Professional Photographers, Illustrators, Videographers, and Painters all use light to add depth and realisim to their art. Your sketches are probably full of thick and thin lines, crosshatches, and tick marks. Whether you know it or not, you’re using illustrative techniques to simulate light in all of the images you create.

Light can be illustrated through the use of color variations and blending techniques. The absence of color or tone can also illustrate light - especially in black and white images. There are a few characteristics of light that you’ll need to study in order to create realistic light sources and three- dimensional objects.

We’ve drawn a quick sketch of an egg with a black pen on copier paper to demonstrate each of the characteristics. A great place to find examples of the best shading techniques on the planet is in a comic book.



Light area or Full light - this is the white area, or the brightest area, of the object. The light source is directly hitting the object in this area. The placement of the light area on the object indicates where the light source is placed in the environment.

Halftone or Medium grey - this area is not in the direct light or in the shadows. It softens the transition between the form shadow and the full light area.

Shadow edge or Form shadow - this shadow is placed on the opposite side of the light direction on the object. It is not created by the blocked light source. This shadow defines the shape and surface of the object creating a three-dimensional effect. It is softer and less defined than a cast shadow.

Reflected light - this area separates the edge of the object from the cast shadow. It isn’t white, it’s usually a medium grey or similar color tone.

Cast shadow - the darkest shadow in your drawing. It’s created by the object blocking the light source. The edge of this shadow is well defined. The further it is from the object, the lighter the shadow gets.