HOME | DD
Alenas —
Basic Lighting Tutorial
Published: 2012-07-02 12:06:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 65811; Favourites: 4011; Downloads: 1565
Redirect to original
Description
Long tutorial is long. Again @_@... I have got to stop making such long tutorials. Originally it was even longer before I increased the width of the whole thing. >_>Anyway, my basic Lighting Tutorial! This is for all of you who have trouble with lighting and how to apply it correctly in your works. This is how I got to understand it so don't take me for a pro or anything, though, but hopefully, it'll be somewhat helpful.
All photos in it are © me so no ripping, please.
Special thanks go to Brad and Nysha for letting me use some of their works. <3
Related content
Comments: 426
Thank you! That was very helpful :3 I could never quite understand how lighting affected objects in regards to color. I only understand it well with black/white and gray-scale :/ My colored works thus suffer from it, but now hopefully I can get better 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You're welcome and I'm happy it helped you!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is great! Makes me feel like I had barely any idea what I was doing when I shaded this! >,< [link]
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Lol, I guess practice makes perfect; thanks for the feedback!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
No problem! I'll be keeping your tutorial on hand next time I shade a drawing.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
who cares if the tutorial is long !? its GOOD! it really does help to clarify the "shadows" and how lights work :0 and when ya meantioned the whole "back lighting" ~ tht is SO true ! it is a common mistake and it really is good for people to realize that so theyir pictures may become even better ! :0 readin all this is worth it !! good job and actually.. thanks for helpin me understand a bit more bout the positions of lighting
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Aww, thank you for the feedback, I'm really happy it helped~
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I just wanted to say, WOW! I've looked at maybe hundreds of lighting and shading tutorials, and this is the first one that has answered my questions so thoroughly. I knew that shadows weren't just adding black, but I couldn't understand how people chose colors. Some said to choose only purples or blues for shadows, to choose a random cool color, or some other technique I just couldn't seem to understand where they were coming from (I understood the reflected light before, but somewhere along the way that also got lost somewhere in my mind). So because of the confusion, I've worked my best in black and white, not that you coul from my gallery.
You definitely worked hard at this, and it's a well deserved DD, so congratulations, and thank you for the learning experience!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you kindly for the feedback, I'm really glad this managed to help!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you so much for your explanation. This helps a lot!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Glad to hear that, thanks!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
this makes the lighting concept so much clearer. thank you for sharing your knowledge
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Lol, no problem, thanks for the comment!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
oh wow!! this is sooooo detailed, i struggle with lighting, i hope this will help ^_^ Thanks
congrats on the DD!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Favorited so I can use it as a reference when I paint miniatures. Should be extremely helpful.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I clicked on this and then gasped hugely when I saw the Nabari art at the top~ xDDD
-massive Nabari no Ou fangirl-
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
This was pretty good. Not sure how well the lighting situations you were describing showed up on the character though. I feel like maybe you could have stepped away from the really soft-edged brushes, especially for the sharp highlights needed for the backlighting or what's also called rimlighting (where the light source is behind the subject and creates a very bright outline along the edge of a form). Otherwise I liked your examples and thought the explanations were fairly thorough. Good job!
By the way, if you're curious about what to call parts of a shadow, this blog post might help you: [link]
(^It's by James Gurney, the writer and illustrator of Dinotopia. His free blog is more educational than most art courses these days.)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh, thanks for the link! Yeah, I know my terminology was perhaps a bit odd in some places (it's just the way I understood things so I tried to explain it the best I could) but I'll probably go back and fix/add some things. Regarding the character shading and lighting, it was done quickly and in my style but maybe I'll change that, too when I find some time.
Thanks for the feedback!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Great! Lighting is one of my current issues when coloring, and this tutorial helped a lot in the way I see things when I'm coloring.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I just noticed that ingenious watermark : D Love this tut. And I love you.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Dang this is a good tut. Infinte thanks!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
awesome tut. very helpful and informative. really well layed out
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
A fab tutorial, great individual demonstrations.
I'm a comic artist and I do my best to apply these principles in my own work... your tutorial will help me get even better.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you and I'm glad it was helpful. Good luck with your projects, too!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
you made life just a bit easier. thanks.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Haha, I'm glad to hear that. Thanks for the feedback!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
OMG. SO HELPFUL. I gotta try this out. ;^;
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Lol, good luck with your works and I'm glad this helps!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I have never understood light shading... Even when I've taken art classes most of my life. @_@
Mostly I have issues with the source being behind a person as well as color light sources. @_@
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Lol, I've never taken any art classes, I mostly taught myself stuff but it's really not that hard to get - you just have to observe how things act and the dynamics of it all...okay, I know, sounds harder than it is, lol but it's really not.
As for the sources behind a person, you can see that if you put your hand in front of the sun for example or even a lamp and see how it looks at an given situation. It's all about observation, really. xD
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm horrible at observing. ;^; *cryyyy*
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
*pats* I guess it takes some practice, too, not everyone was all 'Oh, I get it!' at their first try. xD
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I know. XD. If I had more things I could use to observe, but alas. ;^; Don't have much. #beingpoorsucks
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
<= Prev | | Next =>