How to draw a shadow?

A shadow is an obligatory attribute of any object andof a living being. Depending on the lighting, the shadow can be longer and shorter, falling in different directions, but it always is. And if it has a real object, then in art it is also necessary to display a shadow.

For people who rarely encounterthe need to draw, the question of how to draw a shadow with a pencil, paints or even a simple pen, is quite complicated. The fact is that in order to draw a shadow, you need to understand where the lighting comes from, at what angle the light rays fall on the object. It is very important to observe the balance of shadow and light when drawing, because if you do not follow these rules, the drawing will not be realistic. In order to create a beautiful and clear shadow, you need to fill your hand with the creation of its saturation and sharpness.

First of all, the length and saturation of the shadowaffects the light. When daylight rays fall on the object, the shadow is deeper and sharper. But on cloudy days the shadow is barely visible, as the light is evenly dispersed in the atmosphere. Therefore, before you start to draw a shadow of an object, you need to provide quality light. Especially it concerns drawing from nature. You need to create the right lighting to make a dark hard shadow or blurry and soft. In order to get a hand and learn how to draw a shadow, it is better to take a simple chicken egg as a model.

Draw a shadow in stages

How to draw a shadow? First, take a sheet of paper and draw an ovoid shape.
Now look at your model and determine,where the light comes from, what parts of the egg are as much as possible illuminated, and which are completely dark. After that, you need to determine the type of lighting to understand which shade is hard or soft.
Then you need to put on the sheet a barely visible point, from where the light really goes to the egg.
Now you need to understand the semitone. The ovoid form should be lightly shaded with light touches, so that the egg becomes lightly and evenly gray. Short strokes give a brighter halftone.
Examine the shadows and glare on a real egg. Usually these glare and shadows look like a crescent moon. You need to put out the outlines of such highlights and shadows on your drawing in accordance with how they are located on a real model.
Now you need to work out the places in whichlight goes into the shade. You need to slightly bend the fragments of the shadow, repeating the rounded sphere of the egg and giving it volume. To do this, you need something a little stronger, then a little less pressure on the pencil, getting light and dark shades.
Where there are bright highlights, you need tofigure rub with an eraser. As a rule, light reflects on the egg from the surface on which the model is located, while this flare looks like an egg on the egg as a light strip. It also needs to be displayed in your drawing with the eraser. In addition, the egg gives a shadow on the table, which also needs to be displayed. It must first be outlined by a contour, then shaded and achieved that its saturation was uniform.

Now you just have to practice, and then you can easily draw the shadows of any object.