The Shading Course
Welcome
Module 1 - How to Separate Light & Shadow
Module 2 - How to See Light Effects
Module 3 - How to Control Values
Module 4 - How to Organize Values
Module 5 - How to Create Realistic Shading
Module 6 - How to Use Light Probes
Module 7 - How to Show Form
Module 8 - How to Invent Shading
Module 9 - How to Use Maquettes
Module 10 - Bringing it all Together
Newest
Samuel Sanjaya
3mo
My egg assignment, I used 4b to make the dark darker. I think I made the reflective light too light. Any feedbacks will be greatly appreciated
@kotka
3mo
Looks good! I have two tips: try to blend the shadows around the core shadow a little more, it's a bit thin and sharp right now. Also, you can try to push/increase the dark values just a little bit more (although I'm not sure if the scan bloats out the contrast...)
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Alessio Bortot
10mo
Hi everybody! Here my attempt at the perfect egg assignment.
The first picture is a photo of the reference, but I worked live, not from a photo. It took me 4 hours to complete the drawing but I feel that there's more to add, just don't know exactly where and how.
I also have the feeling that my paper is a bit too rough
Worked with 2B, HB and 3H pencils
Alessio
10mo
Hi @Alessio Bortot,
There are a lot of things here that are working well! The subtlety of tones within the form light area is especially nice!
If you want to push it further, here is what I would do, ordered by priority:
1) Soften the transition at the terminator a bit more so the darkest halftones connect and kind of "melt" into the terminator. This will give you a stronger sense of form.
2) Soften the occlusion shadow so it is less of a line and more of a gradient.
3) Refine the drawing with a sharp pencil, using the "Island Hunting" method. As the tones get calmer, you will see opportunities for more nuanced adjustments in value and edge sharpness.
Good work, overall!
Romain Decotte
10mo
Hey there !
First off, this assignment really piqued my curiosity and the more I was going along with it the more interesting it got. I am happy with the final result.
The first pic is my reference which I started to ignore when it came to drawing the cast shadow - too much reflected light. This first drawing was made with 2H, HB and 2B graphite pencils. The values at the bottom are the ones I used for step 3 (value plan). Near the end, I darkened the background on the lighter side of the egg to make it pop out more.
I had a second crack at it with H, HB and 2B pierre noire pencils (last three pics) following the same process and ignoring the reflected light on the cast shadow from my reference. Charcoal is quite unforgiving if you go too dark too soon so it was like walking on...eggs.
Thanks @Dorian Iten for this assignment. Any critique/feedback would be much appreciated and I look forward to what lies ahead in this course.
Romain
10mo
Hi @Romain Decotte,
Good work!
You handled the transition of the dark halftones at the terminator especially well. 👍
I also like your decision of darkening the background next to the form light area, this does help a lot to make the egg pop.
A big thing I'm noticing here is that you seem to draw a dark egg as if it were a light egg. (Or, in more technical terms, drawing an egg with a dark local value as if it were an egg with a light local value.) As a result, in your drawing, the tonal relationship between the form light area and the form shadow area is thrown off. This is especially noticeable in the second drawing.
A lighter egg will have a lighter form shadow than a darker egg. See the attached image.
Your drawings look to me like a combination of the form light value of A with the form shadow value of B.
That said, you could get a white egg with a very dark form shadow, if there is very little ambient light because of a dark environment. The second drawing feels a bit like that, but the form shadow is too dark for how light the floor is.
In general, I find it much easier to make any tonal adjustments in the setup itself, so I can observe them directly, rather than trying to invent them. Then again, inventing is fun :) Sometimes it works, and other times it doesn't work. When invented light doesn't work, we can do detective work to figure out why.
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Thieum
10mo
Beautiful drawings! These shadings look perfect!
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@selenitis
10mo
My intention with this study was to spend at least 2 hours on it, because I have a bad habit of rushing when I draw. However, I only ended up spending 1 hour on it, because I felt like as I continued to try and refine it I was making the values muddy. Does anyone else have this problem, and any advice?
10mo
Hi @selenitis,
What do you mean by muddy?
I can see potential for creating a stronger effect of form by creating a more obvious gradient within the halftones. Currently, the value inside the form light area is fairly even in your image, while in the reference there is more of a difference between the center light and darker halftones.
Kwame Alexander
11mo
Ugh. My proportions are off yet again.
Karlo H.
1yr
The egg was cold and got covered with dew, which gave some very bright specular reflection, in particular at the extremities (because of the Fresnel effect I believe?). I also noticed there was 2nd bounce reflected light in the cast shadow, which made the penumbra area look almost like a terminator :o
Chris Bodary
1yr
Spent 4 hours on this, still lots of island hunting to do, but I’m not very happy with the egg itself. The shape of the egg is not round enough and the core shadow is too dark I think.
Thankful for any advice
Sienna
1yr
It looks great!
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squeen
1yr
I think you followed the reference very well, but there is a tendancy in art to enhance or exagerate the differences in the shadow region. For instance, I know that Stan will put in a charcoal core shadow on the figure even when the lighting doesn't really support it (i.e. not purely two-sided)---he just likes the look.
For the classic look, you need a diffusely lit sky-dome and a single directional light. Hollywood goes to great lengths to create pleasing/dramatic lighting. It doesn't just "happen" naturally all the time.
Chris, you are making great progress.
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@ivat
1yr
Josephine Agerholm
1yr
This was my first attempt. I realized very late, that I had made the cast shadow and core shadow too dark. Besides that I think what I'm struggling a lot with are the half tones, those were hard to do. Also I'm not sure if I made the reflected light too dark aswell? Feedback would be appreciated! :) I am going to try again now :D
Crystal Blue (she/her)
1yr
It looks like your halftones can be lighter. Remember that the decrease in value is very small in the lights.
for this particular lighting situation, your reflected light could be lighter. However what you have could be okay for a different lighting situation.
if you’re trying to match your picture exactly, your darks should actually be darker. It’s hard to get with graphite, so I’d reccomend using charcoal or a black colored pencil for that if you can.
for these sorts of studies it’s helpful to compare values to other values, for example how far is the light edge of the egg from the background value? What about the dark edge? Comparing the value of the bounce light to the value of the area in the direct light would be another example.
hope that helps, please let me know if you have questions!
@flugmodus1
2yr
The Form of the Egg is off ...
2yr
👍for keeping your intentions in mind.
Watch out for those reflected lights. The area of the floor where the cast shadow falls will not emit any reflected light! Because of this, there will be less reflected light as the surface of the egg curves around to the floor.
Reflected light too subtle = usually fine.
Reflected light too harsh = usually confusing or distracting.
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Henri Gerrits
2yr
My attempt to draw 'The Prefect Egg'. The photo of the egg setup is a bit overexposed.
It took me hours to get 'this level' and it was a lot of fun to work on it.
Difficult to look at the result objectively. Any comments are welcome to improve the egg drawing.
2yr
Well done, @Henri Gerrits!
Great smoothness, good value relationships 👌
The main areas of potential improvement:
1) Where the dark halftones turn into lighter halftones: soften the hard edge of a band of tone that is visible there.
2) Center light: do some island hunting to calm down the area further. Maintain a gradient in the halftones, starting from the brightest halftones and darkening continuously.
Félicia Gagnon
2yr
Here's my attempt. I definitely made the cast shadow too big and too dark in some places. Also, I think the average tone of the egg should be slightly darker.
2yr
I agree with your observations.
Looking at your reference image in grayscale can help with assessing values as well. If you have Photoshop, apply the Filters > Noise > Median to the image you uploaded and see what you notice at different "radius" settings. (Alternative: https://www12.lunapic.com/editor/?action=median)
Brayden Copley
2yr
I'm always afraid that everything is too dark, and often times my fears become reality. This is a tough one for me for sure.
Brayden Copley
2yr
Some subtle refinement. Perhaps still too cautious?
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Andrea Böhm
2yr
It looks like your dark halftones are not dark enough (if you darken the dark halftones near the terminator you may have to darken the reflected light as well). At the same time the lit area should have brighter values.
Laura Barr
2yr
1yr
Good effort, Laura. You might be surprised at how much difference some island hunting in your halftones and an extra layer of pencil over the entire shadow family would improve your drawing. Try to keep your cast shadow a single, flat value, apart from where it goes darker (ambient occlusion) as it nears the egg. You have correctly shown how the edge of the cast shadow (penumbra) can vary in edge softness, but at the moment it also appears to incorrectly form a dark ring around the cast shadow.
Yvann Innocent
2yr
The details for the texture of the egg was hard but ultimately I loved the process.
Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
2yr
Should there not be less reflected light in the part of the egg not over the table?
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@gasyadocro
2yr
Finally I could stop just copying of photo. Now I can see what is going on in shading(regardless of skillfulness of assignment :D). Amazing. Anyway I submit as I committed.
2yr
NICE! I'm so happy to read this :)
Keep going! 👍
Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
2yr
Reworked the reflected light
2yr
Much better 👍
Here's an option with a larger area of dark halftones and a darker bottle lid to give more attention to the star of the image :)
Tony Vu
2yr
Here's my attempt at the perfect egg. I can still see quite a few areas that I can tweak and adjust, but I have spent more than 5 hours at this point, so I'm just going to move on. I'll likely attempt the assignment again in the future.
Giovanni Russo
2yr
Ablsolutely good! I am trying to reach that level
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Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
2yr
Looks great. the smoothness is impressive. Is this digital with some smudging tool ? In traditional media, I spent a lot of time trying to get something smooth but couldn’t do better with the paper I used.
Regarding your drawing
1. I think the shape is a bit too spherical
2. a bit of cleanup in the gray background on top of the egg could help
3. I suspect you have not insisted enough on the transition in the light halftones around the terminator and that you have made the overall light halftone transition too linear ending into what I believe Dorian calls the dirty light effect
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Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
2yr
Getting there but still not fully satisfied. I leave it there for today. Have already spent close to 3 hours on this one
Tony Vu
2yr
It's looking really good. The only thing that stands out to me, is that the reflected light seems too light in value.
Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
2yr
the setup for this assignment is done. There is a funny lighting effect on the second photo
Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
2yr
funny effect probably due to a saturation of the cameras sensor
Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
2yr
Here is the outline
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About instructor
Former program director at Barcelona Academy of Art. Passionate about teaching craft and exploring the inner game of art.
