light

[Ios]

Does any of you know a good way to learn how light falls?
I seem to have some problems with it...

[Justin.]

Flip the 'on' switch,
Use your eyes

Done.

AS annoying as I am being,- for real, just turn a light on and move your hands in front of it. It makes a ton of sense, it's not like it's some large complex math equation.

[Elwell]

Remember, it only travels in straight lines. Elementary, but very important, and often forgotten.

[jason_maranto]

It's not light thats tricky but the form that light is hitting... learn the form and the light becomes very predictable.

Best,
Jason.

[Shadowwing]

Well, there is lot more to light than just straight lines. It depends on how strong the light is, and also you have to address the light that gets reflected back into the shadowy area.

[Elwell]

Well, there is lot more to light than just straight lines.

Of course there is. But, stating the obvious is important when addressing a basic question like this, simply because it's not necessarily obvious. One should start from first principles when trying to understand a complex subject, and, when it comes to light, this is absolutely The First Principle. It forces you to conceptualize the size and direction of your light source, and the relationship of the forms to it.

[Ios]

Yeah okay, thanks, but do you guys also have some sort of tip on what kind of stuff I could be practicing on? (I mean, what kind of things are easy to do and how can you build the level of difficulty ordered by objects/things?)
I want to be able to draw some environmental stuff a bit better, so I can't 'just flip on the lightbutton' in some desert or something.

[Wasker]

Andrew Loomis have a good book about values, read it but before you read it you have to download it ;

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthre...8&page=1&pp=15

[VirgL]

Drawing objetcs such as cubes and spheres to practice your light rendering is a good way to start too. Also, try to mark your light source on your pages ( just like a camera aiming in one direction ) and try to consider how each angle of the object you are rendering face towards the light. Once you are able to draw basic objects with different light angles you should have less difficulty applying the same principles on a figure or environement. And dont hesitate to use a lamp and place different object under it, try to understand how the surface is affected by this light. As Wasker said, Loomis books could help you a lot too

[davi]

get a real egg.
get a lamp with one of those twisty bases so you can position it how you want it.
place it up on something high, draw egg. start bringing it closer egg. closer.... draw egg. bring lamp closer. cook egg with light. drawn cooked egg. eat egg?

[Jtho]

You really can learn a deceptively big amount about light from simply drawing an egg or another round object. You can observe how the form shadow creeps along the egg itself, light reflecting off the surface the egg rests on and back onto the underside of the egg, a cast shadow from the egg onto the surface it sits on which varies in hardness based on the closeness of your light source.

Once you get that down move up to a bell pepper or something and study those principles on a more complex shape, and keep ramping it up.

Start with simple shapes and just take note of what happens really, this is a fundamental aspect of drawing from life; you might see this stuff every day of your life but you'll never internalize it until you actually NOTICE it.

[Ios]

okay, that's a big help thanks a lot

[briggsy@ashtons]

One thing to be careful about with Loomis - he never understood the nature of the highlight or it's position. In both Creative Illustration and Successful Drawing he implies that it is at the point directly facing the light source. It isn't.

We see the highlight at the point where the surface is at just the correct angle to bounce light from the light source to our eyes - that is, where the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. In general, this in NOT at the point facing the light source, but is somewhere between that point and the middle of the object as we see it. Light hitting the point facing the light source hits the surface at right-angles, and so bounces straight back to the light source, not to our eyes.

That said, the rest of what Loomis says on light is highly recommendable, especially in the relevant section in Successful Drawing:
http://fineart.sk/show.php?w=211 (to 230)