Incorporating lighting and shadows into your
art is a great way to start adding more form
and depth , but also a way of amplifying story
and mood into your pieces. You might have
a particular emotion that you want to express
and by using certain colours, especially in
your lighting and shadow choices, you can
really accentuate a particular feeling that
you're going for.
For beginner artists though, integrating the
use of lighting can be a bit "daunting" at
first, especially with there being "so" many
other fundamentals to learn when starting
out.
The main focus today will be on lighting and
shadow colour, and. a way to think about it
in simple terms to get you started in the
right direction.
Starting off with the basics, here we have
3 spheres represented by 3 different flat
colours.
Let’s add our shadows. Ok, so keeping it
simple here using a cel shaded approach, just
purely focusing on the separation of light
and shadow.
Although this might look ok at first, here
we have an example of the most common mistake
for new digital artists when deciding to shade.
The obvious and understandable thought process
is that "when something is in shadow, then
it gets darker right?" And while that is correct,
it's important to understand that the shadows
we see on a day to day basis don't often go
into complete darkness or "pure black".
Depending on the surrounding "environment",
light is still able to reach the shadows,
but just not as strong or intense as a "direct"
light source. These lights or "shadow-lights"
are often referred to in different terms as
- Ambient Light, Bounce or Reflected Light,
Indirect Light and Diffuse Light.
If we take a closer look at each of these
shadow colours, what they all have in common
is that they are heading towards black with
no variation in hue or saturation, only the
brightness. In art terms, this results in
a muddy sort of lifeless look due to that
lack of variety, and becomes even more apparent
when we have combinations of different local
colours and adding things like blending, form
shadows, backgrounds, etc.
The key is to remember the environment as
a whole and that when light bounces off an
object, it also brings some of that colour
with it, and if these "bounced" lights reach
the shadows, then it's going to affect what
colour the shadow will be.
Looking at colour, it's also important to
know that different hues bring a different
feeling of temperature. Intuitively we know
that things that trend towards reds and oranges
tend to feel warmer and things towards blues
are cooler. The same can be represented on
a colour wheel. One side being the warmer
hues and the other side being cooler.
Another common misconception is that shadows
should "always" be shown as a cool colour,
One coming from that innate feeling of being
colder when out of direct sunlight but also
because of the "blue" sky being a big and
common ambient light source, making a lot
of outside shadows appear bluer.
It mainly comes down to the relation between
the light source, and the surrounding environment.
You can in fact have a cool light and warm
shadows as well as the opposite.
Using a contrast of temperature in your lighting
and shadows will in most cases, increase visual
appeal and make a piece feel more dynamic.
To illustrate a good example of the cool light
- warm shadows combination, here we have a
still from the animated short film, FEAST.
Although using a basic cel shaded like art
style, there has still been a lot of thought
put into the lighting process to create a
visually appealing scene. As mentioned in
part 1, notice the shift in hue and saturation
as well as the brightness from the lights
to shadows to create more interesting colours.
For another example, some concept art from
Kung Fu Panda 3 by Max Boas. Here we have
that "Golden hour lighting look” with strong
emphasis on the warm lights and cool shadows.
Not only is there that clear separation, but
also notice the warm colours "bouncing" back
into the shadow areas, mimicking what would
happen realistically.
It's important to note that you don't have
to always venture to the other side of the
color wheel to show contrast in temperature.
Remember that colour is also relative, you
might have one color that you'd say is warm
but next to another one looks cool in comparison.
Through life experience we all have a particular
association and feeling towards different
colours in a given context. You might have
seen one of those colour psychology charts
listing different emotions that each gives,
and these can certainly be used when it comes
to art.
In the animation industry, there are specific
job roles where the central purpose is to
correctly map out a “whole story” thinking
mainly in terms of colour and lighting. Some
examples of these are "color script" and "color
key artists". They work with colour to reinforce
the emotions for the viewer on a "subconscious
level" that makes them feel more engaged with
the story at different stages.
If you’re looking to level up your ability
to tell a story with colour, studying both
live action and animated films are a great
place to start. There are literally teams
of people with years worth of experience,
working together to try and produce a good
story alongside having a visually appealing
product.
A good way to keep coloring simple is to break
down your own process into layered steps.
This is where the strength of working digitally
comes into play.
For a lot of digital artists, I think colour
can often become an afterthought. Obviously
it's usually done in the later stages, but
also because you're mainly trying to produce
a good drawing foremost with focus on the
other fundamentals. I've had it many times
where it “feels” like i've produced a
good drawing, but when getting to the colouring
stage, becoming frustrated and feeling like
i'm undoing all the previous hard work.
Thankfully, experimenting and editing is made
stupidly easy nowadays. There are an abundance
of tools you can use to finetune exactly what
you want. Things like colour Sliders, different
blending modes, having the undo button.
Of course, there are many other aspects and
nuances when it comes to having better colours,
but the key is to have fun experimenting and
study art that inspires you the most.
