3. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
1. Diffused Light
Image from Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo
4. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
When you’d see diffused light:
• Under a cloudy sky
• Sometimes when light streams through the
window into a dark room
• From a portrait photographer’s soft box
1. Diffused Light
5. Diffused Light causes:
• Soft cast shadows,
• Occlusion shadows
• Strong local color
• Top-facing planes have
slightly different value
from side-facing or
front-facing planes
Images from Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo
8. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
Diffused light - Bonus advanced techniques
You can also try
narrowing the range
of any painting’s
values for a special
artistic effect.
Claude Monet Marc Shetabi
11. See how woodgrain
nearly disappears.
Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
2. Direct Light
Image from Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo
12. Important:
Local value and color matter less
under direct light. 80% of your
attention should go to the shadow
shapes.
Also, contrast is highest in the
foreground. Everything gets grayer
in the middle- and background.
Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
2. Direct Light
13. When you’d see direct light:
• Direct sunlight
• Indoors under a spotlight
Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
2. Direct Light
Vocab:
A core shadow is the one
wrapping around the body
of the object (in this case,
it’s right on the sphere).
A cast shadow is cast onto
the surface.
14. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
Bumblebee the Robot says:
Your human minds are programmed to pay
attention to local color/value. But you’re
oblivious to how light changes local value.
That’s why you fail this easy test . . .
Which square is lighter: 1 or 2 ?
16. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
. . . And a glossy black surface in bright light
can be lighter (aka higher value) than a white
surface in shadow.
A painter must be able to see these relative
values.
30. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
Putting it all together
Kevin Zamir Goeke
31. Grant Wood
When your scene has extreme light/dark contrast
and lots of busy shadow shapes, use subtle colors.
Save your expressive colors for diffused light.
---Paraphrased from Harvey Dunn
32. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
Putting it all together
George Inness
Notice the shadow
is transparent (like
a Photoshop
multiply layer)
33. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
Putting it all together
Edward Hopper
34. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
Direct light - Bonus advanced techniques
Hard-edged
cast shadow
Soft-edged core
shadow on cylinder
35. Zudarts Lee, 2019
(Taipei, Taiwan)
Hard-edged cast
shadow from hair
onto left cheek
Soft-edged core
shadow on right
cheek, forehead
37. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
Wayne Thiebaud, 1920
Direct light - Bonus advanced techniques
Colorized shadows
on a simple subject
(though I’d avoid this
embellishment for a
complex scene)
38. Value + Realistic Light/Shadow
Summary
• In diffuse light, your front-, side-, and top-
facing planes should have different values
• The most dramatic light/dark contrast
happens in the foreground. The
background gets grayer and hazier.
• In direct light, worry about the light and
shadow shapes first. Local color and local
value aren’t too important here.