In the shadows

Maddie Miller's post about three uses for Raw Umber was originally published on the NaMoPaiMo Facebook page. There, she asked her fellow painters to contribute their uses for these unlikely colors. The response was immediate and educational. In today's second Tutorial Tuesday post, Sondra Householder shares her method for using Pan Pastels Raw Umber Extra Dark to create shadows on her models. Thank you, Sondra (and Maddie, too)!

Creating Shadows

by Sondra Householder

How can we give the illusion of a full size horse to a small sculpture? What I am sharing here isn’t the only element in the full illusion but it does make its contribution.

Light has no scale. The light that falls on a living horse is the same light that hits our tiny models. The larger the object, the more light is blocked and the deeper the shadow. I choose to enhance the shadows on my model to add to the illusion of size. 

I use Pan Pastel Raw Umber Extra Dark and an angled shader of appropriate size to do almost all of my shadowing, obviously it won’t be effective on a dark horse like black or dark bay, but it does work nicely even to shade white markings.

I lightly touch my brush to the pan and tap off any excess, I don’t want much pigment in my brush. Then place the edge of the brush along the bottom of the groove and pull slightly up along the underside of the muscle. I start at the deepest part of the groove where I want the most pigment and work towards the flatter parts as my brush looses its load of pigment (less pigment, less shadow). Finally, I use my almost empty brush to smooth everything out. Remember, pigment is like glitter. That brush is never out of pigment, so don’t go brushing over your highlights expecting them not to get dark pigment on them. 

I want to say something about highlights, where they are, how they manifest, and what paints them best, but I can’t seem to get my understanding of the concept into coherent words.  Lemme try this…The shadow of one muscle (or wrinkle or hair clump) goes into the groove on one side and the highlight of the next muscle (or whathaveyou) comes out of the groove on the other side. So the tone changes along the deepest crease of the groove.  To interpret this for painting, I only paint the shadow up one side of the groove, the other side is left lighter.

Here's a video showing my process.

I like this to all be very subtle, I don’t want you to see my shadows. I want you to feel their effect.

This guy’s hairy feet are shaded with raw umber extra dark as well as the underside of his muscles and wrinkles. 

Thank you so much, Sondra! I will post yet another use for Raw Umber and its greenish cousins after I get home from work.