Finally Someone Explains Why To Do Something And Not Just What To Do

Finally someone explains why to do something and not just what to do

I see this kinda advice passed around all the time here is the thing: shading with black will indeed look bad if you don’t know what you are doing. However, telling people not to do things without explaining why is terrible advice.

Shadows are the opposite of light, this includes in colour.

This means that if you have light in one colour, the shadow will be of the opposing hue, saturation, and value.

Unless the object is white, it has its own local colour - the object’s true colour, how it would appear if the light were pure white.

The colour of the light influences the local colour of the object. so if you had yourself a brown cube and a blue light, the colours would get bluer and pinker.

now the reason shadows do not tend to be black is because pure white light is hard to find in nature.

the closest you will get to pure white light is during a really overcast day and the sun is filtering through the clouds, but even then it’ll lean towards yellow so the shadows will be slightly blue.

During a clear day, the shadows will pick up a lot of bounce light from the blue sky and have a blue tinge. You can learn more about this in this tutorial: [http://artbyriana.deviantart.com/art/Why-shadows-aren-t-gray-321656856]

But! None of this means you are never allowed to use black.

realistically shadows will have a hint of a colour to them, but stylistically you might be going for, say, a film noir look and deep black shadows are needed for impact for example.

The more you know about how light works, the more informed decisions you can make about shading and the more options you have.

If someone tells you that you can’t do something, they’re wrong! you can do what you like!

yes, black is hard to use and if you just mix a colour with black it’ll get muddy, but thats easily resolved by choosing your colours manually - which ideally you want to do regardless bc the computer doesnt have your eyes & cant choose the colours you like

basically if someone gives you some art advice and says you can’t do something, they’re wrong! you can, you just might need to study a little to figure out how to make things work.

I mean for example, people will say you must make your composition follow the rule of thirds and never align centrally, but while the rule of thirds makes it easy to create visual interest, Mad Max Fury Road is a testament to the fact that central composition can and will work if you experiment.

there are no rules in art! there are theories based on reality, this has been a post on colour theory & light theory, but they exist to inform you, not to restrict you.

Do what you like! Trust your eyes, if you think something looks good, then great! If you don’t, then research & experiment until you do.

Also if you wanna learn more abt colour theory, I go into it in a lot more depth over yonder: http://helpfulharrie.tumblr.com/post/131822744966/ http://helpfulharrie.tumblr.com/post/131958395841/

More Posts from Lowdicrous and Others

lowdicrous

9 years ago

Alrighty. Sorry for the delay this week for the monster, but school has just been trying to kill me. But I wouldn't have it any good other way. So this week, it a pretty loose dragon sketch. I think I was just starting learning anatomy from my books so it's all out of funk. Plus he is WAAAYY out of proportion. Yeah didn't really like how he turned out. But hey, all artists have off days!

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sketch monster dragon creature design

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lowdicrous

9 years ago

This week's monster is a very loose sketch of a four-eyed biped. Unfortunately, I'm more familiar with quadriped anatomy, and so biped anatomy is wonky for me, especially the abs and obliques.

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lowdicrous

9 years ago

So I decided to watercolor tonight and because what I originally worked on did not really work out well because of my crappy paints, I decided to take a loead off and finally do some Undertale art First on is of Papayrus in the Reverse Undertale AU and Papyrus is using Sans' telescope to look at the stars in the cave. Second is @rotten-tears Mega-brother which I found out about thanks to @thelostmoongazer The Fusion of Papyrus and Sans is saying (papyrus' side) "Sans THIS is why you're so depressed!? Why didn't you tell me!!??" I just kinda figured that when they are fused, they would not only share emotions but thoughts, to Sans' dismay.

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undertale rotten-tears mega brother Reverse Papyrus and Sans

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lowdicrous

7 years ago

This beast here was going to be a part of my Inktober 2016 work, but then I decided that it would be cool to have a stippled background... which means that I finished it about three months after. Stippling is a pain in the ass my friends. I have recovered though. Just means that this piece was the entirety of my Inktober work, and more. I'm pretty satisfied with it though because of the crosshatching on the body of the beast that contrasts with the background stippling. He was actually inspired off of a little lamp that sits on my art desk. I was just looking for simple forms of inspirations and BAm, Light Beast.

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my art ink beast ink drawing creature concept india ink light beast

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lowdicrous

6 years ago

Inktober 2018 Day 19

“Scorched”

I always like seeing process pics, so have the sketch and the completed piece. I actually really like this one, even though its been a few days since I drew this one. Yay for me XD

Art © Me

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inktober inktober2018 inktober day 19 inktober 2018 penandink scorched

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lowdicrous

9 years ago

Im excited to finally be able to see what replies are all about because ive never experienced them yet

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lowdicrous

6 years ago

Titled: The Smoke I Bleed

Art © Me

Idk how long this damn thing took, but I’m glad it’s finally done and I can move on with my life. The stippling for the smoke definitely took the longest and if the chance comes up again I wouldn’t do it again (that’s a lie i know I would do it again…. just with a few months in between. Crosshatching is much easier). I get why people say to stretch for this stuff though. It kills the neck for the hours it takes.

Edit: idk why it says that the first pic is from that other blog??

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my art illustration furry creature art stippling pen and ink india ink snarly the smoke i bleed

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lowdicrous

6 years ago

Inktober 2018 Day 5

“Chicken”

At first I was like, what the hell am i gonna do for this days prompt. Then I remembered that chickens are pretty metal. My muse may or may not have been that video where a cat is hunting this mouse and then a chicken comes in and steals that mouse, killing it by thrashing it. I was sick and I love it.

Art © Me

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inktober inktober2018 ink chicken inktober day 5 inktober 2018

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lowdicrous

6 years ago

Inktober 2018 Day 31

“Slice”

I am a major slut for pretty and fluid animation, and because this prompt reminded me of Genji, I decided he would be my muse for this day. You might recognize the pose from the Dragons short when he slices Hanzo’s arrow. That scene gave me shivers.

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inktober inktober2018 ink drawing genji genji shimada overwatch genji inktober day 31 Slice

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lowdicrous

9 years ago

@crapnatters

Detail of Miniature Graves / Confetti Funerals - for the Gallery Nucleus 11 Year Anniversary Exhibition. Watercolor, gouache, & colored pencil on paper.

http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/485/pieces/

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