Basic Shading & Lighting

I have decided to share my knowledge about Illustrator Design. What I learn from internet, from various designer all over the world I will post some of those in this blog. Even sometime I will try to post my own ideas too. Here first Basics - for friends

Basic Shading & Lighting

Digital illustration is awesome if for no other reason then you can create your own reality. Perspective doesn't exist, and true to life shading and lighting isn't limited to mere physics as it is for those who exist outside of the 2D universe.

This tutorial goes over the elementary fundamentals when it comes to shading and lighting within a digital illustration.

Basic Shading & Lighting Illustration / Total Time: A little less than an hour

01_Rough_Sketch: Even though I knew exactly what I wanted to build I still did a quick thumbnail sketch to help guide me. I didn't refine this art since I'd be building it all using basic vector shapes in Ai. Normally I work out my art in the sketch stage but this specific style is so iconic and based on common shapes "Circle" and "Rectangle" it really wasn't necessary.

02_Vector_Shape_Building: I create my core character using the eclipse and square tools. Once I have my fundamental character content created I just use the PathFinder palette to fuse them together..

03_Color_Filled: I fill in the base colors. This is an important first step with digital illustration. Like traditional illustration you want to lay in a base of color. From that you'll layer in other colors to flesh out your illustration and model it just like a painter would, except you'll do it with more vector shapes and use blend modes and gradients.

As you can see our base color is a nice gold color.

04_Prep_For_PrintOut: I make a copy of my base art and apply no fill and a black stroke to all the shapes and print it out. The reason I do this is because I can't draw with pencil over colored toner.

05_Light_Source, 06_Lighted_Object: Before you start drawing out how your shading and lighting should go you need to determine where your light source will be coming from. For this illustration I have decided the light source is in front and above him as shown in the image.

From this we know that the lightest areas of the art will be in the middle and as they go to the side they'll get darker. Think of it this way, where ever light comes from, it's always darkest on the opposite side. Where ever light cannot directly illuminate you'll have a shadow and that shadows size and darkness will be proportionate to how much lighted area is around it.

This by no means is an exhaustive explanation of lighting, we are only talking about one light source for sake of communicating the principles.

07_Sketch_Shading_Highlights: Knowing our light source I draw out my shading. It's OK to take creative license. Our style is graphic and simple, we're not painting a Mona Lisa here. Since I know my light source and the direction it gives me cue to draw from.

The light source tells me:

- Highlights will be on top exposed surfaces

- Shadows will be on bottom of exposed surfaces

- Light goes from the middle and gets darker wrapping around the character

Notice I only drew half the detailing because this is a symmetrical illustration. Half the work, all the glory.

08_Build_Shading_Highlights: Referring to my sketched out highlights I build the shapes needed. To get the main body shape inset I just select the gold yellow body and go to "Object/Path/Offset Path" to get the shape I need for shading.

Once I have all my shading and highlight shapes I'm ready to start coloring them.

09_Color_Shading_Highlights, 10_Color_Palette: Flat is OK but look how much the illustration comes to life with simple shading and highlights applied. All of this is very basic vector work both on the build end and the coloring end. I just use the gradient too to blend with.

The key is the coloring combined with the shapes. I always start with a base (middle color) and create a tint of that base color to form the highlight color. Depending on the area I adjust the tint percentage. If it's a semi-hotspot like on this illustration it's a lighter tint and if it's a lighter area then the percentage is closer to the base color. The shading color I start with the base and saturate the color so it's deeper and richer. As a general rule I try to avoid doing this using black in the CMYK mix. Black will just make it muddy.

Other detail colors like white are obvious as to where they apply as shown. I always use a light blue color break for shading on white areas such as the eyes and teeth. A slightly darker shade of blue for the gaps in between the teeth and the bottom glow of the pupils.

Heres a trick I learned years ago, pick up a highly reflective object (This works better outdoors then indoors) and hold it in front of your face and move it around and watch how the shading changes based on the lights direction. Notice how colors change, highlights change etc.

The more you familiarize yourself with the real the more you can mimic it in the digital regardless of the style it's applied too.

11_Color_Detail_Hierarchy: One important thing to point out is that my objects have a distinct hierarchy in terms of how I have built them. Be sure to deconstruct the source file included with this tutorial and look through the layers to see how objects are stacked and what blend modes and transparencies are set to get the end result.

Observe the following:

- Gradients in Shapes

- Blend Modes of Shapes

- Transparency Setting of Shapes

- Tints of Colors

12_Final_Art_Closeup: Now you know how "Newbert" came to life. He has famous uncle named "Pacman" and his cousins have made a very good living as "Scrubbing Bubbles."

13_Newbert_Klan: Newbert has a lot of friends because in the world of digital illustration cloning is about as common as breathing is in the real world.

In all seriousness I hope this helps to demystify the somewhat intimidating task of shading and highlights for you. The good thing is the more you do it the easier it gets. So have fun.

Note: These tutorials are meant to help you discover, enhance and facilitate your own creative growth and skills. So don't feel obligated to take my comments or examples as gospel. Use them as spring boards to explore, experiment and have fun developing your own creative process. That is how you'll benefit most from these downloads.

Von Glitschka / Illustrative Designer

www.artbackwash.com

www.glitschka.com