How Do You Draw Letters With Shadows?

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Do you want to larn how to add shadows to your lettering?

You've come to the correct place.

Hey, creative people!

I'm RK Sanchez, also known as Skribsinner on social media. I am a self-taught lettering and modern calligraphy creative person from the Philippines.

I started my modern calligraphy journey in May 2022 and since and so, I haven't left a unmarried twenty-four hours without creating annihilation with my pens, trying to be better than my "yesterday" self.

With the help of constant do, along with all the bloody experiments and frustrations (lol), I am here to teach you the basics of shadowing and the techniques that I discovered (but not invented) over my two-yr journey.

Here are the things that you will learn after reading this article:

1. What are shadows and why practise we put them on messages?
2. The source of light
3. The 5 types of shadowing

Also:

We are going to have some stride-past-stride instructions so it'south better to have your writing materials ready, such every bit brush pens/markers and paper, throughout this article.

Hither are the usual materials that I use:

• Brush pens: Artline Stix, Sakura Koi, Tombow ABT, Faber Castell
• Fine Tip castor pen: Tombow Fudenosuke Soft Tip or Pilot Petit 3
• Light grayness brush pen: Zig Clean Color Real Brush No. 091 (lite gray) or Sakura Koi Coloring Brush Pen No. 153 (light cool grayness)
• Drawing pen for outlines: UniPin, Sakura Micron
• Pencil: Pentel GraphGear 500 (PG515) 0.5mm
• Newspaper: 200-250gsm vellum board

But of course, you lot tin can use the materials that y'all are most comfortable with.

Let's get started!

What are shadows and why practice we put them on messages?

Before explaining anything, let'due south check these two figures out:

They are the same word written by the same person, using the same strokes.

But at that place is a big divergence between the two: The first figure looks good but plain and apartment, whereas the second one seems to be more realistic with its 3D effect.

This funky 3D expect of the second figure is fabricated possible with the help of shadows.

Shadows are basically the area where the lite can barely enter or cannot enter at all.

Endeavor to look at all the stuff around you lot right now and imagine they simply had one pigment but like the first figure. Isn't information technology dull and unrealistic?

This is why nosotros use shadows to messages.

Shadows brand our letters come to life. They make them more highly-seasoned and stay connected with the viewer, and this is because they await realistic, just as real as the things around y'all right at present.

Disclaimer:

I don't want you to think that shadows are all we need to make our lettering piece look good.

Of course, other aspects such as the letter of the alphabet forms, kerning, etc. are of import. It besides doesn't make y'all a bad lettering artist if you don't apply shadows to your letters.

Shadowing is just a technique that nosotros practice because nosotros desire to exercise it. Information technology'south the artist's choice and manner.

The skilful news is we don't need some mathematical formulas for us to sympathise shadowing in letters.

Unlike in other mediums and forms of visual fine art, the shadowing techniques that I'm going to teach you are easier to sympathise and apply.

The source of lite

Shadows cannot be without light. Where there is light, at that place are shadows.

This is why it is necessary for us to know where the source of light is when shadowing.

This is the beginning affair that you should decide before putting the shadows.

And yes, you saw it right. It'due south you who decide where the light source should be.

The basic rule:

The shadows should announced on the opposite side of the light source.

• If your light source is on the left side, the shadows should appear on the correct of the letters.
• If your light source is on the right side, the shadows should announced on the left of the letters.

The same thing when your light source is in a higher place the messages, your shadows should be beneath the letters.

If you're familiar with my work, I mostly use the aforementioned light source which is on the upper left hand (around ten o'clock) of my pieces. Hence, my shadows appear on the lower right (around 4 o'clock) of the letters.

Remember:

Consistency is the key to have a successful 3D illusion for your lettering piece.

Yous can determine to put the light source on the left for something yous practise today, and put it on the right side for another slice tomorrow.

But where you put the source of light doesn't actually matter, as long as you consistently put the shadows on the same side all throughout the slice you lot're working on.

The 5 types of shadowing

Enough for all those technicalities! We finally arrived hither and we're all set for y'all to learn how to put the shadows. Here are the v shadowing techniques that I commonly use.

3.1 Basic Shadow

Just like what the proper noun says, this is the nigh basic shadow yous can put on your letters. This is great for those who take never tried shadowing before!

You lot can apply information technology either on the left or the right side, depending on where the low-cal source is.

Allow's try this having the source of low-cal on the left.

What you need:

• Brush pens and paper
• A light gray brush pen/marking
• A pencil

Step i:

Draw/write a give-and-take like how you normally practise. Any color would do.

Step 2:

Determine where to put the shadows. You tin can use a pencil to mark where the shadows should appear.

(It's okay to disregard this step once you lot get used to where the light source and the shadows should be placed.)

Step 3:

Apply the shadows using the low-cal gray brush pen/marker.

Optional:

Erase the pencil marks if they are likewise obvious. This will make the shadows await neater.

Reminder:

Don't forget to utilize shadows inside the messages and on thin strokes, too! This is something that almost beginners tend to miss.

iii.2 Nighttime Shadow + Basic Shadow

Now, let's double the fun and add a darker shadow, which results to a stunning 3D effect.

What yous need:

• Castor pens and newspaper
• A black fine tip brush pen/marking (I usually use Tombow Fudenosuke Soft Tip or Airplane pilot Petit 3. These are brush pens so the width of the shadow volition be consistent using a single stroke)
• A light gray brush pen/mark
• A pencil

Footstep 1:

Draw/write a word like how you ordinarily do.

Pace 2:

Mark where to put the shadows using a pencil.

Step 3: Utilize the shadows carefully using the black fine-tip brush pen/marker.

Tip:

Get out the black ink and let it totally dry for a couple of minutes. It could spare us from the nightmare of seeing information technology drain or smudging it when applying the lighter shadows. (But it could be a good effect for Halloween, lol)

Optional: Erase the pencil marks if there are still any. Do this only when you lot're certain that the blackness ink has totally dried.

Step 4: Add another layer of shadows correct next to the dark shadows using the light greyness brush pen/marker.

Looks fun, right? 😀

iii.iii Overlapping Shadow

I utilise this in monochromatic (ways using but one color) lettering pieces.

The shadows create an illusion that some parts are on superlative of the others.

Y'all besides need to imagine that the source of light comes from the viewer's eyes.

So the shadows should announced on the parts that are Not on tiptop.

What you need:

• A set of brush pens (at least three) with the same colour family (at least 1 lite, 1 medium and 1 night). For case: green, calorie-free green, dark light-green

Yous may too use colors in analogous harmony. For example: orange, vermilion, red

• A pencil
• At least 200gsm newspaper (we don't want to ruin the work with a thin piece of paper because we're going to apply layers of ink)

Colors that I'll use:

• Base: Orange(Sakura Koi)
• Medium: Vermilion (Sakura Koi)
• Night: Crimson (Sakura Koi)

Step one:

Write a discussion using the base colour.

The base color is the lightest shade of color you have among your ready of pens.

Then if y'all accept red, orange, vermilion, you must use orangish as your base of operations color.

Footstep 2:

Make up one's mind which parts should be on acme. Mark them using a pencil as a guide.

Footstep 3:

Apply the colors on the shadow area starting from the darkest.

We need to blend the colors carefully. The darkest should alloy with the medium i and do it until y'all reach the base color.

In our example, apply crimson starting from the pencil guide.

So gradually going farther from the pencil guide, next is vermilion, which should blend with red, and lastly orange, which should blend with vermilion.

Tip:

Yous can use a little of black or chocolate-brown equally the darkest shade, except when working with neon colors like yellow, apple greenish, etc.

I added a little dark-brown (Sakura Koi) here:

Now, we can see that some parts overlap the others. 😀

iii.four. Ribbon Style

This may exist a trivial more difficult than the others at first, but when y'all finally get the knack of information technology, it will be super fun and addictive.

Here'south the thing:

You lot accept to understand how real ribbons are spiraled and how the curves produce shadows.

When ribbons are spiraled, they expect like this:

And in that location we can see that the "back" of the spiral ribbon produces shadows.

Now, nosotros will combine this concept with the concept of thick and thin strokes of calligraphy to create the ribbon illusion.

To sum it up:

The thick/down strokes will be the "front" of the ribbon, and the thin/upward strokes will be the "back".

What you need:

• The same materials we apply for Overlapping Shadows

Colors that I'll use:

• Base: Fresh Greenish (Sakura Koi)
• Medium: Yellow Dark-green (Sakura Koi) and Xanthous Green (Artline Stix; this is a little darker than Sakura Koi)
• Nighttime: Green (Sakura Koi)

Step 1:

Write a word using the base color.

Tip:

The back and front end of spiral ribbons have the aforementioned width. Hence, when doing the ribbon style, try writing the upward and downwards strokes using similar or the same width. This will make the ribbon illusion more successful.

Step ii:

Using a pencil, mark all those twists and transition sections betwixt letters.

Step 3:

Put the shadows on the up strokes. Use the darkest colour starting at the pencil guide. Blend the darkest with the medium shade and lastly, blend the medium with the base color (just similar what we did in Overlapping Shadow).

Tip:

Find the alphabetic character 'C'. Don't you think this ribbon looks thin?

Notice the alphabetic character 'Eastward'. Don't you think this ribbon looks thick?

The further the shadow area from the bend is, the thicker your ribbon will appear.

iii.5. Cutting Shadow

I mostly use this technique in digitized lettering only this is also bully in counterpart ones!

Here, we "cutting" some spaces from the letters, to class an illusion of shadows, instead of normally applying them.

This also creates an illusion that some parts are on meridian of others.

What you need:

• Your usual writing tools
• A pencil
• Any black drawing pen (fine liner) for outlines
• Whatsoever blackness marker/brush pen

Step 1:

Write a discussion similar how you normally practise.

Pace ii:

Using a drawing pen, trace the outline of each letter.

Step three:

Make another layer of outlines, only make them thicker this time.

Step 4:

Fill in the white spaces between and inside the letters with your blackness marking.

Stride 5:

Using a pencil, decide where to put the cut shadow.

Remember:

Put them on parts that you lot desire to expect on top. They are usually institute in intersecting parts of letters.

Footstep 6:

Fill up in the cutting shadow using a drawing pen.

BONUS: Drop Shadow

Basically speaking, when a light is blocked by a thing and that thing is a little far from a surface, a driblet shadow can exist formed on the surface.

Driblet shadow is a common technique that is as well great for beginners. And so here'southward the like shooting fish in a barrel trick that I discovered in making drop shadows that have the exact same size as your letters.

What yous need:

• A blackness brush pen/marker
• A colored brush pen/mark
• Sparse sheets of paper (below 100gsm)
• A pencil
• Cotton wool balls or cotton fiber swabs

Step 1: Write a discussion using a blackness marking.

Step 2:

Place the paper where you lot wrote the discussion under a new sparse canvass of newspaper. Trace the word using a colored pen.

Pace iii:

Move the newspaper with the colored word sideward and/or downwards, depending where you want to put the drop shadow. Then trace the outline of the word using a pencil.

Pace 4:

Shade the inside of the shadow using your pencil.

Stride 5:

The shadow looks sloppy at the moment. So using a cotton wool ball or swab, smudge information technology until it's smoothen.

… and voila! You lot've got an awesome and bang-up drib shadow.

Full general Tip:

If you don't have a light gray pen, you tin can always use a pencil! Information technology'south a great alternative. Simply like what we did in the drib shadow technique.

Final words

And there you have information technology friends!

v different methods on how to apply shadows to your lettering.

The best mode to learn how to use shadows is to endeavour out all of them.

Huge cheers to @skribsinner for taking the time to share her noesis on this topic.

Now nosotros want to hear from you, which shading method is your favorite?

Exist sure to drop a comment below.

Until the next one,

Stay AWESOME!

Pin me!

About the author

RK is a self-taught visual artist from the Philippines. She started existence interested in art at a young historic period of vi.

Since and so, she has explored unlike kinds of medium, such as oil and acrylic paints, oil pastels, colored pencils, charcoal pencils, watercolor, and hand lettering using ballpoint pens.

In 2022, she came beyond modern calligraphy and until now, her focus of comeback has been into letters. She has conducted several modern calligraphy and hand lettering demos for products and artist groups in the
Philippines. RK's works have been featured in numerous fine art and lettering sharing communities, and also
used in covers of some books. She is at present exploring her skills in digital designing and has created logos
and designs for companies and individuals.

Source: https://www.lettering-daily.com/lettering-shadow/

Posted by: holcombwhopribed.blogspot.com

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