Light & Shade Drawing Project

Drama 331- Theatre Technology and Scenography II Drawing Exercise:

Light & Shade The following is a systematic approach to drawing the illusion of light and shade. While it is often helpful to mentally analyze what we are drawing in terms of a few basic geometric forms, it is important to remember that this should only be used as a supplement to looking. The actual effects of light (both from the source and reflected) is more complex than what is implied by this simple set of rules. Use them only as a general guide. In your sketchbook practice making shaded gradations like the example below. REMEMBER: use the white of the paper for your lightest light, and make the black as dark as you can get it with your pencil. Make the gradations increasingly long. Work on making them as smooth and regular as possible. It is the pressure you put on the pencil that you are trying to control. Repeat this exercise at least a dozen times until you can make a gradation that doesn't "jump".

The four geometric forms that follow are the basic forms that most objects can be analyzed in terms of. The arrows indicate the direction in which the shape of the object changes. Crosshatching lines should run perpendicular to the line of the arrow to give the smoothest, most regular gradations. In your sketchbook do several drawings of each shape, first adding shade as demonstrated below. Next, add shadows to each object in a new drawing. Practice these skills three or four times each until you can work with highlight, shade and shadow comfortably.

Drama 331- Theatre Technology and Scenography II Now we will add the shading to these forms. REMEMBER: find the darkest darks and the lightest lights and base your gradations on these two extremes. Notice that the surfaces of the cube are flat and therefore are shaded evenly.

Next we add some cast shadows to further enhance the illusion of 3-dimensionality. Note that the shadow fades away as we get further away from the object creating the shadow.