Sketching reflective objects can be hard. But knowing the basic techniques of reflection can help enhance your sketches and take them to a new level. To know how to draw these shinny objects you need to know the basics of reflecting before mastering it. Charlie Bowater suggests knowing your environment and where the light hits your object (80). I agree with this suggestion because knowing you environment helps you to know where and how you would draw your reflection. For example I drew a metal shield; for the environment I drew a sun to symbolize the light coming from the top, along with two rectangular objects, one dark rectangle and one light rectangle.
Now with that environment, you determine the effects of your environment on our object. For example the sun in the middle would reflect a very shinny light, causing the center of your shield to be very light. The side with the dark rectangle would have a dark reflection, and would cause that side to be darker. Where as the side with the lighter rectangle would have a lighter reflection. As you can see from the picture below I have arrows indicating how this part of the environment effected the metal shield.
Beside the environment effecting the object, there are other factors that can effect the the object's reflection. According to Bowater " the consistency of your surface will have the biggest impact on the reflection" (80). Which is quite true because if your object it circular or has rounded edges you have to take those factors under consideration when you think about how your environment and the impact it has on your object. Depending on the consistency, your reflections me change a bit to highlight certain parts. For example if your object is round the reflection would change a bit to capture the roundness of your object and the environment around the object. Or if you have a tube as your object and you are reflecting things off that tube you need to consider how the consistency of the tube will affect the reflections; the effects of the tube will have is it will reflect your environment to appear slimmer. Another factor you have to take in consideration is if your object it matte. If so then you object will have a blurred and softer reflection instead of being intense and the smaller details would get lost. Lastly, Bowater suggest you consider the form of your object, because your object will always reflect the environment around it but in different forms (80). Which is true, because when you draw a cube as I have done in the images below, you see the light reflects in in different areas and some sides of the cube are darker than others because light hits it in a different way. Where if I had a shinny sphere it would reflect everything around it, making the scene around the it crammed in the in the reflection.
By taking all these considerations and precautions will help you draw a successful reflective surface, that can help enhance the quality of your sketches.
What object do you find difficult to make reflective? And do you think these tip will help you draw reflective objects and make the process easier?
Bowater, Charlie. Beginner's Guide to Sketching: Characters, Creatures & Concepts. 3DTotal Publishing, 2015.
Very nice post! I find using reflective techniques on cars can be quite difficult as it has random movements and areas of light reflecting off of the car. This tip will probably improve some of the shading and reflecting drawing techniques.
ReplyDeleteThank you! When you're drawing any reflective surface such as a car, think about where the light is hitting the car and the environment around the car. If you keep that in mind it should help with reflecting light off your car and give your car the image of a reflective surface.
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