What Do We Know About Shadows

If I tell you that in your painting your occlusion shadows are missing, would you know what I'm saying? 

We talk a lot about lights, but do we give enough attention to shadows?  I have a notion that if we know what to look for, we're most likely to see it.  Once we see it, we can decide how to use it in our work.  But if we don't see it, we won't consider it at all.  Consequently, our work might go lacking. 

Look at the images in this photo. 

The apple on the left works fine, but shadows are out of kilter in the one on the right.  Let's break it down into two crucial areas and show how the shadow parts missing can put it back together again 

1. Form Shadow--All areas on a shape turning away from the light source.
2. Cast Shadow--Any shadow caused by the light being blocked.

Notice how where the stem comes out of the apple the Form Shadow merges with the Cast Shadow cause by the opposite edge of the opening.

1. Core Shadow--That part of a form shadow closest to where it begins to turn away from the light source.  The Core Shadow is caused by the reflective light within the Form Shadow.
2. Occlusion Shadow--That tiny area where the shape touches a surface within which all light is shut out.

Here are our apples with all their shadows in the right places, feeling much better now. 

The Fluidity of Hue

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 If you buy a new car, one question you'll get is "what color is it?".  The lay person will identify color by a single hue, but the artist sees the fluidity of hue--how it changes on a single image depending on the location of its light source and what's being reflected onto its surface.

I found a photo of a new red Honda and sampled various areas of it. Here are the results I found.

Next, I did the same sort of sampling with a photo of a red tomato. 

In both examples, notice how the hue changes according to where it lives in shadow or not in shadow areas.  Add to that other colors it might be reflecting from its environment.  Sages of old advise us that we see what we look for.  If we're looking for red tomato, we will limit what we see.

Finding the Magic of Halftones

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In the visual arts world, there is a lot of confusion about halftones.

Halftones are found wherever images are illuminated.  Shadow tones are everywhere else.  We can grasp the concept more easily if we look at what happens to a sphere in direct light.

 It is within these magical areas of light where we find nuances--subtle changes in light values and in color temperature--that can give real depth to our work.  Master painters like John Singer Sargent had a eye for translating these, a skill that enabled him to do this portrait of Mrs. Henry White.

They seem insignificant, but even the tiniest change in value and/or temperature can make a big difference.  And we can learn to see these by closely looking for them. 

Once we find them, we can paint them.  And once we learn to do that, we can find ways to exaggerate and manipulate them in all kind of creative ways.  But seeing comes first.  Once we see it, we never forget it.