ABSTRACT
Light and shadow are two of the most powerful agents in images. Light itself is invisible. Its electromagnetic radiation cannot be seen by itself. Without light everything is flat; light renders shapes into forms. Live-action film or stop-motion animation only exists through the use of light: reality is their basis and reality without light does not exist. Drawings, hand-drawn animation, illustration, and all other graphic arts can extend those limits much further to the point of completely eliminating light and shadow in the image itself. Light and shadow do not necessarily have to be rendered realistically, but can be used artistically to either make a story point clearer or to use it as a compositional agent to strengthen the arrangement in the frame.
