Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Light and Shadows

In our anatomical drawing class we recently had an entire class devoted to light and shadow. We learned about core shadows, form shadows, cast shadows, ambient light, reflected light, and reflected cast shadows. We worked on highlights, dark lights and half-tones, and how all these different types of light and shade play out when rendering an object in a drawing. Because we are drawing the human body, week after week, we have now moved from simply drawing the shape of the body, to adding light and shadow. It is thrilling to see how the drawings jump to life once the shading is added, how they suddenly have depth and weight and roundness that they did not previously have. I've been procrastinating all week with our homework, which was to draw three eggs, paying particular attention to light and shadow. Since so many parts of the human body are egg-shaped, this is very good practice. Here's how I spent the evening.

5 comments:

Jean said...

Vous avez de la chance de profiter de tels cours .
Toute ma vie j'ai rêvé de peindre .
Si je photographie , c'est un peu pour compenser mon incapacité à peindre .

L'ombre et la lumière ...Veermer ... Rembrandt....Georges de la Tour ..

Endment said...

Isn't it great to see the eggs become dimensional by adding the shadows.

What a useful exercise

robin andrea said...

You bring the eggs to life. They have depth and dimension, and the secrets of all things within.

Taradharma said...

yes, i can see the sheen on the eggs. isn't it amazing how drawing teaches you to really see?

i have an excellent pear drawing by Tobin, it was part of a larger study he was doing and he had rendered those pears in just about every way imagineable.

K Allrich said...

One of the most illuminating things I ever learned about painting was learning to see the light [reflected] in shadows!