Learning to Shade from Imagination (?!?!)

[dodus]

Apologies in advance if this is the stupidest thing you read today.


It has recently come to my attention (after browsing this forum) that there are tons of insanely talented artists out there who are drawing amazingly realistic figures and objects and settings completely off the top of their head! Insane! Most astounding is that you all seem to be having no problems whatsoever modeling these imaginary subjects as they are lit per an imaginary light source (also, it seems, a matter of personal invention). I am speechless.

I can sketch out an acceptable, sometimes even cool-looking form (although, judging from what I've seen on here, not nearly cool-looking enough). My chief problem is that if I don't have life or a copy to draw from, telling me where the light hits and the darks are dark, etc., there's just absolutely no way I can convincingly make up light and shadow.

I don't see anyone talking about this either--am I missing something? There are billions of tutorials on drawing the human face, but none that I can find about pulling light and shadow out of your a$$. So how do you all do it? Can anyone point me in the right direction or give me some advice. Is it just a matter of practicing from life until I have the principles of light on form etched into my brain?

I need help! And fast! I'm hoping to become some kind of professional artist--and there isn't much time before I become embarassingly old for my level of ability.

Thanks for reading.

--Brad

[Seedling]

Hi dodus! Hmm. . . I haven't included lessons specifically on lighting and shading yet in my classroom thread, but that's a good idea. . . Anyway, you might be interested in the "Concept Art 101" link in my sig. . .

[sciboy]

In general if you plan on taking a drawing and defining it's form with lighting you need to know the form in the first place.

Let me just grab an image from ron's FF thread.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/4329/planingtheheaddq5.jpg

Even though you're working on a 2d medium you're still representing a 3d object and need to think of it as such if you plan on doing that well.
But anyway with that aside, you want to practice still lifes and simplifying the form using planes and geometry.
Any sort of practice from life should help a lot as long as you pay extra attention to the 3d form and how the light interacts with it.

[Christian223]

There is an incredibely good book on the internet that teaches you just what you are looking for, its free also, its from Andrew Loomis, and its called "succesfull drawing", use the search function and youll find it. Good luck!.

[Justin.]

Actually it isn't "Free" dude... that's like calling music CD's free...


Either way- look at the post Sciboy brought up from Ron Lemen's post- try doing that with some of your sketches, it should help.

[Datameister]

Draw from real life and from photos all the time. The resources mentioned above will help immensely, but you won't learn to shade successfully just by reading books and Internet posts. You've got to clench your teeth and plunge into the cold water of artistic uncomfortableness--yay, bad metaphors!--and just start drawing everything around you. Light is extremely complex but quite predictable, as well. If you diligently, studiously, and intelligently try to mimic the things that are in front of you, you'll begin improving with the things that aren't really there.

A few things to keep in mind:

* If you're shading in pencil, use the side of a relatively soft pencil (I like 4B, myself). Start out very, very, VERY lightly--you shouldn't even be pressing into the paper. Hold the pencil far away from the business end and just let gravity do the work. Then gradually work up the values, getting darker and darker as you go. But don't press too hard except for in the blackest blacks.

* Break complex objects down into groups of simpler shapes. Many objects, organic or not, can be thought of in terms of cubes, cylinders, spheres, cones, etc. These objects interact with light in predictable ways; if you can correctly shade these types of forms in various imagined lighting situations, you'll find your ability to render more complex forms will improve vastly.

* Don't be afraid to let edges disappear sometimes. You don't have to explicitly show everything in an image; the human brain is remarkably good at filling in the holes on its own. You just have to make sure that the holes are made in a good, solid surface. Hey, more bad metaphors.

* Study other artists' work and copy it! There's no shame in doing some copying, as long as you're not taking credit for their work. You'll learn a lot that way.

* I cannot stress the importance of practice enough. I'd be twice the artist I am now if I hadn't taken a few years off. Keep drawing/painting whenever you can, and constantly study your work to see what's wrong with it. Accept the mistakes, but decide to accurately assess why they happen and try to correct them in future art. Be honest with yourself. If you've done a good job, it's okay to pat yourself on the back a little. If your work is looking like crap, don't be afraid to admit that fact--but don't let that be the end of it. Figure out what's so crap-esque about it and then see what you can do to fix it next time.

Good luck! The most important tip of all--HAVE FUN! Don't go so hard on yourself that you can't possibly have fun until you're the best artist under the sun. (Man, someone needs to tell me that... ;) )

[dodus]

Wow--thanks so much for the replies guys! You have no idea how much just these little details and pieces of advice help me out.


Seedling--just found Concept Art 101. I'm definitely going to go through, do all the assignments, and post them in there. You've heard it before but that thread is so totally, totally, awesome of you.

sciboy--brilliant. That's immense. Up until now I've been thinking of a subject as a range of light and dark values that I just needed to copy perfectly. With little to no respect for the shapes responsible for the values being what they were/are. So that changes things a bit!

Christian223--yes, I've been checking out Loomis' stuff, and there's tons of good advice. I'm starting to think that this site might be even more relevant for me though. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the works of Andrew Loomis are not available to pay for? Because of some issues with his family/estate?

Justin--Great advice. Thanks man.

Datameister: Thank you so much for the thoughtful response! I'm starting to understand what you mean about light being complex but predictable. For example, I'm finding that I can realistically depict shadows and shading on my doodles just by "pretending" that they are the ubiquitous cylinder of drawing lesson fame. Shadows always look great if you start them out dark, lighten them up a bit and then throw in a strip of reflected light! Or at least so far. Anyway--like I said--your post was really helpful. Thanks. The metaphors were great--very illuminating. I wouldn't have had them any differently.

Thanks guys.

[Christian223]

Well, since Justin said that about the book, i did a small research on the subject, i got to no conclution though. Some people say that the family wants that the book stay for free so they didnt give the copyright to anyone, but, it also seems that there was a new modified version of the books not so long ago, it is a modifiend version and some people say its much worse, but i guess that since its a new version, and the old version is the one that is around the internet, then there is no problems, i guess...
You can get the old version, but since the old version IS out of print its really hard to find, imagine, how old is the book?...

[DavePalumbo]

Those Loomis books were printed back in... the 40s? If you can find a vintage copy, I think they can go for a couple hundred each

[evildragonfire]

Hmmm, you can find the online versions of it though, I have all of the Loomis books that I downloaded from the internet....................for free.

[Maestro Andres]

I agree with everyone that in order to understand light and shade, the most important thing is to study from still life drawing. Practice a lot and you will learn from observation. Even with that, once I read this book called Light and Shade by Mrs. Mary Merrifield that explained a lot about how light interacts with the simple shapes such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc. It is an old book and to be honest, it was quite boring but I was more bored on the airplane so I got to the read it. I am still an amateur but it help me somewhat. It's a $6 book, so you can give it a try and keep drawing which is the most important.

[term8or]

Is it just a matter of practicing from life until I have the principles of light on form etched into my brain?

--Brad

In theory, there are three things you need to memorise:

1. The forms and planes of the head and body.
2. The effect of light on the planes in one lighting condition (front lighting is easiest) using a mathematical value scale and a planes of the head model.
3. The scales for transposing your lighting conditions from one condition of lighting to another. You'll need to get hold of The Students Guide To Painting by jack Faragasso, it's the only place I know that has this info.

Really, before considering this you need to be able to draw heads accuratly from life using the planes of the head and then learn how to exagerate them (make a caracature) effectively. These are the phases I am working on at the moment. Onviously, it is a good idea to work from still life, too.

[Jens]

here's the process I posted a few weeks ago. You gotta realize it is my way of drawing, not the way YOU should draw.

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/process1.jpg

1. I start out with a really loose face sketch. I don't do a lot of construction, mayby a circle or egg shape to start with. Most of the lines in the sketch mean something as you will see in the next stages.

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/process2.jpg

2. In the second stage I cover the entire face with a base tone. Only the places where I want the lightest highlights don't get covered. Depending on race and lightning setting the tone may be lighter or darker.

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/process3.jpg

3. Here you can see the lines of the sketch, which were almost covered by the tone in step two come back. The line usually presents a hard edge, the hard edge is usually followed by a soft edge. eg. Look at the side of the head at his sleeps (just above his ears). The hard ege is the outer edge of the head, then there is a soft transition, then his forehead starts with a hard edge which becomes soft again.

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/process4.jpg

4. Thinking of values and planes now. Nose has become way darker, I like the look of it. Makes for a nice hard edge between the inner corner of the eye and where the nose starts.

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/process5.jpg

5. Adding more contrast, pulling out form by making certain key points darker. For example, the pit just under the lower lip, the pit above the upper lip, nose holes, jawbones, corners of the upper lip, cast shadow of the head on the neck.

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/process.gif

Avoid going like this with your pencil when shading /\/\/\/\
Can give your hatching a very messy look, instead put your hatches next to eachother, lift your pencil up for each new stroke like this ||||||
If you practice you'll be able to do this really fast, and control the space you put between them..

An important thing is to let your hatches follow the form of what you are drawing.

Here's some close ups of drawings, so you can see how crosshatching works.

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/main.jpg

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/sketch073c.jpg
http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/sketch073b.jpg
http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/sketch073.jpg

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/sketch046.jpg
http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/sketch046b.jpg

http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/sketch058.jpg
http://users.pandora.be/NO1/Jens/sketch/sketch058b.jpg

[dodus]

Jens:

Those are gorgeous but my problem is I don't understand how to feel out where the darkest and lightest tones should go. Whenever I start adding value to my line drawings, some, maybe even most of it looks good and is an improvement but invariably something will get too much tone, or not enough tone, or some other combination that exposes me as a tone-wielding wannabe who in reality has no clue what the hell light does anyway. When I see art such as yours, where it's obvious that you know what you're doing with light and shadow no matter how loose or quick the sketch is, it makes me say, "how?!!! Is it practice or calculation or what?"

So at any rate, I'll just keep drawing people on the bus.

[Datameister]

how?!!! Is it practice or calculation or what?

Both. While I'm not in the same ballpark as Jens is when it comes to rendering beautiful crosshatched drawings, I can say pretty confidently that smart experience is the key to this. What I mean by that is you have to practice from real objects, but not without constantly analyzing why you're doing what you're doing.

Remember that objects generally have highlights, midtones, shadows, and often reflected light along the rim of the shadow. The amount of light and the angle at which it hits the surface both affect where these areas lie, and you really just have to practice from real life to get a true mastery of where they should go.

Also, remember the squint test! Squinting at an object or image gives you a much better visual "summary" of where the values really are. Try it both with your reference and with your drawings. If you stand farther from your subject, it'll work even better.

And post work you've done so you can receive specific critiques! Swallow your pride, man. I need to do this, too. People will forgive you for not being another Leonardo da Vinci. Just get help and improve. It's far more impressive to earn your artistic skill through years of effort than it is to pop out in the delivery room, belting out expertly-composed masterpieces at a cheetahlike pace. Although...that mental image is truly a starting point for such a masterpiece. Hmmm...maybe I'll do that someday. :D

[dodus]

So, the lessons learned in a nutshell for anyone reading this and wondering the same nebulous question:

1.) Learn what light does when it hits different planes from different angles. This mostly requires drawing from life, if only because this concept gets the academic shaft. Loomis helps here.

2.) Learn the planes of the human body. This mostly requires memorization and study, because the body in its infinite beauty and diversity often masks its own fundamental structures.

Then presto, you are ready to start laying down some sweet sweet cross hatching (made like this "////", not like this "/\/\/").

I'm on it. I checked that Faragasso book out, and want it bad, as well as his book specifically about figure drawing. Seems to be going for over a hundred buck though! Thus setting up a chicken-and-egg situation: when I have more money, I can afford to buy the Faragasso book; when i become a really good artist, I will have more money...

[the_allejo05]

nice samples..if you want to be the best in the world in shading..study the old masters :) you learn the way the strokes should be done..,diagonal, graining..etc,,the way chiaroscuro is thought of to give relief to your drawings..
see how clean an organized the lights from the shadows are..always mainly three tones..dark ,light and middle tone..
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9iby4eLqsZFwVoBYnejzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN 0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=12t8flovc/EXP=1170734091/**http%3A//www.gfmer.ch/International_activities_En/Images/Leonardo/Child.jpg
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9iby4ShqMZFzz0AzSGjzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN 0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=12t7he20e/EXP=1170733601/**http%3A//faculty.acu.edu/~mxb01e/Images/1_Drawings/raphael_male_arms_up.jpg

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9iby6JFqcZFI4YBcjujzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN 0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=12vagd0n8/EXP=1170733765/**http%3A//faculty.acu.edu/~mxb01e/Images/1_Drawings/raphael_phrygian_sibyl.jpg
this is from a fresco painting..yet the same concept holds true
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9iby6GdqcZFslABfSijzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN 0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=11utfh2gj/EXP=1170733853/**http%3A//borghi.org/images/raphaelfresco.jpg
leonardo is a master in this
http://www.digitaljournal.com/images/photo/030129DaVinci.jpg
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9iby4IDq8ZFoT4BriCjzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN 0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=12f6959gm/EXP=1170734211/**http%3A//www2.rnw.nl/assets/images/20000504Michelangelo01.jpg
http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9iby6Iqq8ZFBgEAXVyjzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN 0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=124muibn7/EXP=1170734250/**http%3A//www.lundhumphries.com/images/big/2145.jpg
NEED I SAY MORE?? well go to links..this stuff doenst let me show the pictures..

[mentler]

I did not read everything in this thread but basically the masters and every other great artist that I can think of that has done artwork in the Western tradition has invented their own light source <<<<>>>> thing about it for just a second <><><> they did not have artificial light and the sun does not stand still... so obviously they stilled the light source in their minds which means they used the light source which would best describe form..... usually that is about right at a 45 degree angle with a kicker reflective bounce. Yes artist invent their own light source.

If you only want to draw/paint what you see then you will never see what you paint

js sargemt

[dodus]

Good advice--that was kind of the point of this thread--I certainly don't want to be confined to only drawing what I see. I want to understand light and make it my bitch. But...there have been many insightful replies and I think I know what I must do.