Artwork: An Off "Day Off"

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

The first drawing I've done since my recent game development ventures. It was not only a great change of pace, but also a great way to bring in what I learned.

This all started as a rough sketch I did while taking a short break from something else. But I came to really like it, so I decided to just take it all the way. 

Of course with the nature of a less planned drawing, there are mistakes, but I am personally really happy about how this turned out. Nothing too fancy, but there is a level of substance that is different from my older works. It's more grounded and relatable.

But there is one aspect of this drawing that I'd really want to improve upon next time. It's something that some of you might have noticed awhile ago in my drawings; and I may have even mentioned it. I've never been able to confirm the issue, but I think I've finally got it.

For a while now my focus was on how to make my characters look better. How to make them look more believable, more real. How to make them not appear as flat. I can't say I'm good at it, but I'm at the very least competent now. Arguably my game character illustrations for MRHAPPYFACEMAN can be proof of this. But during all this I was aware that something was off with my approach at colouring. I noticed that whenever I coloured in the light, the entire drawing becomes slightly washed out. It was worrying. But there wasn't any clue to how I could remedy this, so I thought it might be just my imagination. Fortunately this new drawing showed me what I was doing wrong.

Having this drawing being set inside a room was the key. This is because the main culprit was my vague impression on how light works within a space; an environment. A room being essentially a condensed space/environment really exposes the flaws in my approach.

Lighting on objects is very straight forward; there is a light from one direction and shadows in the other: reflective light is relative to the main light source. Up until now this was how I treated lighting in general. You would have thought that I would have realized my approach was wrong sooner, but sadly that was not the case. So after finally noticing my misconception I compared my drawing with Shinkai Makoto's films, and learned the importance of direct lighting and indirect lighting. 

Simply put a room is not mainly lit by the main light source, but rather by the light reflected off the floor and walls; as well as any other major surfaces. As a result the area surrounding the main light source will be dimmer, because of indirect lighting, as opposed to those within the direct light.  

You'd think that this isn't any different from having varying degrees of shadows. But as you try to draw many different situations and places you will begin to realize that light is kind of a thing on it's own. It sets the atmosphere and conveys the more subtle emotions within a scene. I think a way of putting it would be that; shadows define objects, while lights define atmospheres. 

Hopefully I can execute on this discovery in the next drawing.

Thanks for reading this far. Hope you enjoyed it!