Welcome artists!

[FONT=Verdana]Here is a quick recap of what The Spotlight is all about!
[/FONT]
The Spotlight is an activity thread for pastel artists of all experience levels working from photos chosen by a monthly host. Most months, the host will choose photos from only one subject, putting that subject into “the spotlight,” so to speak! For example, one month the subject will be painting water, another month will spotlight flowers, etc.

Some months, rather than spotlight a subject, the focus will be on a challenge of some sort. In those cases, we might have a wider variety of photo references, but “the spotlight” will be on the challenge itself.

Since this is a group activity, we can pool our knowledge and resources, and grow as artists in a fun, “no-pressure” atmosphere.

And, remember, no critiques unless specifically asked for.

The intent is to have fun, try new things, experiment, and perhaps most of all, to see what our friends and colleagues are painting from the same reference material!

Please note: The photos this month were taken by me or are from the Reference Image Library. You have permission to use the photos as reference to create your artwork and to sell them and/or exhibit them. The actual photos still retain the copyright of the photographer. So you cannot copy the photo to your blog, for example, without the permission of the photographer, or digitally alter or reproduce the photo for any purpose other than for your personal use, with the exception of crops, digital alterations and posts of these photos within “The Spotlight” thread.

This month’s Spotlight is on…Cast Shadows!

Most of our Spotlights of late have been concentrating on landscapes, so I thought we should offer up something different this month, so I began looking for still life subjects from our Reference Library. As I was picking them out, I noticed that I was choosing photos that had some very distinctive cast shadows. So I thought, let’s put the Spotlight on Cast Shadows!

One aspect of cast shadows that I am not going to address is how to properly draw them in perspective. There are many books and tutorials that cover perspective that usually run many pages long. In most of those cases, people are drawing cast shadows from their imagination, but since we have references, I figured we don’t need those perspective tutorials. We can just observe those shadows closely! Of course, close observation is always my advice when painting from either life or photo reference!

When it comes to cast shadows, the artist is dealing with shapes – both positive and negative – to help get the shadow shapes correct and in the right position. But here are some other things to keep in mind when it comes to cast shadows.

1) The edges of the cast shadow will vary based on the light source. If the light source is stronger and closer, the edges will be harder. When the light source is more distant and/or softer, the cast shadow edges will be softer. And, of course, multiple light sources just makes things more complicated, so I will try to avoid those in the references.

2) The edges of the cast shadow will be harder the closer they are to the object casting the shadow. Imagine the cast shadow of a telephone pole, for example. Where the cast shadow begins at the base of the pole, the edges of the cast shadow will be hardest, and then will become softer and softer the farther way from the pole the shadow is.

3) The cast shadow is also darkest at its closest point to the object casting the shadow and lightens as the distance from the object increases.

4) There’s color in those shadows! While often hard to see, both in real life and in photos, don’t forget that there may be colors reflecting (or shining) into the cast shadows. While we are concentrating on indoor still life in this Spotlight, we shouldn’t forget that in outdoor scenes with blue skies, blue light from the sky often shines into shadows influencing the cast shadow colors. In still life, you might want to look for color from the nearest objects reflecting into the cast shadows.

Of course, like all things about painting, some of these principles are most often true, but there may always be exceptions due to varying circumstances! (I see a few exceptions in my references already!) So observation is always the best principle!

Here are a couple of links to some additional information on painting cast shadows:

https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-mediums/oil-painting/cast-shadows/

http://emptyeasel.com/2008/09/30/how-to-use-cast-shadows-in-your-paintings-and-why-theyre-important/

One thing about cast shadows in paintings – they offer the artist a chance to put in interesting shapes and colors. How realistic you want to show them is up to you, but they may also give you the chance to add color, be bold, and exaggerate to make them more interesting!

The references:

Photo by ivyleaf

Photo by Madmum


Photo by Madmum

Photos by me

As always, feel free to modify the references. And have fun!

Don