OBSERVING LIGHT
All imagery is formed by light - light bouncing off of surfaces and hitting our eyes.
Much
of what I'm about to say may seem obvious, but it needs to be
considered briefly when creating art realistically from the imagination.
Think of the 2d art surface as a view of a 3d space. How do we represent light hitting and bouncing off objects?
Shadows
are formed by opaque objects blocking a light source. Consider
the direction of light sources in your scene and how that will create
shadows on the surfaces opposite the light sources. Consider the
fact that the color of the light is the color that'll be absent in that
light's shadow. Thus, warm lights will cast cool shadows and
vice-versa. Consider where the lights are in your scene and the
forms that block them. Also consider reflections. Water
reflects the colors of the sky, which is why it is usually bluish, but
in cases of stagnant water it may be more brown or green depending on
what is mixed into it. There are, in my mind, three layers to
water - the bottom (what is behind the water) the volume (the tint of
the mud, algae, or other particles in the water) and the reflections on
the surface. The surface might be flat or rippled; if a
reflective surface is curved or in some other shape, just remember that
all the parts of the surface will reflect whatever is 'bounced' from
the surface to the viewer's eye. Try mentally reversing this if
it helps - imagine a narrow beam of light moving from your eye to the
'3d' surface. Now imagine it 'bouncing' off the surface to a
point somewhere else in the scene. The place it hits is the place
which we'd expect to be reflected. In some cases, this is not
even in the scene itself - mirrored surfaces offer a chance to show
areas outside the frame in the form of a reflection!
Note that
moonlight is cool (bluish) and firelight an orangish-red, flourescent
light often a harsh yellow-green or pure white, and halogen
incandescent lights a warm yellowish white. Also note that
partially opaque surfaces like stained glass will project the color of
the material the light is moving through onto objects the light hits
through that material. Finally, note that there's a little bit of
bounce light on most surfaces - light not from a light source but
bounced from a light source off an object onto that surface. This
bounce light will tint that surface slightly with both the color of the
initial light source and the color of the object it was bounced off of
first.
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