Chapter 3 | FASTER THAN YOUR OWN SHADOW

Shadows can be funny like in the drawing of the comic book hero Lucky Luke who shoots even faster than his own shadow! Here I have copied the original by artist Maurice de Bevere (1923-2001) and changed it a bit.

The shadow of Lucky Luke on the floor and the wall is called a drop shadow. The more the light comes from the side (from the sun or a lamp or a candle), the longer the drop shadow. This is shown below with a kind of obelisk. Further away from the obelisk, the drop shadow fades slightly. It is better not to draw a line around such a real shadow. So the edges remain a bit fuzzy.

Exercise 1: draw some obelisks or a columns and try out a few different light directions from the left and right.

In wintertime the sun is very low and you get super long drop shadows. It looks really crazy when the sun is shining behind you and you see your legs completely stretched. A good stretching exercise for which you do not have to do anything. Maybe you also like to draw such an elongated drop shadow.

With Lucky Luke, it seemed as if the shadow was crawling up against a wall. In the next two drawings by pupils, the drop shadow even crawls up a staircase. By the way, shadows aren’t always black, they can have a color! Just look at the paintings of the French painter Claude Monet.

Exercise 2: Draw a figure with a drop shadow climbing up a wall or a staircase. Perhaps someone who is faster than his/her shadow.

Extra: in the following still life only the outlines are drawn. First draw the still life as lightly as possible. Then draw the shadows that arise when the (side) light comes from the left. Draw the shadows on the objects as well as the drop shadows. You will find an elaboration in Chapter 4.

NB:  you can print out every chapter from basic pencil and therefore also this still life. You then only have to draw the shadows. Click on ‘archive’ in the top left of your screen and click on ‘print’.