From the course: Drawing Foundations: Light and Shadow
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The history of light and shade in art
From the course: Drawing Foundations: Light and Shadow
The history of light and shade in art
I always find it interesting to look back at old master paintings because it can really give you a great insight to how somebody's issues with drawing have been tackled in the past. When we look at how past master's have looked at composition and drama and put them all together in their paintings we can take away key elements to apply to our own works. So let's discover what we can uncover from looking at some of these great masterpieces. One of the most famous painters who deals with strong compositions of light and shadow is Caravaggio. You can see in his painting, The Calling of Saint Matthew, how there is a really strong shaft of light that breaks through the darks of the scene, and this splits the composition but also subtly draws our view into the center of the painting. And the angle of the light is then mirrored by the angle here of the hand on the right hand side. The gaze on the figure of the left, how Matt's looking back in towards the scene. He just brings our focus back…
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