Build a Shading Ramp
Lesson 4 of 6 · Intermediate · 9 min
What you will make
A shaded mushroom with a consistent upper-left light.
Lesson checklist
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Light the mushroom from the upper left: a cap highlight, a lower-right shadow, and a stem that darkens toward the ground.
Open a 24 × 24 practice canvas with lesson examples and onion skin enabled. Your work saves automatically to My projects.
Starter files and backup import
Follow the steps
Add light and shadow from one decided light source.
Start with: The flat-color version from lesson three.
- 1
Decide the light source first
Upper-left, and it does not move for the rest of this study. Every highlight and every shadow in the image has to agree with that one decision.
A stated light direction you can check against.
- 2
Add the cap highlight
Place the lightest tone along the cap's upper-left curve, one pixel inside the outline. Keep it a thin band: a wide highlight reads as a different material.
A highlight that follows the cap's curve.
- 3
Add the shadow on the opposite side
Use the darkest interior tone along the cap's lower-right edge, and under the rim where the cap overhangs the stem.
A shadow that opposes the highlight.
- 4
Darken the stem from top to bottom
A cylinder catches less light near the ground. Run a vertical gradient down the stem instead of shading its sides, which would fight the cap's direction.
A stem that reads as round.
- 5
Check for a second light
Scan the whole image. Any highlight on the lower-right or shadow on the upper-left is a bug, even if it looks nice in isolation.
One light source, no exceptions.
See the technique
Flat base colors
One light, applied consistently
Learning notes and references
- Pick one light direction and hold it for the whole image.
- Place a highlight on the lit side and a shadow on the far side.
- Darken the contact area where the stem meets the ground.