Beyond the Realism - The Reflected Light Every Art Student Gets Wrong

I've been watching many drawing tutorials on YouTube and I've noticed that many beginner artists are aiming for hyper-realism or realism in their art. So I'm going to tell you about one very small but very important detail that completely changed the way I see and draw. And I know that many art students are struggling with this. I'm talking about the way we handle shadow. A round form, a sphere, and in my case today, an apple. I will tell you how I see the shadows. This will definitely change the way you see shadows. So let me show you. You know, many beginners, when they're shading, go all the way to the very edge of the form. The result looks clean, very graphic, but let's be honest, not real. Because in real life, the shadow actually never reaches the very border of the form. Because there's always a very thin, very gentle band of reflected light that goes around the form and that makes the form alive. Or as my painting professor used to say, there's always a gray line around the shape. This is not our imagination, it's, how should I put it, it's the world bouncing back into the object. And maybe it's a reflection from the table, even though if it's black, there's still reflection. Or the reflection from the wall the object is close to. Or even the air around the object. And this reflection, this air around the object, prevents the object to look like a cut-out shape. A shape cut out and glued onto the paper. And if we ignore this and let the shadow go all the way to the edge of the shape, then it will look unnatural. The drawing will become flat. Of course, it might be your goal to make a flat object and to make a fat outline around the object, and it's your style, it's your technique, it's what you're going for. No problem with that. But if you're going for realism in drawing or painting, then the shadow never goes to the very edge. Unless you want the object to look like it's cut out, this might be okay for a cartoon or stylized drawing, but if we're talking about realism in drawing, you need a classically trained artist, you'll probably never do the fat outline or a shadow going all the way through. Unless you're a sculptor. Sculptors do that. Because sculptors need outline. And if you want to capture the object the way it exists in the atmosphere, then keep this in mind. There is only one situation when the shadow goes all the way to the very border of the shape. It's when the object is pressed against the wall. But also in this case, there is reflection coming from that wall. Depending on the color of that wall or the table, the reflection will get a bit of that color and will bring this color into the shape. And that will make the shape either slightly darker in the reflection or slightly lighter in the reflective part. But there is still an interaction, there is still communication between objects, communication between an object and an atmosphere. The border is never a black line. Because in real life, nothing is isolated. Yeah, that's why academic artists never use fat outlines, unless it's their goal. Let me be smart for a moment. The world doesn't really have outlines. There is always light and shadow. And the nature is harmoniously reflecting everything. There's always communication between objects. There's always this interaction. And that's why objects merge, dissolve, or shift. Even if they're still, they're still moving. You know, because the world around them is changing. And everything in nature will harmoniously reflect each other. And when I understood this, my drawings changed completely. I stopped separating things from each other in a still life, let's say. And I started letting them be together, breathe together, exist together in a drawing or a painting. An object and a background. Light and air. All of this you can see in an object. So next time you draw an object, an apple, a simple sphere, or something round, think about this. Look for this very thin light line inside of the shadow. You'll be surprised, really. It's very easy to miss, but this thin line of light inside of the shadow gives your object realism, naturalism, weight, and truth. Because in the end, nothing in life we see around us is cut out and glued onto a surface. That everything is connected through light, through color, through the soft reflections. And this is what makes the world around us so beautiful, and so harmonious, and so real. You know, let me tell you a couple more things about realism. I don't know why, but many beginner artists think that the sharper the image, the more realism there is. So they try to make everything so sharp. Sharpness is not realism. The diffusion is realism. The diffusion, that's what makes your image look realistic. Next time you're working on your hyper-realistic drawing, don't make it sharp. And if you ask me, like very honestly, I don't know why people make hyper-realistic drawings or paintings. If you want hyper-realism, go make a photo, and print it out. We are not printers, we are artists. So if you're making hyper-realism, that's fine. Feel free to do it. Show your mastery, show your skills. But to me, it's less of an art, I would say. It's more of a printing job. Yeah, guys, and don't get me wrong. Printing can be art, but art is never printing. So if you're going for realism, make it artistic. Make it beautiful. Don't make a copy with sharp edges. Real life is never sharp edged. It's never cut out. It's always diffused. It's always in communication with other objects, like me and the sample. Yeah, and in a comment, feel free to let me know what you're struggling the most when working on a drawing. Write a comment. And if you want to know my very simple three-part proportion rule when drawing a person, then watch this video. And I'll see you next time. Ciao, ciao.