Light is essential to sight. Without light there is no sight, at least not with our natural eyes. Because figure drawing begins with seeing, a book about figure drawing should have some significant information on the nature of light and how our eyes perceive it. Understanding how light works on objects in a scene helps the artist create a feeling of depth and substance in a drawing. In Figure the lighting on the dress indicates that it is a dark satin material. In nature the artist often doesn’t have much control over the lighting of a scene. About. | CHAPTER 7 Figure The lighting shows what kind of material the dress is made of. Lighting the Figure Light is essential to sight. Without light there is no sight at least not with our natural eyes. Because figure drawing begins with seeing a book about figure drawing should have some significant information on the nature of light and how our eyes perceive it. Understanding how light works on objects in a scene helps the artist create a feeling of depth and substance in a drawing. In Figure the lighting on the dress indicates that it is a dark satin material. In nature the artist often doesn t have much control over the lighting of a scene. About all that can be done to change the lighting is to wait for the sun to move to a better position. Once the sun is in the right place you had better draw quickly though because it will continue to move changing the lighting. In the studio the artist has a lot more control over the lighting of a figure. In a studio situation the artist can change the lighting of the figure by moving the light sources or by opening and closing window coverings. Too often the artist does not take enough time to make sure the lighting of the figure is exactly right. When using a virtual model such as in Figure Artist lighting becomes even more critical because all lighting in the scene is staged in the program. Not only does the artist need to understand how to move lights he also must understand how to simulate actual lighting effects from real life. 133 Figure Drawing with Virtual Models Take a look at Figure . Can you see any lighting problems Would this lighting setup make a good figure drawing In this chapter we will be looking at how to light a figure. We will also cover many aspects of shading your drawings. Types of Light There are basically two types of light in drawing direct light and reflected light. Direct light emanates from a light source such as a light bulb or the sun. During a normal sunny day the world is bathed in .
