It’s What Matters Monday, and today I thought we’d talk about SHADOWS.

Shadows are what matter because they are what take our digi-pages from lookin’ digital and give them depth and realism. I know as I look back on my pages, and as I can see my understanding and ability to create realistic shadows grow that my pages look better and better.

So - here are just a few little tips when creating shadows.

Tip #1) Don’t be a lazy-shadower!

Taking just a few extra minutes on our shadows really does make a HUGE difference! I have read that some people spend over a half an hour just on shadows, and I have to say, that is excessive! I don’t think you need to spend even close to that amount of time to make realistic shadows. BUT sometimes just clicking that shadow style, or doing the same old shadow work for EVERY element, is cutting yourself short! You could have a KILLER shadow on something, IF you just spend a little more time playing with settings, or warping, or whatever. And while you think it might not matter that much, a great shadow can turn a so-so LO into a WOW LO!

For example, here’s a piece of a LO with no shadows.

The I added my basic shadows. I created these shadows by duplicating the layer, turning that bottom layer black (turning the lightness all the way down to black), running a Gaussian Blur filter on it, and then turning down the opacity to about 60%. Something I do over and over when creating shadows. And it looks alright. MUCH better than no shadows.

But (and I timed it) I spent an extra 90 seconds, just a minute and a half, clicking ctrl+T, right clicking and selecting “warp” and pulling my shadows down and here and there. I changed my shadow layers to “Linear Burn” and played a little more with the opacity and It took my elements from “good enough”, to REALLY realistic!! I think now it looks like there’s a light off to the left, shining on it.

I honestly remember when I first started out thinking that spending time on shadows was silly, until I realized how fast it is and how awesome I can make it look.

Tip #2) Learn and Try

Depending on the program you use, there are lots of different ways to create shadows. I know there are even shadows created by digi-designers that you can buy and run with great results. The key is to keep learning your program and trying new ways to do shadows and see what you like best. You never know what you might learn. I learned from another designer recently that I can create REALLY good shadows REALLY quickly with some layer style settings I hadn’t tried before.

If you can’t read it, it says Blending Mode: Linear Burn, Opacity: 65%. Distance: 5, Spread: 0, Size: 8. This works GREAT a lot of the time. I definitely play with the settings, because unfortunately, shadows are not one-size-fits-all! For certain elements I do need to create a separate layer and warp it but, anything that saves time and gives me a REALLY good look is a GREAT thing to learn!!

Tip #3) THINK

Think about what your shadows are. How deep they should be, if the thing your are shadowing would REALLY make that big of a shadow. A rub-on or stamp, or printed text wouldn’t create ANY shadow, would it? But a big fluffy flower is deep and would create a lot of shadow. And are your shadows going in the same direction? Shadows should all be thrown in the same direction. Just stop and think as you are doing shadow work. It’s those little details that make your work great.

Well, I hope this helped a little. I am in no way, a shadow expert! But I can honestly say that the more I work on my shadows and strive to be better at it, the more I like my LOs and the more I feel like my LOs are praiseworthy! HAHA! I have actually started to look forward to my shadow work, seeing how much better, more realistic and high quality I can make my already cute LO look!! Shadows DEFINITELY “matter” to me!!!

Have a happy Monday!!

xoxo,