Jim Lee - How to Draw Shadows on Faces

If you imagine looking at a mountain and the light source is here , the light is gonna illuminate this side .

And that's kind of the highest point .

The light can't basically bend unless there's a black hole here , but there's no black hole .

And let's just say , for the purposes of argument , there's no black hole inside the person's head .

So this light basically has to travel in a straight line .

And so , uh the furthest it can go is to the top of this point here .

And so the size is in shadow .

So if you look at the nose , let's say , all right , if this , no , if this is these nostrils or looking up on that nose , this light , it basically hits this line here and that line represents this point .

OK ?

And so everything from this point could be in shadow , uh if you wanted to or you could say hits that line , but the , the real shadow doesn't start till this side .

So it's possible to do that as well .

And this being the high , OK .

So I'm gonna show you some very quick , you can do a traditional face , the light would be up here the shadows , the eyebrow , the brow casts a shadow underneath the eye sockets .

The nose basically casts a shadow .

The upper lip has a shadow , the lower lip chris a shadow above that chin , the cheekbones .

If you're blessed with high cheekbones with shadows underneath there , the ear will cast a shadow and then the head itself casts a shadow on the neck below it .

Ok .

So that's lighting scheme .

Number one , number two , you have the same lighting scheme , OK ?

But in this instance , the light is even more intense so that the shadows are darker and then the shadows basically fall within the , the um , if you look at a skull , right ?

This is probably the worst skull ever .

But these sockets here , the shadow is gonna basically kind of fall into the shapes of the sockets there .

This nose , the shadow gets even deeper .

This lower lip creates even more of a of a shadow .

And then these shapes on the skull become even more pronounced .

Ok .

So it's like version one , but even more .

And then you can even go further with that and say , well , this brow , this nose , it's almost like the nose pops out of the shadow there and the face is almost entirely and shadow like that .

Ok .

Does that make sense ?

The face ?

Uh the shadows do depend on the facial structures , for sure .

I'm just using a very generic kind of face with the actually very Caucasian features , I guess .

But the ear itself actually even cast a shadow onto itself .

So that's why a lot of times when you see me draw something , I'll draw the ear completely in black .

And then this head cast even a darker shadow and a bigger shadow across .

Then you can do side lighting schemes right where the nose , I was kind of illustrating with that pyramid or mountain top .

This nose itself creates a shadow , the eye socket creates a shadow .

So the shadows are to the to that side , this uh spot here on the uh upper lip cast a little divet shadow , upper lip and then the side of this cheek , this chin side side of that chin , sorry side of that cheek side of that temple .

And you have that , OK ?

Because we're on video .

Actually , I can just show it on the same illustration and you can do a time lapse and see it .

So as that shadow get as this light source gets um more intense , this no shadow will get cast deeper the same way like your shadow in the the course of a day gets longer as the sun sets .

When the sun's right above you , the shadows right underneath .

And then as it kind of moves away from you at an angle , your shadow on the ground lengthens and , and distorts .

And so now these shadows c can deeper and darker on the side of this head here .

OK .

And then it can go even darker still .

So that top part of the upper lip , this gully like right there , this , if you look at the upper lip , lower lip , the chin , you can see how this chin kind of protrudes out .

So imagine this uh listen , imagine sort of the sun kind of rotating around this head and then even more .

So it actually starts all that starts looking like it's in shadow and then it starts coming across the forehead .

Right .

Right .

And then if it keeps going entirely , it becomes all black itself .

OK ?

Oh I'll do one last head .

I forgot .

Then there is the um the complete up lighting , right ?

Adam's Apple there .

And this is when like they're holding a candle underneath their face essentially .

So if you really get into it , there's probably like 20 different ways you can kinda light face actually infinite probably .

But 20 really uh distinctly different ones .

And if you wanna teach yourself , you can maybe flip through different comic books and see how different people approach and put the classifications together .

There's one where there's like a strong front light source and then a week back light source .

And so you get strong shadows , but then you have reflected light on the other side of the head .

OK .

Thing with uh metal is the same way we're talking about that light hitting the top of that mountain , this bridge line , this ridge line here .

I'm looking for the highest point of let's say this cheekbone here and this line the same way I've done it on the nose .

It's gonna be on that cheek .

But rather than doing a straight line like that , what you can do the thing with metal is that it can take reflections and that's precisely what this is .

It's a reflection of , of some element over here reflecting on that shiny um silver metal .

Um but it can distort it , especially if the , if the metal itself is curved .

And so you had a little life that line and you put it basically where all the high points , the ridge lines , I mean , the easiest way to think about doing chrome effects is if you have an object like this , a cylinder , just run the highlights along the edges near the edges like this and you can make one kind of thicker than the other .

OK .

Let's uh let's say that's a bullet , OK ?

And then to help kind of sell it , know that bullet has a tip that's really kind of there we go .

It's important to have that kind of outer edge .

That rim lighting is to um basically run a highlight along the edge , keep it consistently on the same side like that .

OK .

The thing about metal is like the more reflections you can put in the better .

And when I say the more I'm not saying like go crazy about it .

A lot of times you'll see uh especially in the old Bob Layton .

John Ramita Junior , Iron Man .

We , for example .

Yeah .

You know the draw Iron Man and then they'll light it in a way where all of a sudden there's like big circle , medium size circle , small circle and they'll kind of do that everywhere you go .

Like , wow , that looks really metallic .

And the reason why is that again , it , it tricks the , it's a cipher , it's something that tricks the brain into the thinking .

It's seeing something the same way as if I draw lines , going back .

If I draw a tree here and another tree like that and a smaller tree like that .

And perspective lines , you can't help but feel like you're looking into space that um you're looking towards a horizon point and these objects , even though I've drawn three different sized trees that you in your mind think that they're all the same height , but just smaller because of perspective .

And what those white dots that I just drew on the side of Iron Man is the reflections of lights overhead , even if Iron Man is out in the middle of the desert , um , they'll do the same rendering trick , uh which I think is funny .

Um Because at that point , it's become such a cipher that the mind immediately thinks of reflections and shiny metal that it's not really reading exactly what it is .

And basically if there's lights overhead , ok , and they're going off in the distance like this overhead lights , I say in an office space , these are windows , it's these lights that are being reflected on top of all shell head , right ?

So just by putting those three old school Iron Man right there , right ?

Oh my God .

Ok .

So that light is here , this light is here , that light is here and you could do the same thing with these windows .

123 , right ?

So you can basically 123 .

Ok .

123 .

If you kind of do them , 123 , 123123 , it starts making it look more metallic .