Importance of Light and Shade in Art

Art, in itself, is a beautiful means of expression. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of art is a painting. Furthermore, painting can also comprise of oil paintings, landscapes, figure drawings and even pencil sketches. When talking of landscapes, creating perspectives can be a daunting task for an artist. It would probably make no sense, if a landscape would end up with mountains that look like distant hillocks.

The anterior should stand apart from the background or the middle part. You can easily achieve this by just decreasing the level of detailing in the middle. The same thing applies to expanse as well. For instance, you could denote distance with the help of an exceptional line.

Another effective way of denoting distance is by using thin controlled lines. Similarly, the use of dark and broad lines for both the middle and the foreground will give the impression of a receding background.

There are varieties of hard and soft pencils that are available for pencil drawings. Thin and hard lead pencils are ideal for detailing distance and working out finer details. Soft lead pencils tend to create a dense and a dark impression and hence are perfect for working out the foreground and the middle.

Sometimes, even a single pencil can help you achieve this feat. However, sketching is all about practice so make sure that you sharpen your sketching skills by training yourself now and then. This would help you to improve your potential as an artist and advocate your authority over the pencil to produce a variety of thick and weighty lines.

A single pencil can help you create a variety of tones and grades. All you need to do is, increase or decrease the amount of pressure that you apply on the pencil.

The following application will help you understand better-

You need to draw a coarse square, of the size of two by two inches i.e. twenty-five by twenty-five millimeters. What we need to do here is to fill up the square with shading in such a manner, that it is pale in one corner and shady, and dark in the opposite corner.

To begin with, hold the pencil lightly, giving it a slight pressure as you start. Keep on increasing the pressure over the pencil, steadily, as you proceed towards the farther end. You could also make the darkest line in the opposite corner by giving enough pressure to the pencil.

If you have followed these instructions appropriately, you may very well create the perfect example of shading i.e. from light to dark. If at all you feel that something is amiss, you can easily rework the areas that, you feel, are not as effective.

This little exercise will help you a great deal in improving your sketching skills so that you can create the desired amount of tonal qualities in your drawings or landscapes. If you master light and shade, you will never have any problems to create perspective in your landscapes.