be the delulu you wish to see in the world

for the drawing you are referencing i was using a picture as reference which is probably the best way to actually learn how shadows work since it's a real photo!

i did change some of the colours to make the drawing more saturated which is where you have to start figuring out the shadows and light,,,it's a lot of colour theory but in this instance it's basically warm light = cold shadows

it's good contrast and because light bounces around there usually is some blue from the sky in every shadow when it's sunny!

(also picking colours is a very different skill set, but you can get better if you start just eyeballing colours instead of colour picking or only using layer modes, it’s what i do most of the time nowadays)

quick visual to explain it’s kind of nonsensical, but an attempt was made xP looking at it now i could’ve made the light even warmer in the drawing to contrast the bluer shadow, so looks like i’m learning here too!

also important thing to remember is contrast if you look at the ball on top it’s got tone and colour variation which makes it pop way better than the ball below which is just all the same colour with very little variation which can be boring to look at (not always because it depends on what kind of mood/lighting you’re going for but in the example here it wouldn’t be as dramatic without the all the contrast!)

it's a lot of trial and error and i've only recently really started analyzing how light and shadow works, and that's mostly because i was forced to in school, so you can see i’m not super into doing studies by myself, but you kinda have to if you wanna improve (⁠╥_╥⁠)

it can be really annoying, but doing photo studies and especially drawing/painting from life is genuinenly so helpful in shadow placement it's insane,, i've noticed so much improvement after doing it for the last couple of months (⁠@⁠_⁠@⁠)

yeah uhh moral of the story practise!! do studies (b&w + coloured), look at real life references, just look around you and see if you can distinguish the different colours in light vs shadows/where they're placed (or look at paintings and do the same), study how other artists do it, it will take a while, but i promise that you will get better if you try

for the drawing you are referencing i was using a picture as reference which is probably the best way to actually learn how shadows work since it's a real photo!

i did change some of the colours to make the drawing more saturated which is where you have to start figuring out the shadows and light,,,it's a lot of colour theory but in this instance it's basically warm light = cold shadows

it's good contrast and because light bounces around there usually is some blue from the sky in every shadow when it's sunny!

(also picking colours is a very different skill set, but you can get better if you start just eyeballing colours instead of colour picking or only using layer modes, it’s what i do most of the time nowadays)

quick visual to explain it’s kind of nonsensical, but an attempt was made xP looking at it now i could’ve made the light even warmer in the drawing to contrast the bluer shadow, so looks like i’m learning here too!

also important thing to remember is contrast if you look at the ball on top it’s got tone and colour variation which makes it pop way better than the ball below which is just all the same colour with very little variation which can be boring to look at (not always because it depends on what kind of mood/lighting you’re going for but in the example here it wouldn’t be as dramatic without the all the contrast!)

it's a lot of trial and error and i've only recently really started analyzing how light and shadow works, and that's mostly because i was forced to in school, so you can see i’m not super into doing studies by myself, but you kinda have to if you wanna improve (⁠╥_╥⁠)

it can be really annoying, but doing photo studies and especially drawing/painting from life is genuinenly so helpful in shadow placement it's insane,, i've noticed so much improvement after doing it for the last couple of months (⁠@⁠_⁠@⁠)

yeah uhh moral of the story practise!! do studies (b&w + coloured), look at real life references, just look around you and see if you can distinguish the different colours in light vs shadows/where they're placed (or look at paintings and do the same), study how other artists do it, it will take a while, but i promise that you will get better if you try