Someone told me my shadows were all wrong and it took me a week to see what they meant

I spent like 6 months doing these moody character portraits with heavy black shadows on one side, thought they looked killer. Then a random commented that my light source direction kept switching between pieces and my shadows didn't match the highlights. I changed to using a single reference photo for lighting on every piece I start now. Has anyone else had a basic technical critique that totally shifted their whole approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley18127d ago

Someone told me my shadows were all wrong" reminds me of the time a friend pointed out my characters' eyes were always looking in slightly different directions. I spent two years drawing portraits where one eye was staring off to the side while the other looked straight ahead. It made everyone look like they were having a stroke. Fixed it by drawing one eye, then flipping the canvas horizontally before starting the second one. Still can't unsee that weirdness in my old sketchbooks.

christopher94327d agoMost Upvoted

Wow, that's a whole new way of looking at it.

tylerj2227d ago

Flipping the canvas horizontally is a solid trick for catching eye placement issues, I use it all the time. But honestly, having a single light source for every piece sounds super limiting. Different scenes need different lighting setups to tell the story right. A person standing in a dim room looks nothing like someone under a bright lamp, and locking yourself into one reference photo would kill that variety fast.