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  • Welcome to Proko my name is Stan Prokopenko, a lot of you have been asking for videos on

  • shading. The first thing you need to understand when starting to shade is how light affects

  • the appearance of form and how to properly capture 3 dimensional form based on the characteristics

  • of the light in the scene.

  • In some of my previous videos I talked about things like shapes, values and edges. How

  • do we know what shape, value or edge to draw? What exactly are we looking for? Well, were

  • looking at Light and how it illuminates the objects in our picture. Light is the reason

  • we see anything and the characteristics of light can completely change the appearance

  • of the things it illuminates. So, I like to analyze the light in the scene and try to

  • capture it, so the viewer can FEEL the light. Form looking 3-dimensional is a byproduct

  • of correctly capturing the light on the form.

  • Ok, so I hope I’ve convinced you that studying light on form is important. Now let’s take

  • a look at all the elements. For this I’m gonna need an egg. For this I’m gonna need

  • an egg.

  • There are two main zones. Light and shadow. The edge where the form transitions from light

  • to shadow is the terminator. It’s located at the tangent between the light source and

  • the form. In other words, just before the planes start to face away from the light.

  • SHADOWS

  • There are two types of shadows. form shadow is a shadow caused by the planes turning away

  • from the light source. A cast shadow is caused by one form blocking the light from hitting

  • another form. This egg is blocking the light from reaching this part of the table. You

  • can find this shape by projecting lines from the light source to the termination of the

  • first form, and continuing those lines to the obstructed form.

  • Shadows will rarely be completely black. Light bounces off objects in the environment and

  • is reflected back into the shadows. This is called reflected light. In this case the light

  • will bounce off the paper and into the shadow on the egg.

  • Along the terminator, sometimes you will see a core shadow. It’s a darker plane that

  • defines the edge of the shadow. The thickness and softness of the core shadow can vary quite

  • a bit. It depends on the thickness of the form, how sharp the edge is between the planes

  • of light and dark, or the angle and position of the reflecting light source.

  • Sometimes you won’t see the core shadow at all. Only if there is something on the

  • shadow side, to reflect back enough light to create a visible difference in value. This

  • dark piece of paper reflects less light than the white paper. You can see a drastic difference

  • in the value of the reflected light.

  • Also, regarding the visibility of a core shadow, the reflection has to come from the right

  • angle. If it’s directly behind the shadow side, it will create a nice core shadow. If

  • we move the reflection source closer to the angle of the main light source, it will illuminate

  • the area where the core shadow would have been.

  • If you don’t see a distinct core shadow, many artists choose to cheat one in because

  • it can add to the 3-dimensionality of the form.

  • Reflected light doesn't just affect form shadows. It also affects cast shadows. Less light can

  • bounce into this deep crevice where the egg and table meet, and so that area gets darker

  • as it goes deeper. This is called an Occlusion shadow.

  • LIGHT ZONE

  • Moving on to the light zone, immediately after the terminator, is the halftone. These are

  • planes of the form that are partially hit by the direct light. As the planes get closer

  • and closer to facing the light, they will get lighter. And the point where the form

  • points directly at the light is called the center light.

  • The center light shouldn’t get confused with the highlight. The difference between

  • the two is that the center light is the plane facing the light source, whereas the highlight

  • is a reflection of the light source. A reflection will move depending on where the viewer is.

  • So let’s say this is the egg. The viewer, or camera is down here, and the light source

  • is over here. The center light will be here facing the light source. The highlight however

  • will need to be at the point where the light can bounce off the surface of the egg and

  • reach the viewer’s eyes. These two angles need to be equal. If youve played billiards,

  • this is very similar.

  • To test this concept let’s mark the point of the highlight, and mark another point for

  • the center light. Now let’s move the camera and see what happens. Ok, you can see here

  • that the highlight moved to a different spot, following the camera. The center of light

  • hasn't changed.

  • Don’t let the math of all this confuse you. Highlights, and also cast shadows which we

  • discussed earlier, can be changed and they can still look believable. People are not

  • going to call you on a highlight being in the wrong spot. I can take the highlight on

  • this egg, move it to a different spot, and change the shape. And it still looks believable...

  • I’ll often change the shape of a cast shadow to better describe the form it is being cast

  • onto. For example if I have an object that casts a shadow appearing to go against the

  • form. The form of this paper towel roll is a cylinder and to show that I would change

  • the cast shadow from the egg to wrap around the cylinder. I usually try to describe the

  • form that the shadow is casting on to, rather than the form casting the shadow.

  • So, give yourself artistic license. Learn the rules, and then learn how you can break

  • the rules to improve your drawing...

  • Just want to let you guys know, I will be releasing a DVD very soon. So, keep your eyes

  • out. Itll include all the video tutorials I’ve done so far, PLUS a few extras that

  • will be available only on the dvd. I’m hoping to have it available in the next few weeks.

  • And as always, if you liked this video, share it with your friends. They might like it too.

  • And don’t forget to subscribe to the mailing list on proko.com to get the latest and greatest

  • tutorials. See you next week.

Welcome to Proko my name is Stan Prokopenko, a lot of you have been asking for videos on

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