3. Light & Shade

Now that you can burn different shades and can draw straight lines, what about tracing or drawing a still-life with some curved lines and shading. Shading makes objects look rounded and 3 dimensional. The light is reflected brightest off the nearest surfaces to the light source and the surfaces that are facing away from the light will be darkest. Sometimes an object that is further away from the light direction will have shadows thrown onto its surfaces. Here are some points which should be considered:- i) Round objects have ellipses at either end. ii) Do the spaces between the drawn objects allow enough room for the roundness or bulk of them? iii) Which direction is the light source?

Exercise 3

Draw (or trace my example of) a still-life onto a piece of plywood. Set the pyrography machine at a medium heat and then go over all the lines you've transferred onto the wood surface. You've now got a line drawing, but we want to make it look more three dimensional and curved. So, with a pencil, indicate the direction of the light on the wood with an arrow. Look at where the deepest shades or tones are and look for where the light is being reflected off the brightest. Remember the six shades you've got in Exercise 1! When you're going to shade an area of a curved surface, try to draw the point or wire along the curve of the object, this helps to make the surface appear to come towards you and then go away. Try to make your shading gradual going subtly from light to dark. Use an eraser to rub out the arrow for light direction.

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