: Shadow/highlight on a gradient/ in Illustrator? I want to add some shadows and highlights to my illustration of Saturn. I have created a gradient for the planet but how can I apply a highlight/shadow

@Margaret771

This needs some knowhow of science and of course a decision from where seen, in what position observing and when the image should be valid. For example seen having the sun behind the neck, the shading is exact if you wipe off all shadows. Unfortunately I cannot tell the year and day when the posituion is right as seen from the earth and,let's say, from the northern hemisohere.

But If you need well visible shadow which belong to no extreme case and could be seen from one of the moons of saturn or from a rocket, you can search NASA's images of the subject.

I give my own imaginary version:



Add some richness to the ring. It's quite a complex structure when seen even from the earth. More: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Saturn
The planet surface stripes should be parallel vith the ring plane. Now they are different. They should be on the latitudes, so they should be curved as the ring. You can probably get fully satisfying result by changing the surface gradient to a radial one and squeezing it to elliptical.

Just in case you need some easy method to create the shading I have the following cartoon:




Make a strokeless shape which has the same form and size as your planet. I simply drawed a new circle.
Align the new shape over your planet and give to it a radial gradient fill from white to black. The center of the gradient is somehere at 8 o'clock on the edge.
Goto the transparency panel and change the blending mode of the new shape to Multiply. Check also, could mode Hard light serve you better. It can create a full white overexposig like effect, if needed.


The shadow on the ring can as well be a dark piece with proper blending mode.

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