What does shadow mean to you? To most folks, shadow means dark, and beyond that, there's not much more to it. But we artists can find and create
mysteries in shadowed areas that the lay person might not see. Before we can do that, we must be able to observe exactly what goes on within different kinds of shadow.
Was your first answer "dog"? Switch your attention to the dark pattern and look at how much of this dog and its surroundings is in shadow. In
this particular kind of back lighting, what we see in shadow in both the negative and positive spaces plays the largest role in identifying the characteristics of the dog.
Here's what the shadow shows us along his neck area.
This large shadow area contains a range of five values. Notice how their variations show us the rhythm of movement within the dog's fur. But that's not all:
notice the subtle changes in color that happen within each of those value areas.
We can group these shadow values and color variations as deep shadow, moderate shadow and shallow shadow. Notice how their alternation with light create the details of the dog's
eye.
So, when we look more closely, we will see that it's not just the darker values that show shadow. We see also variations in hue and degrees in value differences.
See how many value and color changes you can find in the shadow areas of the apples and the leaves in this photo. Look for some to be deep, some moderate and some shallow
shadows.
Enjoy a weekend of discovery!
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