Shadowing Practice: Basics of Comic Shading - Learn English Speaking with Video

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The next very important topic

that we need to cover in order to make your compositions flow and be very easy to read is lighting.

Now lighting in its most basic form is a directional light source, an object that catches that light,

and then a shadow on that object away from the light.

Now that gets a little bit more complex when we have an object, our light source, a shadow away from the light

and a surface that's going to be obscured by the object in front of it

and so for the purposes of illustration i almost always

and i highly recommend

that you do too use a directional light source as opposed to a pin light which will radiate light out

in all directions and this can be extraordinarily difficult to compensate for for really very little practical effect and

so what i'm going to do is i'm going to draw a line from the outline of my foreground object

and that is where i'm going to cast a shadow onto the object below it

and one further thing to bear in mind is that

when you have an object a surface below that object

and a light source

that's directional like this i'll draw a shadow across my object

away from the light a shadow onto the surface behind where

that surface is being obscured by the object

but also this surface catches light and reflects light back up onto my object

and so that creates a core shadow

so the core shadow is where it's receiving no light at all

this is where my main light is hitting this light source

and then my bounce light is creating a light on the back of my surface here this is something

that can be very effective but it can also lead to a lot of problems

and because we're dealing with comic book illustration we're going to avoid this kind of effect for now

and just before we move on I'm going to draw a very very simple shape for a nose

there's my eyes over the nose

and I've got a cheek behind it my lip just below

it very very simple just to get the point across

and I'm going to draw my same light source and

so on this side of the nose away from the light

I'm going to have a shadow I have a shadow here away from the light

and along the bottom just like

that very simple this is using as simple shapes as we

possibly can we'll also have shadows where the eyes recess and we'll just draw those as simple shapes for now

but it's important to bear in mind

that the nose projects outward from the face and here's my lip

and my brow draw my eye all very very simple just to get it across

and here would be the plane of my cheek like this my nose projects out quite a bit

and so it's going to cast a shadow just like this example here this would be my nose

and this will be my cheek the surface of my cheek

and now they're attached these are separate

but it's going to cast a shadow across that surface just like this

and so what I have here is a body shadow what I have here is a cast shadow

and I can soften this up toward the light using a little bit of line

but my cast shadow always needs to remain hard

because it represents the outline of my nose cast against a surface below

so this will be a body shadow here body shadow here body shadow here

and then below the lip i get a cast shadow it goes out further

and it's important to remember the distinction between the two

when you're doing your lighting so now

that we have a very very basic understanding of lighting established here

we're going to start to learn how to use lighting compositionally to help our panels come together and be more readable.

And so I'm going to start with simple shape for a figure.

I just want this to be an outline shape.

And here's a figure drawn into a panel.

I'm going to light him again from the same angle that I used just over here.

So he'll have a little bit of shadow cast here.

And that's all fine.

But what I really want to concentrate on is the cast shadow from this figure onto the wall behind

and you can see that that cast shadow not only is relatively accurate

but it also really helps to frame my figure

and pop this figure forward because i'm using a light shape that's juxtaposed over dark shape

and then using the rules of composition i used before

i can just cast a shadow over the wall entirely as

if this is a window casting the light on them and I can use that to frame my figure.

And this is a technique you will see used over and over again in comics when you start to look for it.

Conversely, I've got a figure fully in shadow, so he's completely in silhouette.

And I can draw a doorway around him just like this.

And because he's dark, he stands out against the light coming through the door behind him.

And that dark to light to dark reads very, very easily and also serves to frame my figure just the way that I did here.

Now I wanted to talk about the final way that I use shadow compositionally.

And this method can be a little bit confusing

if you think of it just in terms of using a light source and proper shadow.

So the way that it works is I'll draw just very simple shapes.

So I've got a rectangular shape here.

I'm going to keep this light.

I'm going to draw a shape behind it.

And this shape will be dark.

And now I'll draw another shape behind that.

this one will be light and then a shape behind this and this will be dark

another light shape and a dark shape and I can keep going across my panel just by layering

light and shadow and I do try to bear in mind

that I've got a light source coming from here and so

if I had my light source coming from here I'd want to lay the other way around

so at the very least I have my light portions pointing toward the light as much as possible but

when I think in terms of my shadow

I'm really thinking in terms of layering more than just thinking in terms of exactly where a shadow would fall.

So a really good way to show this in practice would be to show some chimneys.

Let me get in here and draw a chimney in the foreground

and I'm going to keep these pretty simple just a little bit of detail just so we all know it's a chimney.

and now behind it I'm going to draw another chimney shape and this one is just going to be dark

and making the chimney behind my light chimney here dark really separates the two

and then I can draw another chimney behind this one this won't be light

and then maybe another shape just behind this and this will be dark

and I can go all the way back through a panel and just layer my shapes like this.

And this is a great way to use shadow to achieve

depth in a picture just by layering lights onto darks onto lights onto darks all the way back.

And it's a very, very simple technique to use.

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It's something that you really don't need to overthink.

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That's it for this lesson.

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If you enjoyed this video, take a look at the premium course over at proko .com slash comic page.

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See if you can apply some of these basic principles to your own work.

104

Thanks so much for joining me.

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I'll see you next time.

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72 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Basics of Comic Shading”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: shadow, shape, draw, dark, object. This video has 49 sentences and 1349 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:16. The speaker talks fast, about 185 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
shadow noun	/ˈʃædəʊ̯/	A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
chimney noun	/ˈt͡ʃɪmni/	A vertical tube or hollow column used to emit environmentally polluting gaseous and solid matter (including but not limited to by-products of burning carbon-…
layer noun	/ˈleɪ̯ɚ/	A single thickness of some material covering a surface.
cheek noun	/t͡ʃiːk/	The soft skin on each side of the face, below the eyes; the outer surface of the sides of the oral cavity.
outline noun	/ˈaʊtlaɪn/	A line marking the boundary of an object figure.
technique noun	/tɛkˈniːk/	The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements.
comic noun	/ˈkɑmɪk/	A comedian.
composition noun	/ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/	The act of putting together; assembly.
illustration noun	/ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/	The act of illustrating; the act of making clear and distinct.
obscure adjective	/əbˈskjʊɹ/	Dark, faint or indistinct.
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
practical adjective	/ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/	Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
establish verb	/ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/	To make stable or firm; to confirm.
reflect verb	/ɹɪˈflɛkt/	To bend back (light, etc.) from a surface.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come through verb		To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway.
come together verb	/ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/	To assemble; to congregate; to combine.
go out verb		To leave, especially a building.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 33 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I'll, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, composition /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/, illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, distinction /dɪˈstɪŋkʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: composition /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/, illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/, rectangular /ɹɛkˈtæŋɡjəlɚ/, directional /dɪˈɹɛk.ʃə.nəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like shadow, chimney, layer.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Basics of Comic Shading - Learn English Speaking with Video

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