How to Draw & Shade Objects & Things with Sunlight Coming From Side with the Following Drawing & Shading Lesson

SUNLIGHT AT THE SIDE.

Fig. 9 represents the same group when exposed to the direct rays of the sun from a direction about the same as that of the light in Fig. 8.

Effects are light.

The first point to be noticed is that the effect is much lighter than that of Fig. 8. This is due to the fact that outdoors there are strong reflected lights coming from all directions which lighten all shadows and cast shadows to a great extent.

Cast shadows are sharp

Next we notice that the cast shadows are as sharp and distinct as the edges of the objects. This is always the case when the cast shadows are near the objects that cast them. On the other hand, the greater the distance between any edge and its shadow, the softer is the contour of the shadow, because the rays of sunlight are not quite parallel, and thus soften the cast shadows which are distant, as explained on page Gradation in shadows and cast shadows. The cast shadows are sharp in outline and more nearly of one value than in Fig. 8, but there is gradation in them and also in the shadows. Thus the cast shadow of the plinth upon the cylinder reflects dark upon the shadow side of the plinth and upon the cast shadow of the plinth on the foreground. The shadow side of the plinth has nearly the same value as the foreground, instead of being darker as in Fig. 8.

Directions of cast shadows.

The cast shadow of the pencil is a continuous band which runs along the shelf, then up on the vertical side of the plinth, and then along upon the top of the plinth, where its direction is the same as upon the shelf, for when the shadow of any line falls upon parallel surfaces the shadow has the same direction on each surface. The cast shadow of the pencil upon the shelf and of the cone upon the background are curved by the uneven surface of the paper.