Shadow and Light

Cezanne said, "Shadow is a color as light is, but less brilliant; light and shadow are only the relation of two tones."

In this statement, Cezanne evaluates the relationship between shadow in light. With shadow and light, essentially different tones, one can create dimension. Shadow and light can create a piece on their own because they can be used like color. While some need color to develop a picture or image in their art, others can simply use light and dark.

Here, I sketched a tissue folded under a bright desk light. The bright desk light would cause for dramatic shadows and the white of the issue would force me to use the light to illustrate the subject. It was a bit of a challenge to use only shading to show an object. One problem that I ran into was that the tissue was so light in weight that the desk light easily showed through it. Because of this, I did not get as dramatic of lighting as I would have wanted.

Regardless, this sketch demonstrates the relationship between shadow and light. It also shows how only shadow and light can be used to illustrate a subject.