01-29-2015, 12:47 PM
If you can, pick up how to render. It's got like 100 pages on casting shadows. If you want it super accurate you need to know the perspective and where the shadow direction and lightsources are, but for an illustration thats not always necessary.
But anyways, something you can do now is get a stick or an action figure and shine a lamp on it. Local light doesn't work the same way as the sun does, but you'll get a better idea I think.
This is the gist of casting shadows: http://www.sketchwiki.com/images/shadow_...-box04.jpg Think of everything as a stick. Light rays need to pass through the tops/vertices of the sticks. The shadow direction originates from the lightsource and passes through the bottom of each stick and where this crosses the lightray your shadow ends. In the sun, lightrays are perpendicular since its so far away so it makes shadow construction easier
Since your shadow direction is parallel to the horizon, you don't need to worry about shadow direction too much(it just goes horizontally). What you do need to know all the time though is where your lightrays are coming from, and where they are hitting your forms. Again, it appears to be that the sun is hitting the girl perfectly from the left, so the lightrays will travel parallel making your life easier and your shadows are going off canvas. In other words, you have a fairly easy setup here. All you need to know is where your forms are, so you can make better predictions about the width/shape of the shadow and if there are any holes. It's really tempting to make it a similar width to the actual character, but keep in mind its being foreshortened and its casting a different dimension than the one we're seeing
Take a look at this: http://faestock.deviantart.com/art/Ashling-280493553
It's not exactly like your setup, but Notice how thin it is? It should be more or less similar to this. Also it looks like her back foot is raised slightly, and theres space between her legs. Your shadow should reflect that too. I did a quick paintover to try and show what I'm saying. I didn't calculate it really and you don't need to, but i hope it helps. Shadows don't need to be guessed, nor do they need to be completely worked out. But you can make educated guesses with the physics in mind
![[Image: 121s9e9.jpg]](http://i59.tinypic.com/121s9e9.jpg)
But anyways, something you can do now is get a stick or an action figure and shine a lamp on it. Local light doesn't work the same way as the sun does, but you'll get a better idea I think.
This is the gist of casting shadows: http://www.sketchwiki.com/images/shadow_...-box04.jpg Think of everything as a stick. Light rays need to pass through the tops/vertices of the sticks. The shadow direction originates from the lightsource and passes through the bottom of each stick and where this crosses the lightray your shadow ends. In the sun, lightrays are perpendicular since its so far away so it makes shadow construction easier
Since your shadow direction is parallel to the horizon, you don't need to worry about shadow direction too much(it just goes horizontally). What you do need to know all the time though is where your lightrays are coming from, and where they are hitting your forms. Again, it appears to be that the sun is hitting the girl perfectly from the left, so the lightrays will travel parallel making your life easier and your shadows are going off canvas. In other words, you have a fairly easy setup here. All you need to know is where your forms are, so you can make better predictions about the width/shape of the shadow and if there are any holes. It's really tempting to make it a similar width to the actual character, but keep in mind its being foreshortened and its casting a different dimension than the one we're seeing
Take a look at this: http://faestock.deviantart.com/art/Ashling-280493553
It's not exactly like your setup, but Notice how thin it is? It should be more or less similar to this. Also it looks like her back foot is raised slightly, and theres space between her legs. Your shadow should reflect that too. I did a quick paintover to try and show what I'm saying. I didn't calculate it really and you don't need to, but i hope it helps. Shadows don't need to be guessed, nor do they need to be completely worked out. But you can make educated guesses with the physics in mind