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  • It’s the one weve all been waiting for!! SHADING!

  • Stan Prokopenko here, youre watching proko.

  • Form

  • First let’s talk about form, because form is what we are trying to indicate when we

  • shade.

  • In order to effectively shade form, you first need to understand the form youre shading.

  • In the structure video I talked about the basic building blocks of form - spheres, cylinders

  • and boxes. Organic forms found in nature, like humans, animals and trees could and should

  • be constructed from these simple forms to capture the character of the subject. The

  • primary form, such as a cylinder for an arm, should be dominant over any secondary forms,

  • such as the bicep, tricep, deltoid, forearms muscles. And these secondary forms should

  • be dominant over tertiary forms, like a vein or wrinkles. You don’t necessarily have

  • to draw them in that sequence, just make sure that your shading primarily reveals the largest

  • forms, and the smaller forms act as details - icing on the cake.

  • Planes

  • Planes can be thought of as flat tiles, arranged in 3d space to create a form. For example

  • this sphere has a front plane, top plane, side planes, and many more between that together

  • resemble a sphere. They create the illusion of form. Though really a sphere is rounded,

  • without any flat planes, thinking of it in this way will help to imagine the sphere as

  • a 3d object and aid in the shading process. You can think of each section and imagine

  • which direction that plane faces. Then compare it to the direction of the light source. The

  • plane facing the light is the lightest and progressively get darker as they turn away.

  • This gradation of tone on the planes gives a sense of light on the form and helps to

  • show the 3-dimensionality of the sphere. If you want to round out the edges to indicate

  • a softer form, then soften the edge between these planes! Though sometimes leaving the

  • edges between the planes hard even on what looks like a rounded form can help to illustrate

  • the structure more effectively. Consider the 3-dim

  • ensional form rather than just blurring edges for techniques' sake.

  • I also want to point out that when youre simplifying a form, what youre doing is

  • decreasing the number of planes which that form consists of. This 3d model consists of

  • millions of planes, 3d artists call them polygons. When we lower the polygons down to a few thousand,

  • we get something like this. Much more manageable for our brains to process. This is the level

  • I'm usually thinking at when I’m observing the planes on an organic form like a figure.

  • Shade these planes with soft edges and it gives the illusion of millions of planes.

  • But in my mind, I’m only thinking of a few major planes for a given area.

  • If you lower the polycount even further, basically what you have is the robo bean and the mannequin.

  • It’s good to imagine each form as a block and identify each minor plane as either being

  • part of the top, bottom, front, back or side planes.. The simple planes of a block are

  • the most important ones. George Bridgman saysAvoid all elaborate and unnecessary tones

  • which take away from a plane appearing to be on one of 4 major sides.”

  • Light on Form

  • When an object is lit by a direct light source, you will get a very predictable pattern of

  • lights and shadows. We can make a form feel 3d by indicating all the parts of the lights

  • and shadows correctly.

  • Let’s do a little example. An elongated rounded form with some thinner cylindrical

  • ends. This can be a generic muscle, similar to a bicep. You have the rounded belly of

  • the muscle with tendons on both ends.

  • First determine the angle of the light source. Let’s say top right.. And imagine the planes

  • that make up this form. All the planes that face the light will belong to the light family.

  • All the planes that face away from the light will belong to the shadow family.

  • Core Shadow

  • As a divider of the two families youll usually see a core shadow - a darker strip

  • at the edge of the shadow. This core shadow shouldn’t be the same all the way the down

  • the form. In the rounded belly part of the form, the core shadow will be thicker with

  • a softer edge. As the form transitions to the thinner tendon, the core shadow will also

  • get thinner with a sharper edge. Make sure you pay attention to what youre indicating

  • with the core shadow. Avoid drawing racing stripes down the form. This usually happens

  • when people think 2-dimensionally and don't consider the 3 dimensional form they're indicating.

  • Is it cylindrical, cuboid, or somewhere between the two? Draw a soft, firm or hard edge accordingly.

  • Reflected Light

  • Fill in the shadow side with a clean dark value, but lighter than the core shadow. This

  • is called the reflected light. It’s lighter because of bounce light and reflections from

  • the environment illuminating this area. I always start with a flat value first, even

  • if I see variations of value caused by plane changes inside the shadows. The most important

  • part is to separate the shadow family from the light family.

  • Later in the drawing we can work on the plane changes within the shadows if they are really

  • important. Though in this example there aren't really any plane changes, just a soft gradation

  • to show the rounded form. On a complex form like a figure, it’s usually a good idea

  • to keep the details within the shadows quieter than the details in the lights. Most of the

  • story is going to be told in the lit areas. Naturally the viewer will look into the areas

  • where the light shines, so you want to put the interesting detail work there, and keep

  • the shadows as the areas of rest. This drawing by Steve Huston is a really good example of

  • this principle. He keeps the shading inside the shadows very simple. Here’s another

  • one. He kept the shading on the bottom of the feet so simple that he completely lost

  • it into the background. Same thing with the hair.

  • Centerlight and Halftones

  • Next, identify the point of the center light. This is the point where the plane faces directly

  • to the light. The halftones appear as a gradation darkest near the core shadow and lightest

  • at the center light. So, I’m thinking about how these planes get lighter as they wrap

  • around toward the centerlight. Then down here, the planes start to turn downward, also getting

  • darker. Once we get to the cylinder of the tendon, the planes turn back to face forward.

  • Highlight

  • The highlight is different from the center light, but sometimes appearing to fall very

  • close to the center light. Remember, the center light is the plane that faces the light and

  • the highlight is the plane that reflects the lights relative to the position of the viewer.

  • A simple way to remember the interaction between the center light and highlight is - When the

  • shadow is thin the highlight will be very close to the center light. When the shadow

  • is large, then highlight will be farther from the centerlight, moving closer to the shadow.

  • So, I’ve established the shape of the highlight and gave it a sharp edge on the side and softer

  • toward the top and bottom.

  • Cast Shadow and Occlusion Shadow

  • So far we have a center light, highlight, halftone, core shadow, and reflected light.

  • There’s two more that were missing. These elements occur when there’s an interaction

  • between two forms. So let’s introduce a random cylinder into the scene. This cylinder

  • blocks light from hitting the surface of the muscle right here. That’s called a cast

  • shadow, because it’s cast by the cylinder. When I draw the cast shadow shape, I use it

  • to describe the shape of the object it is casting on to, not the object it is casting

  • from.

  • The area deep under the cylinder will get less bounce light and so it will be darker.

  • That’s an occlusion shadow. Keep the edge at the cylinder sharp and the edge going away

  • very soft.

  • So, those are all the parts. Review all these elements and practice spotting them on directly

  • lit objects.

  • There are 2 other things that I look for that could affect the value of the form.

  • Local Value

  • The local value of the object itself shifts the value range. These 2 eggs are light exactly

  • the same way, but you can see how the value range is different. On the white egg the range

  • from darkest core to center light is pretty wide. On the brown egg the values get compressed

  • and pushed darker.

  • Interestingly, the highlight isn’t affected as much. It still gets darker, but not as

  • much as the other parts. Because of that the highlight on the brown egg appears very bright.

  • The value of the highlight depends on the reflectivity of the material. A glossy surface

  • will have brighter highlights, whereas a highlight on a matte surface might not be visible at

  • all. The effects you see on these eggs are really close to what you’d see with skin.

  • Intensity of Light

  • The intensity of the light also makes a big difference. Intense light will create more

  • contrast between the lights and shadows. Dim light, low contrast. The intensity of the

  • light can shift within the same object. For example in this figure drawing, the light

  • source is above the figure, so the light is intense at the top and drops off toward the

  • bottom as the forms get farther from the light source. And this is actually something you

  • can cheat. You don’t have to see this on the model in order to do it. You can use it

  • as a compositional trick to guide the viewer’s eye to the focal point. In this case I’m

  • guiding the eye to the upper back, which has the interesting light and dark design pattern

  • of the anatomy. Here's another drawing by Steve Huston, which illustrates this very

  • well.

  • Detailed explanation of the process - available in the premium course...

  • What?! I’m sorry! I gotta leave something for the paying students! Can’t give everything

  • away for freeIt’s cheap anyway, just go to proko.com/figure and you can have all

  • those figure drawing fundamentals extended lessons. And a bunch of examples and stuff

  • from the lessons. Do it!

  • If youre posting your own drawings from these lessons on social networks, use hashtag

  • prokoor tag me, @proko on facebook @stanprokopenko on instagram so I can see

  • your drawings.

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It’s the one weve all been waiting for!! SHADING!

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