How to Draw Shadows and Lights?

Hello everyone, today I suggest we take a look at one of the fundamentals of drawing: shadow and light. It is thanks to this that we can depict volume, texture, transparency, and even compose an illustration; in short, it's absolutely everywhere!

Prepare your pencils, your paper or your tablet, and most importantly, your creativity!

THE NOTION OF VALUE

There are three main categories for colouring an image, whether working traditionally or digitally.

The hue: Indicates the nature of the colour (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple…)

Saturation: Indicates if the colour is bright or dull, traditionally the more pigment a color has, the more saturated it is.

Value: Indicates whether the colour is lighter or darker. In traditional settings, it is more complicated to see the value of a colour, which requires imagining what shade of grey this colour might correspond to.

Below are 3 different colours with their different parameters on the right. The top line corresponds to the hue, the middle line to the saturation, and the bottom line to the value.

All of these categories are essential when creating a colour drawing; however, to simplify understanding of shadows and light, we will focus exclusively on values. Concretely, we will draw in shades of grey.

The advantage of focusing only on values is being able to set aside colour theory to get to the essentials; everything that is white or light gray is a light area, everything that is black or dark gray is a shadow area.

Observing values helps to better understand how an image works; in the examples below, our eye is more drawn to position, movement, colour… We forget that light and shadow fully contribute to the composition and the interest of the image.

From the moment we turn these images to black and white, it immediately becomes more obvious.

In example 1, the light is present in the upper right corner, at the level of the character's spell, whereas the entire lower left corner is dark, which reinforces the dynamics of the image.

In example 2, the central block is the point of interest; it is also the most contrasted part of the image, with a stark contrast between a very light gray for the illuminated surface and a very dark gray for the unlit surface. This enhances the impression that the block is very massive.

In example 3, we observe a double light, the first, the main light (on the right), illuminates the face softly, the second, secondary light (on the left), enhances the facial volume and adds significant interest to the portrait.

THE BASIC NOTION OF SHADOWS AND LIGHTS IN DRAWING

First of all, it is always necessary to identify the source of the main light source (often the sun). It creates an area of direct light on the object and a reflection.

The entire part that is not exposed to light will logically be in the shadow.

The light from the light source illuminates the object as well as the other elements around it, and a very slight portion of this light is reflected off the object.

Finally, this same object creates a projected shadow, generally a bit blurrier.

It can be seen that the closer the light source is, the more the whole object will be contrasted (shades of grey tend more towards black and white) and the sharper the different separations between direct light, shadow....

Here is a little tip on where to place an object's shadow: simply locate the point where the light source is, then draw a line (I suggest doing this mentally) from the top of the object to the ground. The entire area between the object and this point will be its projected shadow.

DRAWING LIGHT, SHADOW, AND VOLUME

It's no secret that volume exists thanks to light. It highlights certain parts while hiding others, ensuring that not everything is just a flat gray. To properly bring out the volumes of an object, it is therefore necessary to accurately reproduce how the light falls on it.

If we take the example below, in image 1 we have the same gray ellipses, thanks to the way light is depicted, in image 2 one becomes concave and the other convex.

We will focus on basic volumes to see how light falls on them.

In order to accurately capture the light, it is important to follow a logic and maintain the volume. For this, one must consider the type of volume, which generally falls into one of the categories shown below.

Cones: with a round base and a triangular outline. In order to accurately represent the volume, it is necessary to create lines of different values that start at the apex and meet with the base, forming small triangles each time.

Cubes: This also applies to any parallelepiped, it is the simplest volume, one face is illuminated, therefore a very light gray, one face is moderately illuminated, a medium gray and the last face is completely hidden and therefore a dark gray.

Cylinders: The principle is almost the same as for cones; both ends are ellipses, generally the one at the top is the brightest and will therefore be in a very light gray; then the entire circumference of the volume is in shades of gray ranging from lightest to darkest.

The spheres: This might be the most complex volume because we often tend to flatten it, yet the principle remains the same, but by creating circular gradients of gray.

If you are having difficulties creating good gradients of gray to depict shadow and light, I invite you to watch this video:

Once this principle is understood, it becomes easier to apply shadows and lights on any type of volume. Let's take the example of a complex volume as shown below:

1 and 2: this shape can be broken down into two different volumes, a cylinder forming a ring at the top and a kind of parallelepiped, acting as a base, at the bottom. The upper part will therefore behave like a classic cylinder, with the light distributing itself roundly following the shape, and the lower part like a classic parallelepiped, with the light distributing itself face to face.

3: We then position or observe where the main light area is.

4: It can help to directly mark the shadow areas but it is not mandatory.

5: We can create gradients of grey to bring life to volumes.

SMALL EXERCISE FOR VOLUMES

One of the most classic exercises for accurately drawing volumes, and thus understanding shadow and light, is to reproduce several volumes, such as a still life. Many reference photos can be found on the Internet.

I choose a photo.
I observe the different areas: the strong shadows, the diffuse shadows (where there will be the most gradient) and the points of light.
When redrawing volumes, I recommend not using a vanishing point to train the eye.

I start by placing the diffuse shadows using a medium gray.
I then proceed to apply deep shadows; the most important aspect is to create smooth gradients to effectively convey the volume.
I add a few points of light in the top right-hand corner of the sphere, in the left-hand corner of the cube and in the top right-hand corner of the pyramid. This will increase the contrast and thus the sense of volume.
Before looking into more complex volumes, I invite you to repeat this exercise with many different volumes; this will allow you to be much more comfortable.

LIGHT AND MATTER

Once we understand how shadow and light work, it becomes quite easy to depict different materials, it's all about finding the right ways to convey them and this mainly involves observation.

If we take the example of wood, we observe the different ways in which light diffuses; in this case, in the example below, light diffuses according to the different faces of the volume. We also observe the roughness of the material, for example a large crack with one part completely in shadow and another that catches the light. Finally, we observe a repeating pattern, in this case the striations.

To transcribe this material, I make a basic cube with one face in light, one in the middle and one in shadow.

I add roughness while carefully maintaining coherence, the sides that catch the light and those that do not. The small cracks catch even less light than the shadowed side, so I make them with an even darker gray.

All that remains is to add the pattern to get a cube that looks like wood. It's a simple way to represent materials but it works perfectly, to bring more realism you will need to add more details and variations in the shadows and lights.

Here are some examples below of different subjects transcribed solely using values.

I hope you enjoyed this article on the basics of shadow and light 😊 If you wish to learn more about the topic, I invite you to take the course on the basics of drawing: https://dessindigo.com/drawing-courses/drawing-basics

Writing and illustration: Louis Grieves