Overview:

Basic Shadow Components:

Depicting light and shadow helps create 3-dimensional space, as well as emotion, clarity of artistic intent and 2-dimensional design. To use light and shadow effectively it is important to understand that light travels in a straight line. Cast shadows are created on the surfaces blocked from the light by the object. These blocked surfaces are often the ground plane the object sits on, a wall or other vertical structure.

In finding the shadow shape it is important to consider the following:

  • A light located directly above an object creates cast shadows on all sides of the object.
  • The further the light source is from directly above, the longer the cast shadow.
  • The closer to the ground plane or horizon the light source is, the longer the cast shadow.
  • Two important guidelines are needed to draw each corner of a cast shadow:
    • the line from the light source to the top of the object to the shadow surface
    • the line from the light’s vanishing point to the bottom of the object to the shadow surface.
  • Where these lines cross on the shadow surface marks a corner of the cast shadow.
  • The light’s vanishing point is directly below the light source.
  • The shadow’s vanishing point lies on the ground plane, and so depicts where the light is located relative the object, for instance, behind, in front, on the left or or right.
  • The ground plane is the surface where the shadow is cast.
  • Sunlight and all other lights function a bit differently since the sun is so far away.
    • Room and street lights create shadows that radiate out from the light source, while the sun’s rays are depicted as parallel since the sun is so far away.
    • If the sun is behind the object, the light’s vanishing point lies on the horizon line directly below the sun. However, if the sun is in front of the object, the light’s vanishing point is directly below the sun on the ground plane.

Step-by-Step:

Perspective Drawing, by Ernest Norling, from the “How to Draw and Paint” series,
published by Walter Foster

YouTube Videos:

  • Video of shadows cast from a box and sphere: Click Here
  • Video of shadows cast from a box and pitched-roof house:
MyTutorials.com
  • Video of shadows cast on floor and wall, from standing lamp
5 Minute Tutorial

Examples: film, artists and illustrators

From top left: Film stills: film-noir venetian blinds; Metropolis by Fritz Lang, 1927. Illustrators: Paul Hoppe; Jean-Giraud Moebius; Gediminas-Pranckevicius; Kilian Eng: The Planet Chamber; Kutsa. Artists: Rembrandt: Three Trees, etching, 1643; Francisco Goya: Disparate-Los Ensacados, etching, 1815-19; Piranesi, etching, late 1700’s; de Chirico: The Mystery and Melancholy of A Street, oil painting, 1914; Edward Hopper: Summer in The City, oil painting, 1950

Recording of week 11 [class date] class meeting