The Shading Course

Practice: Terminator Studies

Lesson by

Dorian Iten

inThe Shading Course

3.9K

Mark as Completed

Assignments 88

Lesson Notes

Practice: Terminator Studies

Lesson by

Dorian Iten

in The Shading Course

3.9K

Mark as Completed

Assignments 88

Lesson Notes

Overview

In this project, you'll draw different objects from life, looking specifically for the terminator.

Materials

Pencil
Paper
Eraser
An object to draw

White or light objects with matte (not shiny) surfaces are ideal. Good examples are toilet paper rolls, eggs, garlic, paper cups, folded paper, etc. You can also cover any object with white paint and then draw it. 😀 For now, avoid shiny objects, such as glossy ceramic. Avoid complex objects unless you have plenty of time to draw.

Example

Steps

Set up your object and lighting, so you can clearly see the terminator. Direct sunlight usually works well. If you are indoors, make sure you only have one light source shining on your object.
Sketch the object, emphasizing the terminator.
Tone in the form shadow and cast shadow, each with a flat, unified tone.
If you like, you can color the terminator in red and the cast shadow in blue.
Take a photo of your object and your sketch and combine them into one image. (If you don't have Photoshop or similar, you can use Canva.com.)

Duration

This project should take 30–60 minutes to complete.

Common Mistake: Rendering

Don't render/shade the drawing. Just focus on identifying the terminator.

Common Mistake: Breaking the Shadow Family

Keep the tonal value unified across both the form shadow and cast shadow areas.

Aurora

•

I also took some images from Pinterest to study

@delia

•

@tonyhcf

•

11d

@aamado

•

1mo

Roland Karafa

•

4mo

Josh Fiddler

•

2mo

Good effort. Simpler forms would be better for avoiding traps. For instance, with the Raybans case, that forward edge might just be a dark half tone and not a shadow at all, since it's on the lit side and the surface is rounded. Pencil test would answer that question. And the controller has a lot of complex plane changes and a couple of local colour changes.

Marcy Pineda

•

7mo

It was a bit challenging to do it straight from observation since the cast shadows were diffused just based off my light lamp. I’m also not sure how to shade or draw diffused cast shadow so I tried my best 😭 Anyways, critiques are welcome! :)

Josh Fiddler

•

2mo

Hey, it's been a while and maybe you've figured this part out but for others following, I thought I'd say something about your issues. Overall, I'd say you did alright. The diffuse cast shadow can be understood from considering the light source and what impacts shadow shapes and qualities. Notice that the penumbra is quite large in both references. Going back to the earlier materials, that's because the light source is so close to the object. Remember, a lightbulb is somewhere between an area source and a point source and when it's as close as it is in your photos, the rays hitting it will have a very wide cone and so on the far side of the subject, the cast shadow is quite long but also the penumbra will be stretched and even more diffuse (the light is glancing off the bottles at really shallow angles and scatters the light). Another issue is that the tabletop is somewhat more reflective that is helpful. That desk has a coating that makes it more reflective. Try to use something more matte, like a sheet of printer paper or if you have it, a large sheet of plain newsprint. You want to minimize the variety of colours and textures that might skew your eye's recognition of values as you build facility with recognizing value simple contrasts.

Nicolas Ladouceur

•

8mo

Some of the shape might too simple or complex. Might try more of theam in the near future.

@marq777

•

8mo

Hopefully I did a decent job

Martha Muniz

•

7mo

Nicely done!

Vin

•

9mo

My terminator assignment. I tried to focus only on the terminator, ignored the details of shape but still distracted by the shapes...

@kotka

•

11mo

Terminator study. The angle of the photo was a little different since I had to stand up to get a sharp image on my phone.

Kyle Adam

•

1yr

Practice: Terminator Study.

Josh Fiddler

•

2mo

excellent result. Ignored reflected light in the cast shadows. Awesome.

Derek Adams

•

1yr

Josh Fiddler

•

2mo

I think this fell into the trap of rendering. The goal of the exercise is to understand the shadow-masses and how they underpin the form of what we're seeing. When toning in the shadow-mass, for this exercise at least, just use one tone. Ignore the penumbra, the reflected light, core shadows, and any tonal variation within the cast and form shadows. The image should be page colour and one uniform mid-tone grey. No half-tones in the light masses. No highlight shapes. Reduce information. Simplify. :-)

@squishygian

•

1yr

For my terminator assignment I drew my sandal at the beach

Samuel Sanjaya

•

1yr

my terminator line assignments. Is the terminator on the apple look like that because of the form, or is it because the skin of the apple is reflective ? Any feedbacks will be greatly appreciated.

@rfrimpong3

•

8mo

I'm a beginner, so it could be better, but I tried my best.

Tara Dery

•

1yr

Terminator probably looks like that due to reflection off the table.

Martha Muniz

•

1yr

Hey Samuel! Nice job, and congrats on starting Dorian's shading course--it's super informative and useful :) In regards to the apple, it's a bit of a tricky situation but the terminator line would continue in its original curve just like it would on a sphere. It just happens that due to the strong direct light and light ground surface (the desk), the bounce light is especially strong, but it would still be considered part of the shadow group. If you color pick from the light side and the bounce light area, the bounce light is still darker than the light. Good work on the rest of the studies--and for the plant, I know it can be difficult to deal with a complicated group of shapes like that, but it can help to start with a general, simplified shape of the plant as a whole, then break it down into small groups of leaves, rather than drawing one by one.