Dynamic Light and Shade

By Burne Hogarth

Book Overview

Become an expert in harnessing light and shade in your artwork with this comprehensive guide from the acclaimed cartoonist hailed as the "Michelangelo of the comic strip."

Mastery of light and shade--rendered with accuracy and expressive power--is the key to three-dimensional form in drawing and painting. In Dynamic Light and Shade, Burne Hogarth begins with the simplest light and shade, showing how a dark silhouette on white paper can communicate form and space. He then shows how the silhouette is transformed into three dimensions with the addition of minimal light--the highlight.

Hogarth covers the five basic categories of light and shade--single-source light, double-source light, diffused light, moonlight, and sculptural light--and illustrates the effects of these different kinds of light on a variety of subjects, examining both natural and artificial light sources. He then moves on to more complex lighting, explaining how to capture the effects of weather, time of day, and materials like glass and water. Hogarth illustrates every effect of light and shade with brilliant drawings in pencil, charcoal, carbon, pen and ink, and brush and ink, encouraging the reader to experiment with diverse drawing media.

Burne Hogarth's unique teaching methods in Dynamic Light and Shade, part of his comprehensive Dynamic Drawing Series, are indispensable for every professional artist, art student, teacher, painter, sculptor, illustrator, cartoonist, animator, and serious amateur.

Burne Hogarth's masterful Dynamic Drawing Series is an invaluable resource for any artist:
DRAWING DYNAMIC HANDS - DRAWING THE HUMAN HEAD - DYNAMIC ANATOMY - DYNAMIC FIGURE DRAWING - DYNAMIC LIGHT AND SHADE - DYNAMIC WRINKLES AND DRAPERY

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0042SWW1G
• ISBN13: 9780823015818
• Release Date: September 1991
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.2" x 10.9"
• Age Range: 16 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 11 to 12

Customer Reviews

The master of illustration

The original comic master. You need this!!

ok if you need to learn light and shade but didn't really help me

This book has a lot of black and white drawings of Hogarth and others demonstrating different types of light; middle ground, background, foreground lighting as well as directional lighting. It is illustrated with sphere heads as well and gives you a good foundation to jump from in your own work. I am advanced in lighting already so I was a bit disappointed in the simplicity here but if you need to learn this at a basic level then there is none better! Again, it takes practiced participation in exercises to understand the lighting changes and work to learn it well--as in anything. If you are willing to learn, there are no better 'how to' books. This one is at a beginner level but still useful if you are learning directional and ground light. It was too elementary for an artist already familiar with lighting, though.

Hogarth Review

This book is killer.... it starts by talking about silhouettes.... then adding 1 highlight... then more and more form definition... Everything from directional light, to moonlight, to sculptural light. Great for anyone looking to add detail to their line work.

A nice book

A very nice book, with a lot of important notes about the subject, but the images look like comics to much.

Light & Shade in Art

This book is good to illustrate the phenomena of light in a composition. It discusses the different kinds of light and their effect on the environment of the picture. Worth getting to use as reference material.

these other reviewers must be crazy...

This book is precise, and it's comprehensive. It may not take you by the hand and say "step 1, draw a circle..." but I don't think this is really a HOW-TO type of book. It's more of a WHY book. It explains to artists the fundamental reasons to use a wide range of specific lighting theories, and it describes these theories very well (Hogarth's explanations work for me, and probably for other people in the worlds of comics, animation, etc.). This book doesn't aim to be your one-and-only reference on the subject of lighting (an extremely technical subject to be sure). It's primary focus is not on color, but on form, and it may not talk about lighting the way that 3D artists do. But I've learned a ton from this book, and I refer to it often.