Shading critique
3yr
Maximilian Roth
Hey all!
Here's a recent drawing I did. The first pic is after the shadow mapping and up to this point I feel confident about it. But as soon as I add the shadows it starts to fall apart for some reason and I don't know how to fix it. It feels dirty and no longer as realistic as I would like it to be.
I would appreciate your critique and feedback!
Max
I agree with what Tim said, but just wanted to say that the gesture in this drawing is really nice. Good job :)
The shadow mapping is a really solid start! And you can definitely develop the shading into something really nice. Definitely keep going on this—
I see two things happening with the shading:
One is that you're not being clear enough about what's in light and what's in shadow. In particular, the reflected lights are often the same value as some of the modeling in the light and halftones. The halftones, light, and highlight should all generally be lighter than the core shadows, reflected light, and ambient occlusion shadows. Also be careful to distinguish between those shadow modeling factors. The core shadow value fluctuates quite a bit.
The other thing—some of the smaller fluctuations are suggesting forms to the viewer that don't actually exist. Flattening or smoothing out your shadows a bit can help with this. Check out Dorian Iten's excellent article & video on creating smooth tones: https://www.dorian-iten.com/smooth-tones/ . You don't have to get to the top level of smoothness, but a few passes of "island hunting" could really help.
Hope this helps!
Hey Tim! First of all, thank you for your detailed critique, I appreciate it!
I know I can't fix this drawing completely to suddenly think it's phenomenal but I tried to combine your two very valid points. Normally I'm not a fan of blending stomps but this time I used them to "hunt for islands" while at the same time distinguish the shadow and light side a bit more. It's not that different, but still.
-Max
