Digital Realism: The shadow knows....
by Valeri Brumfield

I was browsing the forums the other day and saw a thread where members were sharing why they made the choice to go digital. There are such a wide variety of reasons and all of them darn good ones. My personal reasons are fairly simple. I just did not like the mess, the decisions, nor did I have the space for the organization that I would have liked. However, one thing that I love about paper scrapping is the look of the pages. I am definitely a fan of realism. I love the graphic style layouts too though, I am just not as good at those, so my pages mostly mimic realistic paper layouts. I like it when people touch your layout trying to feel the textures of the paper or try to grab one of the elements. This article is going to focus on that realism and some of the things you should think about if that is the look you are going for.

In order to achieve that realism, you need to be mindful of your shadows. If you don't use any, your pages look flat, like a magazine ad. If your shadows are very dark with lots of blur, your photos, elements and words are going to look like they are "floating" above the page. While this is great for a flowing ribbon, its not so great for a paper mat. Take a piece of paper, and lay another piece of paper on it. You will see a very slight close shadow. If you lay a piece of cardstock the shadow will be slightly thicker, but still close, not much blur. If that cardstock has a slightly bent corner, that corner will have a lighter, more blurred shadow. The corner will appear to be off the page, which is what you want. Just remember that the shadows will need to blend as the cardstock begins to meet the background paper. Larger elements will have bigger shadows. A ribbon that is laying across the page will have small thin shadows, but if you "tie" a bow, the pieces of the bow and dangling pieces will have bigger more blurred, although lighter, shadows. that gives those pieces a "flowing" appearance. Also remember your words. If you are putting a title on a page that is supposed to be a die cut type title, then you want shadows, however, the journaling on your tag, would need no shadows. Write your name on a piece of paper. The ink does not have a shadow, so don't use one on your tag.

Remember, if realism is what your after, just look at something in the real world at try to mimic it! Here are some samples to give you an idea of what do or not to do.

 

 

© 2005 Valeri Brumfield