Need Help with Lighting/shadows

[Dark Heart 284]

So i been having issues on how to use lighting and shadows the proper way, i know you gotta focus on particular way like imagining that a light source its hitting a certain angle of the pony/character/etc etc, but i just dont know where or when to use shadows on certain areas or when to use much light or shadows on certain angles, so if you have ideas/expertise help i would be gratefull thx

i leave some examples of my oc so you can see the diferent areas i have use light/shadow etc...

Original without Light/shadow:

 

Whit shadow/light added: 

 

Again thx in advance for any help

[Buck Testa 5,505]

First off, love the way your OC looks, its simple yet eye catching. 

 

Trying to learn shading with an mlp pony is going to be a tricky endeavor, which is why I suggest you start smaller. I love to do lighting and shading but when I was really young I could never do it in a satisfactory way. It didn't look right, and I couldn't explain why. 

 

To be able to properly shade and light, you must understand the shape of the thing you are shading. If you don't understand the shape, the shading is going to end up making the object look distorted. Here's why doing this with our ponies is tricky, because their true shapes are hidden by the way they are designed. 

 

That being said there are two big ways to find how to define the shapes, and thus find the way you should be shading. 

 

First option and one that will help you in the long run is breaking down the object you are drawing to its most basic shapes, Cylinders and wedges (a la rectangles and what not). look for these shapes in your everyday life and look at how light plays on these objects. Ask yourself where is the light source, where is the light hitting the object, where is the light blocked (which is what shading is), Where is the light reflecting (this is important because reflected light is a secondary light source which add another level of lighting and shading), what is the texture of the object you are observing, since texture adds to how the light falls on the object? Then draw these things you observe, keep drawing still simple shape still life with the shadows till you understand intuitively how lighting and shading work. 

 

The Second option, which is probably quicker but NOT as good as going over the true basics like the first option, is to look at SFM pony models. People have used this program to make accurate 3 dimensional pony models; Either get ahold of the program (its free) and look play around with the light source in it, try to get every angle and intensity you can think of so you can see just how Light would play on the Ponies form. Or you can google Sfm pony images and look for pictures with dynamic lighting and try to duplicate it, figuring out WHY the light hits the ponies in that way. 

 

Hope that helps!