♦♦♦[ART] Shadows In Perspective: Why Sun and Lamp Shadows Behave Completely Differently

Struggling to plot shadows in perspective? Nail shadows by understanding sunlight locates to the horizon line and artifical light locates over the ground plane.

In honor of my students from the first Shadow Perspective workshop. ©CMH

The Shadow Perspective Problem Solved

Shadows can enhance the sense of depth in your drawings or paintings. But placing them correctly in perspective often feels like guesswork – until you understand one simple concept: the virtual pole.

Drawing shadows from parallel light sources (sun/moon) versus radial light sources (lamps/candles) comes down to where that virtual pole lands in your scene. Plotting accurate shadows is much easier when you understand this.

Parallel Light Sources: Sun and Moon

When dealing with sunlight or moonlight, remember:

• Light rays are essentially parallel (due to extreme distance)

• Shadows all point in the same direction

• The virtual pole placement: connects to the horizon line

To construct shadows from the sun or moon:

1. Place your virtual pole anywhere on the horizon line

2. Connect this point to the light's altitude position (sun/moon). [SPECIAL CASE: the rays will converge to a point under the Horizon Line whether the light is BEHIND the picture plane. It’s tricky, I know. But keep this in mind when you draw your rays and the crossing point of the converging line mysteriously shows up BELOW the horizon. It’s ok, that’s the way plotting shadows works, for this special case.]

3. Draw shadow lines from the base of objects away from this pole, all in the same direction. Unless the light is goes directly side-to-side, The shadows will still have converging lines, because we are still making a perspective drawing (with convergences).

Shadows in sunlight all point in the same direction because they're all created by the same parallel rays.