come up and then over and travel over the surface of the shell. I'm paying very close attention to both the direction and value of each of these lines. Here are some areas of shadow that I missed. But wherever I find these subtle areas of shadow that I may have missed, I am always trying to figure out what are they? Is it a core shadow? Is it reflected light? Is it a mid tone? I'm not simply copying random lines on the surface of the shell. I'm trying to be very intentional. Here we have some beautiful striations emerging from this shadow area. When doing drawings like this, you need to get into the spirit of it. Drawings like this almost become meditative. I think I've drawn this a little too dark, so I'm going to come in with my kneaded eraser and lift out some of that value. Now, there are no concrete, right or wrong ways to approach a complex subject like this. But the goal is that you have a strategy that allows you to figure out where you are and what you need to do. In addition to the shading process that you've learned so far, I am also, generally speaking, working from left to right. This helps me keep my bearings. One of the last things I'm going to do in this drawing is come back and really focus on all of these striations. But I want to draw just enough to make sure that they are in response to the light and shadow patterns I'm seeing. We have a series of these scalloped cylindrical shapes in this shell. We have one here and one here. We even have a small one right here and you can see they all light in a similar way. About two thirds of each one of these cylindrical shafts is in light, and then we hit a core shadow on each one. From there, the rest of it is in shadow. This is the logic of light at work. It makes sense. Here's another area where I'm simplifying the edge of this shadow. But now might be a good time to start to add some complex details. All of these striations are coming in and out of shadow. Now we can really see this drawing start to come to life. To finish a drawing like this takes a number of hours. You're not going to see every stroke in this demo. But my goal here is to incorporate enough strategy in detail so that you have a sense of how to manage this level of complexity. Take a look at this area right here. It's so easy to get lost in all of these little details and lose sight of the fact of what's going on on the larger forms. We have this larger shape of the shell that's curving. Here we have the crest of a ridge. This side of the ridge is in shadow, but this side of the ridge is getting some light. We can see this ridge dive down and this area is more of a midtone. Right here, it comes back into the light. We can start to see this effect. Now if we only focus on these small lines running over the contour of the curve, it's easy to miss these overall light and shadow patterns. You also see the mid tones starting darker here and getting lighter as they curve toward the light. We see the same thing here, starting darker here and getting lighter as the curve of the shell approaches the light. One thing I want you to remember is that when you're drawing shadows, you don't want to include as many details as you do in the light. There's a good argument to be made that you don't even want to include all of the details you see. We want some details to get lost in the shadows. That's part of what makes shadows so beautiful. They obscure information. They give some mystery to the drawing. So it is okay to keep your shadow areas somewhat vague. I want to call your attention once again to this area. Here we see all of these lines running over the surface of the shell. But it can be very easy to miss the larger light and shadow patterns. Again, here we see a larger core shadow as this larger section of the shell curves away from the light. This also means that we see some mid tones here that get lighter as this area curves into the light. Again, this is why it is so helpful to understand these larger light and shadow patterns. It's not the small details that bring the drawing to life. It is the consistency and accuracy of the light and shadow that does it. I do want to include some detail in the shadows just not enough to distract from what's going on in the light. Here we find another core shadow and another area that is mostly in mid tone. One strategy I'm using while drawing is letting my eyes constantly go in and out of focus. This allows me to shift between seeing details and seeing the overall light and shadow patterns. At this point, most of the light and shadow patterns have been figured out. I'm going to spend the rest of this drawing adding all of the subtle details. Now I'd like you to take note of some. Take a look at this area of the shell here. We can see that the area down here overall is lighter than the area up here. In fact, I'm going to add a small amount of value, a mid tone value that gets lighter as the shell travels up and into the light. Now, even this subtle shift from mid tone to light adds a lot to the drawing. Shifts in light and shadow like that often add much more to the drawing than any individual detail. Overall, you can see that all of these striations down here are darker and as we go further into the light, they start to get lighter. The details up here are barely visible. They are drawn incredibly lightly. Doing drawings like this is not for everyone. Some people absolutely love to get into these very small details. For other people, it can be a little overwhelming and at times infuriating. But it's very important to me in the shading course to at least show you how to do it. All of this work we did at the beginning, figuring out the overall light and shadow patterns is paying off now that I'm adding the details. To me, it feels so much easier to handle these small details in the context of the light and shadow patterns that we've already figured out. As I mentioned before, we could spend hours with a demonstration like this. But the most important thing I want to share with you in this demonstration is how to start to manage this level of complexity. Remember, once you figured out the basic shapes of your subject and worked out some of the contours, it's time to divide light from shadow. Even in a drawing as complex as this, the light and shadow patterns are still going to be very simple. Something is either indirect light or it's not. If it's not in direct light, then it's a shadow. The more you understand about the light and shadow patterns at the beginning of a drawing like this, the easier it is to draw the details in relationship to those overall light and shadow patterns. As you are drawing these tiny details, always ask yourself, what is its value? Is it in light or is it in shadow? If it's in light, is it a midtone, a center light, or a highlight? If it's in shadow, is it a core shadow, reflected light, or a cast shadow? Alternate between looking at the subject and your drawing with your eyes focused so you can see the details and unfocused, so you can see the overall light and shadow patterns. Finally, remember, light is logical. Once you know what direction the light is coming from, it becomes so much easier to figure out which parts are in light and which parts are in shadow. It becomes so much easier to see that this curved area of the shell is in light and this area is in shadow. Of course, there is so much more to do on this drawing, but this should give you a sense of how to manage this level of complexity. You have seen this drawing go from basic shapes and very simplified light and shadow patterns to a drawing with a lot of detail. We will check back in with this drawing at the end of this lesson, but hopefully you can see how effective this process is. So hopefully, now that you've seen me draw this seashell, you have an idea of how to deal with complex subjects. My hope is that you also have an idea of what it looks like to draw a little more freely and not simply apply a rigid shading process. That being said, when you're learning, I highly encourage you to stick to the more rigid shading process as long as you need to. But once these ideas and principles become second nature, you can start to improvise and draw more freely. So now let's take a look at the drawing of the seashell with an additional hour or so of rendering and adding detail and complexity. Every shape and detail, big and small has been rendered in light and shadow. Even the most complex objects can be understood in terms of the same rules of light and shadow you already know. For the rest of this lesson, I want to explore some variations on what you've learned so you can get the most out of your shading skills. Crosshatching is one of the most sought after drawing skills, but it can be a bit of a challenge to learn. Crosshatching is when you lay two or more sets of parallel lines over one another to create value. Crosshatching is a classic technique used by many masters. Now let's head to the drawing board where I'm going to demonstrate how you can use crosshatching in your drawings. To learn how to cross hatch, you first need to learn how to hatch. To hatch, you need to make a series of parallel lines. These parallel lines should be approximately the same distance apart. Now, in order to hatch, you need to do two things at once. First, you need to get good at drawing parallel lines or lines going the same direction. So to practice this, I recommend going over the same spot over and over again. Let me do this again and explain what I'm doing. I'm only marking on the downstroke, so I'm making a mark, lifting my pencil and bringing it back up to the top, over and over. You'll note that I'm using the tripod grip for this. Once you get good at making these kinds of marks that go in the exact same direction, we need to add a second motion. While we're making this motion, we need to move either our fingers or our hand. So here you'll see me start to pull my fingers back toward my hand. With this method, your hand is planted firmly on the page and you were starting with your fingers extended and then moving your fingers back towards your hand. This method of hatching is good for small spaces because you're only moving your fingers. To hatch over larger spaces, you can make this motion, but then move your entire arm. This hatching is good for larger spaces. Let me demonstrate this one more time. I'm making the hatching motion and then I'm moving my entire arm. Now, you will use hatching for both dark and light values. Here are a few notes on how to change values while you're hatching. First, there's the distance between the lines. The closer the lines are together, the darker the value will appear. The further away the lines get from one another, the lighter the value will appear. Watch this again. The closer the lines are together, the darker the value will appear. The more space in between the lines, the lighter the value appears. To create a lighter value, you can also just lighten the strokes. Here are some lighter hatchmarks. Once again, here are some hatchmrks of a lighter value. Of course, you can combine these techniques together, starting off with dark lines that are close together and then have light lines that get further apart. This successfully creates the illusion of a gradation. Hatching becomes cross hatching when we layer two different sets of lines over one another at different directions. This is hatching. And this is crosshatching. Now, I think the directions of the lines really matter. When I crosshatch, I tend to want the lines to be at about a 30 degree angle. What you tend to want to avoid are lines that are perpendicular. This gives a grid effect that can flatten drawings. So in your learning to hatch, I recommend just making abstract hatch marks just as you see me doing here. You want to get comfortable with this technique before you apply it to your drawings. I want you to take note of the speed of these hatch marks. These are not marks that are slowly made. I think hatch marks that are made quickly have a beauty and dynamism to them. Now, one great skill to have is to be able to hatch in shapes. Here is a triangle. You can practice filling this shape with hatch marks. If you want a real challenge, you can try to do the same thing making a shape like this without the contour. Of course, you are not limited to simply two sets of parallel lines. You can create as many sets as you like. The more lines you add, the darker the value will become. For example, this area now appears to be the darkest value on this page. Now that you have a sense of how to cross hatch, let's learn how to apply this to an actual subject. One of the best things you can do to learn how to crosshatch is to draw simple objects. Here we are once again with a sphere. I'm going to shade this sphere. Of course, here I'm drawing the line of termination very lightly and softly and now I'm going to hatch in the shadows. Starting at about a number three value, I am going to hatch in the reflected light area. Of course, for this to become cross hatching, I need to slightly change the direction of the strokes. Go over them. Here you can see I have hatched in the core shadow. Of course, we can layer over as many lines as we need to. Here's another set to darken the value just a bit. We can also hatch in the cast shadow. I'll start by darkening right underneath the sphere with a line. But when the cast shadow shape opens up a bit, I can shift to hatching. Now, these hatch marks are dark and close together. I want this to be a very dark value. Next, I'll make a second pass going a different direction. To refine the values, I can simply add more and more hatch marks. Of course, in addition to hatching in the shadows, we can also hatch in the light. Here you see me hatching in the center light. I can change direction to help soften it. I can even hatch in the highlight. You can use hatching for any part of the light or shadow conditions. But one thing to note about hatching is that it does leave visible lines, so you need to be okay with that look in your drawings. But hopefully, this gives you a sense of how to start to apply hatching to an actual object. And of course, practicing on basic familiar geometric solids is one of the best ways to do this. You can continue to layer on more and more hatch marks until the drawing starts to smooth out. Crosshatching is a beautiful and dynamic technique that is well worth learning. Now many students feel uncertain about what kind of lines and marks they should use while shading. The options are endless. You can use cross hatching, expressive lines and marks, you can do soft lines and marks. But the reality is that as long as you follow the rules of light logic, it really doesn't matter what kind of lines and marks you use to shade. Even if you just scribble, as long as you're following the rules of light and shadow, you can still make a drawing that appears to be lit and three dimensional. Ultimately, the kind lines and marks you choose to use will determine the style of the drawing. Now that you understand how light logic works, you can create the illusion of light and shadow regardless of what kind of lines and marks you use. Now I want to shift gears and talk about how you can use different colors of pencil and paper to simulate the look of color. But by combining colored pencils with colored paper, you can create the illusion of color in your drawings while still following the same basic rules that you've learned about using black and white pencils. First, I'm going to teach you some basic ideas on how to pair colored pencil with colored paper. Then I'm going to show you some of my favorite pairs of pencil and paper. First, when you're choosing a colored pencil, you want to make sure that it is dark enough to read as value. Dark reds and browns and even deep blues are excellent for drawing dark values. You want to avoid bright colors like oranges or greens because those tend to read as color and not as shadow. Next, you want the color of the pencil to be appropriate to the subject you're drawing. If you're drawing a bluebird, try using a deep blue pencil. If you're drawing a human figure, often very warm deep reds do an excellent job at simulating the warmth of skin. Finally, you want the color of pencil to work with the color of paper. You want to choose pairs that seem natural and seem to complement one another. With these ideas in mind, let me show you some of my favorite pairs of colored pencil and colored paper. I absolutely love drawing on colored paper. Color paper breaks up some of the bare blankness of white paper. When selecting colored paper, there are a few things you want to keep in mind. First, you don't want paper that is too brightly colored. This paper is a bluish gray. It's blue, but it's not too bright. It's in roughly a mid tone value. This section, I'm going to show you a couple of different colors of paper, but I wanted to give you an example of something unique. Now, of course, when you draw on colored paper, you also have to find the right pencil. This drawing was done with a dark brown pencil and white pencil. Now, before you do a whole drawing on colored paper, you want to first test it out to make sure that the pair of pencil and paper are going to work. Not all color combinations of pencil and paper work to give a sense of value and three dimensionality. What I recommend is before you draw on colored paper, try a simple sphere first. Here, I've started a simple drawing of a sphere. The intention of this drawing is simply to figure out, will the paper and the color pencil read as value? This is something I do every time before I start a drawing on a new colored piece of paper. I need to know if the form is going to read. Crafting a simple sphere will tell you right away if the illusion of light and shadow is going to work with the color pencil and the color of paper. Hopefully, you can see that this combination of dark brown with white pencil on this blue gray paper works pretty well. Now, while we're here, I also want to talk to you about another idea. Can see that this drawing has a huge amount of hatching in it. You can see many of the individual lines and marks, particularly in the lit areas. But you'll notice that many of the hatch marks are soft. This is a technique I use often. I call it soft hatching. Soft hatching involves making hatch marks with the overhand grip using the side of the pencil. Just like cross hatching, you can layer soft hatches. Now, soft hatches tend to be a little more soft. They're not as harsh as cross hatching lines done with a tip of the pencil. I think soft hatching works very well on the figure. That being said, there are many areas where I've used more traditional forms of hatching. Once again, if we look at the lit areas, you can see individual hatch marks made with the tip of the pencil. Both of these techniques can be combined together to create very beautiful results, particularly when drawing the figure. Here we see a drawing done on a very creamy, almost orange sheet of paper. For this drawing, I have used a dark red pencil, as well as a white pencil. Once you've selected a colored paper and a pencil and you've tested them by drawing a sphere or another simple object to make sure that the values will read, you want to create a value scale. Before I do a drawing on any new sheet of colored paper, I tend to create a simple value scale. I want to know how each value is going to operate before I draw the actual image. Colored paper will bring your drawings to life in a whole new way. This combination of this dark red pencil and this creamy paper create a luminous and vivid experience. It's important to note that I'm treating this subject achromatically, just as I would drawing with black pencil and white pencil on gray paper. But because the pencil is red and the paper is creamy orange, it comes to life in a whole new way. The flesh of this figure seems to glow. Now, there is a near infinite number of different combinations of colored pencil and color paper you can use. So in this little section, I just wanted to give you some pointers on how to think about colored paper and ways you can test it to make sure the values are going to work. Drawing on colored paper will bring a whole new sense of life to your drawings. Once you have solid fundamental shading skills, there is so much you can do with them. Now it's finally time to get you to your project for this final lesson. Your project for this lesson is simple. Go draw and shade the subjects that you love. Throughout so much of this course, I've been very specific about the kinds of objects I want you to draw, but now it's your turn. You get to determine what you want to draw and shade. Select whatever you are most passionate about. There are just a few ideas I want to leave you with before you get to your own drawings. First, remember to work your way up to more complex subjects. You want to choose something that's challenging, but don't overwhelm yourself. With each new drawing you do, try and challenge yourself with a subject that is just a little more complicated than the last. Also, no matter what subject you're drawing, you can always apply the exact same shading process that you've learned in this course. Once you've worked out the basic shapes, next, divide light from shadow. Then you'll darken the core shadows and the cast shadows and finally, you'll draw the center lights and the highlights. Same basic process can be used regardless of how complex your subject is. Finally, I want to encourage you to keep working in your light logic sketchbook. This sketchbook is your laboratory to explore different kinds of light and shadow conditions. While you're learning, every time you start a new drawing, try and figure out the basic light and shadow patterns first in your light logic sketchbook. You'll be amazed at how much this will help you figure out how to handle complex subjects. I'm so excited for you right now. Now that you have a complete set of shading skills, you can apply them to any subject. For those of you who have gone through the entire drawing laboratory series in order, you are now ready for figure drawing. Figure drawing is one of the most incredible drawing experiences you can have. Drawing the human form is beautiful and challenging and now you are ready for it. One of the most compelling reasons to start figure drawing is that if you can draw the human figure, you can draw anything. Figure drawing is the perfect training ground for any discipline or subject you might want to draw in the future. But even if figure drawing isn't for you, you now have the skills to take on architectural illustration or fashion design. The skills you've just learned are also applicable in the entertainment industry if you want to do concept design for video games or movies. Now that you have these skills, I want you to put them to you. Want you to pursue the disciplines that most interest you and to draw the subjects that you're most passionate about. It's also important to remember that the type of drawing I've been teaching in this course is pretty traditional and technical, but this is not the only way to draw. Drawing can also be used as a tool for creative exploration as well as self discovery. The fundamental drawing skills you've now developed can take you all kinds of places, from the technical to the wildly creative. Don't limit yourself. I encourage you to explore all kinds of drawing and creative experiences. If you want to continue to learn more about drawing with please visit my website at brentevston.com. There you'll find all kinds of drawing resources, including other courses. At Brent eviston.com, you'll find reference photos, figure drawing courses, and even courses on creativity. I also encourage you to check out my YouTube channel where I'm going to be regularly posting all kinds of drawing videos from drawing demos to more creative explorations. If you want to make drawing a regular part of your life, the exploring my YouTube channel is an excellent way to do that. Well, here we are at the end. There are just a few more things I'd like to share. Like nearly every human on the planet, I started drawing as a toddler. But unlike most people, I never stopped. Drawing has been my way of relating to the world. The lessons I've learned from drawing have gone far beyond the page. Drawing has taught me that I can keep correcting mistakes no matter how many I make. Drawing has taught me that focus and discipline can achieve incredible results. Drawing has taught me how to truly observe the world and not just make assumptions about what I see. Drawing has taught me how to investigate the world in a scientific way, but drawing has also revealed all of the beauty that the world has to offer. Learning to draw has absolutely changed my life for the better, and I am so honored to have been able to share my love of drawing with you. Once again, I want to give you a heartfelt thank you. Thank you so much for spending this time with me. Thank you for trusting me to lead you through the world of drawing. It has been an absolute honor and privilege to be part of your drawing experience, and I hope to see you again.