ART
Simplifying Shadows & Lighting
A Beginner’s Mini-Guide (with Practice Exercise)
If you are anything like me, shadows and lighting can feel hard to grasp, easy to forget, and easier to avoid altogether. They can be an intimidating addition to your art toolbox.
But they are also critical in defining form and giving a sense of depth to whatever you are trying to visualize.
My most recent art study {sunflower edition 🌻} included a lighting and shadow study that gave me some insights I wanted to share with you.
The key concept:
- A light source is made of a bunch of light rays that project out from the source
- When light hits a surface it illuminates that part, and the part behind it is where the shadow lies
- The edges of a shadow follow the path of the light rays, and the shadow itself is just the space the light can’t reach.
Tips for knowing how the shadow looks:
- Light source farther away: rays are more parallel, shadows look sharper, straighter and more consistent in width
- Light source closer: rays are spread out, shadows are larger and more distorted
- Small point light: crisp dark shadows
- Large broad light: softer, lighter shadows with fuzzy edges
☀️ Note: The sun is huge, but because it’s so far away, its rays reach us almost parallel. That’s why shadows in sunlight are fairly sharp.
Let’s do a quick exercise! Guess Where the light is coming from based on the shadows in each sketch below.
Hint: Start with the shadow, and ask where it falls. Using the edges of the shadow, see if you can trace back to where the light source should have come from. Comment with your responses before scrolling down!
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Ready for the Answers?
Answers:
Image 1: The light is coming from the Right. The shadow falls towards the left
Image 2: The light is coming from the Top, down to the cup and flowers. The shadow falls on the bottom
Image 3: The light is coming from Behind the cup. The shadow falls in front, out of the page.
Image 4: The light is coming from the Front-right. Shadow falls towards the back left.
In my upcoming sketches, I’ll be challenging myself to think more intentionally about where the light is coming from, and then experiment with drawing the corresponding shadows. It’s surprising how much this basic understanding can make the art come alive.
👉 If you’d like to try it too, pick one object around you, choose a light source on purpose, and sketch both the object and its shadow. That simple practice can train your eye quickly. To take it a step further, take pictures of the object after changing the light in a few different directions, just like I did — it helps to observe the still images!
Whether you are also relatively new to shadows and lighting, or have always found it confusing, I hope this was a helpful mini-guide to get you started!
