How To: Draw shadows

Are you a novice artist looking to up the ante in your drawings? Introduce depth and realism to your drawings with shadows. It all starts with "seeing the light."

You Will Need:
• Ball
• Light source
• Pencil
• Paper
• Eraser

Step 1: Arrange ball and light source
Place a ball on a table where it will receive direct artificial or natural light from a single direction.

Step 2: Examine light tones on the ball
Look closely at the ball and identify the shadows, highlights, and mid-tone areas.

Step 3: Draw ball and shade
Draw the ball and shade it gray. Look for shadow shapes on the ball and shade these areas with the darkest tones.

Step 4: Add highlights
Create highlights on the ball by erasing to define the light areas you observe.

Step 5: Add cast shadow
Draw the ball's cast shadow created by blocked light, and then shade it lightly. Now that you know the secret to shadowing, remember, life is not all black and white.

Trivia: Shadow puppetry is an ancient performance art in which two-dimensional figures cast shadows onto a lighted screen to tell a story.