Soprano Mochi Kitty
This was really well-written.
3nodding
BTW, you say that people would have less problems with light source and shading if they drew from real life, but...I do that a lot (I'm the kind of person who likes to stare at something for a really long time and observe before drawing) and yet I still struggle with shading and light sources. xD; In high school art class, we did several shading practices, the first of which was mannequin drawing. We had to start from where the shadows of the mannequin were and gradually build up to the part where light hits it the most. Unfortunately because the room was so well lit, I was literally unable to determine the light source there, nor was I able to see a difference in color in the mannequin on the part where light didn't hit, so I just chose the light source overhead rather than any other direction (like hitting the mannequin from the top left/top right/etc). |D; Another problem I have is knowing how to shade naturally. My shading always seem blocky, and while that works for objects like buildings and trees (in which you can clearly see their shadows reflected), it doesn't work for humans or many clothing fabrics. Animals are even harder to determine light sources with.
Drew this a long time ago for a friend (btw, Winrii was what my then FMA-obsessed friends used to call me), but as you can see, the shading there has much to be desired. White cats are more of a nuisance to try and determine light sources with so I tend to constantly drawing them.
sweatdrop
When you're watching TV or a movie, watch where they light things from. When artists set up light sources most of us don't really know what we're doing. We get something that looks OK but rarely anything properly dramatic. If I want to study light sources that tell a story I look at live action.
Life drawing is invaluable, but quite often the lighting itself is rather boring. Keep an eye out for good lighting in real life like when a friend is sitting down for breakfast in front of a window when the sun is still low, (you should notices a bit of a glowing halo outline around their hair). Or the glow of a computer screen on someone's face. Maybe someone reading a book under a lamp. Or you can set up a still life and play with your own light sources. It might even be worth it to look up lighting methods for film and video. Try bouncing your light off of white paper for a different effect etc.
Aside from that keep doing what you're doing and follow fansub's advice too.
As an animator I'm partially a film student, so I tend to think of lighting in terms of how it applies to narrative video more often than not. Some of my favourite lighting is in BBC's Sherlock and in Battlestar Galactica.
BBC's Being Human vs SyFy's Being Human makes for an interesting comparison. Syfy's lighting is always trying to emphasize that we're dealing with the supernatural. Things are often in shadow with a lot of contrast, this makes their version of the show more of a spooky supernatural world. BBC's lighting for Being Human is much less dramatic. They go for a flatter more natural looking world but they've desaturated the colour to show that not all is normal. This gives more emphasis onto the human side of the supernatural main characters.
In this case I like BBC's approach. The name of the show being the reason. It's about monsters (werewolf, ghost, vampire) trying to live normal human lives.
The BBC goes for the crazy dramatic lighting in Sherlock though, where there's a lot of Mr. Holmes sitting around looking pensive, and to make his sitting around looking pensive more profound and interesting they amp up the drama with the lighting and shadow contrast making him a more mysterious character. Sherlock is, after all, a mystery show.
For really cheesy lighting, look to your nearest soft golden glow soap opera. I never know whether to laugh at it's failure or cry at how painfully cheesy it is, normally I just turn it off. But I suppose it's now a bit of a trademark for those kinds of shows. I guess some people like it.
/end that-was-so-geeky-in-so-many-ways
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