Hi
If there's a better place for this topic, please feel free to move it

I've been reading that the key to creating really great 3d objects or images is to make full use of both shading/shadows and highlights/reflected light. And the shading/shadows, I have a pretty good handle on. But I have a hard time looking at a 2d object or image, and imagining where highlights/reflected light should be.

Can someone recommend any instructional info on this, that I might read and study, and hopefully learn how to place highlights/reflected light effectively? I've done a fair bit of searching the internet, and haven't found anything of substance. Or is the age-old "practice, practice, practice" the only way to learn?

You need to learn to observe objects carefully. Our mind understands that an object is 3D because of our experience (for example we have held it in our hand). The image of the object that we hold in our mind is greatly influenced by that.

When you draw you are using a 2D surface, and have to look at the object from only one angle, not many as we hold in our mind. Its not easy to do that, great painters are great party cos they did that well: representing something thats 3D through a 2D surface.

The key is in looking, take an object, place it on your window pane for example, sit still and observe the objects color. If its a red ball you will notice that there are also regions of pink, maybe even white, and then darker reds too, maybe even black. So an object that has uniform red color all over, doesn't actually look all red in reality cos of the highlights and shadows.

Try reading here http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/drawing/jacks.htm (just read to get the idea, you don't have to follow steps in the tutorial)

OMGoodness, what a challenging subject matter! I doubt if I ever in my life would attempt to draw jacks. A ball definitely, but certainly not jacks. Janee is a very talented artist!

Reading the article, and especially the screen shots, was very helpful. Especially where she asks "what color is gold?" and "what makes gold look like gold?" Suddenly I noticed reflections of reflections OF reflections! Although I doubt I will attempt a metallic surface any time soon, it still drove home the point she makes about learning to see in 2d, so that you can draw/paint in 3d.

Thank you for your comments and the link you posted. Already I am looking at the world around me in 2d, picking out colors which might help define reflections, etc. (the phone, the high speed modem, the keyboard, the medicine bottle, the capsules in the bottle, etc.)(the snack wrapper, the water bottle, the beads of condensation inside the bottle) I hope you didn't just create a monster....I may never see things the same again, lol!

So I guess it follows that one would need lots of practice with common, everyday objects, before working on things one can't actually see, or rarely ever sees.

yes it changed me too, no way back, I see the world through different eyes
Its still a challenge to me!

yup i would practice a bit before trying something you don't physically see. Download some picture from the web (like a simple looking telephone or printer or anything) and try to recreate it in Inkscape yourself (no Trace bitmap allowed!) so that it looks as much like the photo as it can (and you can do much!)

I once did this with a silver mobile phone (Siemens model I think), and when I showed both the photo and my vector version to some people they always thought the vector one was the photo, they thought my drawing was more realistic than the actual photo lol I guess it had something to do with the resolution, vectors always win there , but nevertheless my vector was good enough to pass as a photo

Here's a pretty good resource on that:

http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm

Yes, practice, practice, practice - but I say, don't be afraid to cheat either. Copying someone elses work is a great way identify detail you might have otherwise overlooked. I think it's good training. Just remember about copyright before you post your copied work in the public domain.

That link, DannyKing, is great.

There's a lot of lighting tutorials on the web. They almost all relate to painting, but the theory is the same regardless of the tools.