Creative Drawing: Shadows and Realism

David Phan
Drawing: The Only Drawing Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to Be by Kathryn Temple

Simply drawing shapes and figures is great, and even looks really nice if you have a knack for it. But what really makes your drawing pop, what makes it seem alive? Kathryn Temple delves into the concept in the book Drawing: The Only Drawing Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to Be. Temple's introduction to Chapter 3 really shows the importance of shadows, saying, "To make our drawings look as realistic as possible (or three-dimensional), we need to recognize that an object's shadows really define the shape of that object" (Temple 34). This shows how shadows in drawings accentuate the realism of a piece, which is a huge step in becoming a better artist! Temple continues by explaining how the process works: identify the shadows, differentiate the lighter and darker toned shadows, then apply them using techniques of your choice. She even adds examples of shadow techniques you can use (Temple, 35). By doing so, she provides a simple step-by-step procedure to create a more refined and realistic drawing.

Trying these techniques out was a blast. The artwork without the shadows was just an outline sketch of the bear (and not the greatest looking one either!), which takes more time than artistic capabilities. The transformation from no shadow to shadow was amazing, and the final product is shown below. Here, I used my old teddy bear as my test subject. The realism is truly displayed in how the lighting and position of the object is shown. In my drawing, the shadow shading technique I used was hatching, in which you represent shadows with rows of small lines, making them darker and closer for darker shadows. I used the advice given by paying attention to the different shades of grey in the shadows, and drawing them accordingly to make the drawing more vivid.

What do you think about adding one thing to a piece of artwork dramatically changing the result? Do you believe there are more important factors to the detail and realism of a piece than shadows? And if you had to choose an object to draw shadows for the first time, what would you choose to draw and why?

Works Cited

Temple, Kathryn. Drawing: the Only Drawing Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to Be. Sterling Children's Book, 2014.