Yet, shadows can be as beautiful, as monumental, as exciting as lights are. They can also be more mysterious. The shadow is darkest where several shadows overlap each other, often forming interesting geometric patterns. Observing shadows in diverse lights is important not only in realistic painting. It's perhaps even more intriguing to see what shadows can do for you in the realm of mystery and imagination.
Huge shadows are frightening or ominous to adults and children.
The artist has to have a storehouse of effects, a kind of art vocabulary, for use in any possible subject matter. Art can also be an excellent story-teller, even if few artists practice that kind of art in our times, except, of course, in book illustrations. But that's a great branch of art, too. In Rembrandt's most entrancing works, we often encounter such lights, coming from an unseen part of the picture, or from outside the frame, perhaps from another world. These lights softly illuminate unexpected features and introduce transparent, but deep shadows, in which we can sometimes discern forms of humans or objects.