iving least. The lightest part of the shadow will be
in the middle, rather towards the side away from the light, generally
speaking. The shadow cast on the ground will be dark, like the darkest
part of the shadow on the cone, as its surface is also turned away from
the chief source of reflected light.

Although the artist will very seldom be called upon to draw a cone, the
same principles of light and shade that are so clearly seen in such a
simple figure obtain throughout the whole of nature. This is why the
much abused drawing and shading from whitened blocks and pots is so
useful. Nothing so clearly impresses the general laws of light and shade
as this so-called dull study.

This lightening of shadows in the middle by reflected light and
darkening towards their edges is a very important thing to remember, the
heavy, smoky look students' early work is so prone to, being almost
entirely due to their neglect through ignorance of this principle.
Nothing is more awful than shadows darker in the middle and gradually
lighter towards their edges. Of course, where there is a deep hollow in
the shadow parts, as at the armpit and the fold at the navel in the
drawing on page 90 [Transcribers Note: Plate XVIII], you will get a
darker tone. But this does not contradict the principle that generally
shadows are lighter in the middle and darker towards the edges. Note the
luminous quality the observation of this principle gives the shadow on
the body of our demonstration drawing.

This is a crude statement of the general principles of light and shade
on a simple round object. In one with complex surfaces the varieties of
light and shade are infinite. But the same principles hold good. The
surfaces turned more to the source of light receive the greatest amount,
and are the lightest. And from these parts the amount of light lessens
through what are called the half tones as the surface turns more away,
until a point is reached where no more direct light is received, and the
shadows begin. And in the shadows the same law applies: those surfaces
turned most towards the source of reflected light will receive the most,
and the amount received will gradually lessen as the surface turns away,
until at the point immediately before where the half tones begin the
amount of reflected light will be very little, and in consequence the
darkest part of the shadows may be looked for. There may, of course, be
other sources of direct light on the shad