Tuesday, April 7, 2009

TUTORIAL: Why Light Direction Matters in your coloring

LIGHTING AND SHADING
Tutorial by Chris Dickinson
www.chrissyd723.blogspot.com

Why Light Direction Matters in your coloring…

If you want your coloring to look authentic or realistic, you want the direction of your art to be consistent throughout your entire project that you are creating. Sometimes, the stamped images will show you lines with the shading done already, but other times the stamp will not include the shading so you cdan have a bit more flexibility in your coloring.

You may want to get a lamp that you can change angles and choose a still life object to play around with your light direction and shadows. Remember when you were young and you would try to hide from your shadow or jump on it? (Or was I the only weird one? LOL) It typically would move around depending on the time of day or where you were standing. The following notes will help you in directing your shadows when you color.

With your Light Direction, you have several different options…

1. Overhead Lighting – This is when your light hits your objects from over head.
When outdoors, over head lighting happens around mid-day. Your shadows will be small and directly underneath your stamped images.

2. Frontal Lighting – This lighting occurs when the light is in front of your stamped image. There is a lot of contrast between your objects and tends to flatten them, eliminating fine detail.


3. Side Lighting – This lighting occurs when the light hits your stamped image from one side. When outdoors, side lighting will happen in early morning or early evening.


4. Back Lighting – This lighting occurs when your light is directly behind an object. It will create a dark silouette.



5. Soft or Overcast Shadows – This lighting happens when you want your artwork to look like the lighting is filtered, smoke, pollution, clouds, etc. There will be softer shadows and colors and there will be very small contrast in the shading.



These tutorials take extra time and I want to make sure they are helpful to you and worth the time! Please let me know - good or bad I can take it!

Have a blessed day!
Chrissy D

13 comments:

Moni said...

Waw great, you are so nice to show this! Great! Hugs, Moni

Unknown said...

Great tutorial. Thanks for sharing all that info.

Kathy W said...

great job and info Chrissy=tfs, much appreciated

bsgstamps4fun: Barb Gault said...

Very informative,Chris, I never thought about shadows on an object on my cards. Thanks for showing us the various, lighting angles. I realize I still have much to learn and your tutorial is another step in the process.
Hugs!

ribenaruby said...

Thank you very much, i never seem to know and struggle but your tutorial has showed some very good points,thanks again!

Create It Simply said...

Another awesome job!

Sandy said...

Great tutorial!

Sally said...

Great Tutorial! I have such a hard time with shadowing!

Maria Matter said...

Chris this is a wonderful tutorial! I sometimes concentrate so hard on coloring "just right" that I don't pay attention to light direction! Well done!
blessings, Maria

li-marie said...

Hi Chrissy - not been able to find the time to particpate in any of the challenges lately - my best friend and his mum both been diagnosed with different terminal illnesses within the space of a few weeks but still trying to read your blog whenever I can. Please DEFINITELY keep the colouring/shadowing tutorials coming as they are the hardest to master and I really do keep coming back to them.

li-marie xx

Rosella said...

What a fantastic tutorial on light source! Love how you show us the difference it makes!

Linda S. said...

Hi Chrissy,
Thank you for taking the time and work to make this tutorial. I try to always think about lighting and how it would make shadows on my subjects, but I feel like I have trouble following through until I finish the coloring. You are so right in that it is a very important detail to remember and work on. Thanks again. Linda S. in NE

Ret said...

thanks so much, this is really helpful!