This time around, the foreground is lit while much of Sylvia and the background are in darkness. I figured that the table would reflect a fair amount of light into Sylvia's face and hair, so I sketched in some details to make her stand out from the flat background. The thematic focus is on Sylvia and that she is drinking, so this time the light source helps push the narrative. Unimportant things in the background are now invisible. I think this gives Sylvia an air of mystery.
So that concludes my experiment! I believe I learned a few things about light and shadow in composition. It's not as black-and-white as I first thought: sometimes the shadows and white areas help to push the viewer into considering the motivations in the scene, while other times they obscure details that may have been necessary to the picture, or worse point to details that are not relevant. The trickiest parts to draw are the transitions from light to dark. Sometimes the shadow swallows up too many lines, and sometimes the light brings out so many lines that the picture becomes too busy. I figure it's better to have too few lines rather than too many.
I had been wanting to complete this project for several months: thanks to Earl and Sylvia who provided their kind permission to use their picture as my reference.
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