Drawing Simplified, Part II: Shadows and Form

One of the basic foundations of a good drawing or painting, besides rendering the proper shape, is good form. Form turns a two-dimensional object into a three-dimensional object, and gives interest to a picture. All objects have form, some more subtle than others, depending on the light source. Shadows provide form to objects and are denoted in values. The number of values (the dark and lightness) to a form depends on the light source, how close it is and how strong it is.

Shadows

Shadows provide dimension to an object. The shadow shape is the most discernable shape of value of an object. It is opposite the light source and reveals both the form (a solid shape with volume) and plane (a flattened area of a form) of an object.

Shadow Edges

Depending on the object, the edges of a shadow can be either sharp or soft. Observing an angular or planed object, as one plane meets another and turns away from the light, the shadow edges are sharp. For a curved object, the shadow edge is soft with a gradual shift in tone.

Distance also plays a part in the edges of a shadow. If the light source is close to the object, the cast shadow is softer on the edges. As you pull the light away from an object, the cast shadow is longer and has sharper edges.

Painting Shadows: Edges and Value

There’s so much to share about painting shadows, so I’m going to break it into a two-part series.

When we look at shadows, we are looking at the negative space, which is the area around the subject. This space is filled with shapes that are cast by the subject from either direct light or diffused light. A cast shadow occurs when an object blocks the light and casts a shadow on a surface. It is usually a darker shadow than the shadows on the object.

Changing the level of light will change the length of the cast shadows. The lower the light on the object, the longer the cast shadow. In this case, care should be taken that the shadow doesn’t become the focus of the picture, rather than the object itself.

Direct sunlight or a strong indoor light gives us a hard light source that creates clearly visible shadows and produces a hard crisp edge to the cast shadows, usually.
A cloudy sky gives us a soft light source which gives much subtler shadows with soft blurry edges.

When you’re painting a sunlit scene, the hardness of the shadows cast depends on the distance between the subject and the surface where the shadow falls. If the distance is only a few inches, it will tend to be a hard-edged shadow. If the distance is a few feet, as from a tree, the edges tend to be soft.

Value

Besides the edges of the shadow, it’s important to note the value of the shadows. Remember, value is the lightness or darkness of a subject. You can use a ten-point value scale to help you figure out the value of a shadow. also notice how they become lighter in value towards the edges.

You also need to take into account reflected light. Outdoors, shadows are often lighter than you think due to the sunlight bouncing back into them. Because of the amount of bounced light outside, a white object will reflect more light into its shadows.