Shading Shadows and Reflected Light

        Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog! Today, I will be looking at the shadows of a drawing, and how to draw them correctly in order to make the drawing look as realistic as possible. 
        Whenever I draw something, of course I always add shadows, because the drawing wouldn't look like anything without them. But the harder part is to know how to add shadows. Where to add shadows at all, where should I make it darker, or lighter? How do I make a shadow transition smoothly as light usually would in real life, so it would look real? I decided to make a blogpost on this, to help me get better at this specific skill.
        Before I started though, of course I read what the author had to say, and what advice I should take to know what to go off of. As I was reading, a key piece stood out to me, "Soften the transition between shadow and overall value by using less pressure on your pencil. Put in the cast shadow, incorporating horizontal strokes to help the shadow lie flat. Show reflected light in the shadow, either by erasing shadow values or darkening around them" (Garcia 63).

My finished drawing of a cup

        Instead of drawing off a real live model, this time, I wanted to try to draw from an already drawn picture. I thought it turned out pretty good, much better than I expected. I also changed the kind of paper I used, taking the advice of my peers. This paper is much less rough, and much easier to blur, making my shadows look a lot smoother than before.  Not only did that first piece of advice from the author help me, but also where Garcia talks about how you should use your finger to blur the shadows, and the edges, where needed. Also she states to change direction of you pencil often, with tighter scribblings, to make it easier to smooth it out (Garcia 63). All in all, I thought this drawing is better than my previous ones, and this book answered my questions, and helped me immensely.


        What do you think about my drawing? What could I improve on? Do you agree with the author to change direction of the pencil often to make it easier to smooth out a shadow?


Garcia, Claire Watson. Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner. New York,

     Watson-Guptill Publications, 2003.