Drawing Still Life and Nature
Senior 1 · Fine Arts
Drawing Still Life and Nature
Lesson 3 of 5
22 min
Hold an orange in front of a window. One side glows, the other side sinks into shadow, and a dark shape appears on the table beside it. Your brain reads that pattern of light and dark instantly and knows that the orange is round. Draw only its outline and you have a flat circle; add the light and shadow and the circle becomes a ball you could pick up. Photographers, sculptors, product designers and film makers all control light for this reason. In drawing, you control it with value.
Value (also called tone) is how light or dark an area is. A value scale is a strip of boxes that moves in even steps from white to black. A simple five-step scale runs: white, light grey, middle grey, dark grey, black. The change from one value to the next can be sudden, as at the edge of a box, or smooth and gradual, as on a ball. A smooth change is called a gradation.
When one light shines on an object, every part of it belongs to one of two families. The light family is every part that faces the light. The shadow family is every part that faces away from it, together with the cast shadow. A rule that will save many drawings: every value in the light family is lighter than every value in the shadow family.
Light from the side shows form best, because it divides every object clearly into light and shadow. Light from the front removes most shadows and makes objects look flat. Light from behind turns objects into dark shapes with bright edges (silhouettes).
Ishimwe draws an avocado lying on a table, lit by a window on the upper left.
The Dutch painter Adriaen Coorte painted this bunch of white asparagus in 1697, on paper mounted on a wooden panel. It is a lesson in light on cylinders.
Tip
"On the thing, from the thing." The core shadow is the shadow on the object; the cast shadow is the shadow thrown from it. In the exam, always draw the light direction first, then check that every cast shadow falls on the opposite side.
What is the difference between a core shadow and a cast shadow?
Solution: the core shadow is the darkest band on the object itself, where its surface turns away from the light; the cast shadow is the dark shape the object throws onto another surface, such as the table.
A lamp shines on a cup from the right. On which side of the cup will its cast shadow fall?
Solution: on the left, the side opposite the light.
A student shades the reflected light on a ball almost white, as bright as the lit side. What is wrong?
Solution: reflected light belongs to the shadow family, so it must stay darker than every value in the light family. Tone it down so the ball keeps its clear light side and shadow side.
Describe how the shading on a box differs from the shading on a ball.
Solution: a box has flat faces, so each face has one even value and the value changes suddenly at the edges. A ball is curved, so its value changes gradually from the highlight to the core shadow.
Why does an object with no contact shadow seem to float?
Solution: the thin dark line where it touches the table is what shows that it rests on the surface. Without it, nothing joins the object to the table.
Remember
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