Shading is the process of adding value to create the illusion of form, space, and most importantly - light in a drawing. When executed correctly, shading can make a drawing appear three dimensional and create a convincing image.
Pencil Drawing Shading Techniques.pdf
Techniques used for applying shading to an object are quite varied. Each technique produces a different texture and "feel" to the drawing. The drawing medium used may determine the shading technique that is applied in the drawing.
When shading, our goal is to depict the illusion of form and light. In most situations, this requires adding a full range of value. By comparing contrasting areas, we can evaluate the value in the drawing and make adjustments as necessary.
To create a three-dimensional look in your artwork, you must use highlighting, shading and toning techniques, based on how an imaginary light would hit the objects you're replicating. Whether you are creating a pencil drawing, a pen-and-ink drawing, or painting with acrylics, oils, tempura paints or watercolors, the techniques for shading differ slightly based on the media.
Tonal -- Tonal shading highlights the light area by leaving it empty of drawn lines, but darkens the area not hit by the light. The pencil marks in this technique are small and close together.
Pen and ink drawings are not at all forgiving; unlike pencil drawings, what you see is what you get. Pen and ink uses both the cross-hatching and liner hatching techniques as in pencil drawing, but it has a few other methods for shading as well:
Pointillism or Stippling -- Pointillism represents a type of drawing method in pencil or ink that involves a series of dots instead of lines. For shaded areas, add more dots of ink by stippling the area with greater density; more dots per square inch equals more shading.
Working with paint mediums such as oils, watercolors, acrylics or tempura requires entirely different techniques for shading or highlighting than pencil or pen-and-ink artwork. To understand how to shade with paint, develop a basic understanding of the artist's color wheel and learn how to tint, tone or shade colors through mixing.
In fact, that's how you should always approach drawing. We draw light and shadow, and nothing more. A single hair can be similar to a simple pencil stroke, but you can't draw fur by drawing a lot of simple strokes!
The selection of paper for shading techniques is influenced by the type of pencil used, the degree of darkness desired, the shading technique used, and the expression of the shading technique desired.
Scroll to the bottom of this post to download a printable practice shading chart. Try printing it on a variety of drawing surfaces so you can experiement with each technique on different textures.
Strathmore Bristol VellumMedium textured, random surface that is slightly more pronounced, (peaks and valleys slightly further apart than drawing paper), enabling paper to handle very soft graphite pencils.Produces shades that are extremely expressive, but not as sensitive as Strathmore medium surface drawing paper.Click here to see all of our Bristol papers
Stippling is essentially dot-based shading. You can use the tip of your pencil to jab the page and use those marks to create shading. The closer you make the dots the darker that part of your image will be. Placing them further apart with more white space will make it seem lighter.
Like with all these techniques your shading can be as light or heavy as the drawing demands. You can also try incorporating other techniques. Try blending your contour lines. As long as you smudge by following your stroke direction your contouring will still be noticeable, though subtle.
You are not limited to making perfectly straight parallel lines, you can draw curved lines to fit with the contours of the shape you are trying to represent. Combine the cross hatching technique with other drawing techniques, such as stippling, hatching or tonal shading. The only limit to creating the impression of light and shadow in your drawing, is your imagination.
Now you can start cross hatching the shadow areas of your drawing, using a variety of strokes. Start with light pressure and build up the density of lines as you go. Work your way around the drawing, adding more lines and building up the intensity of shading.
Start by drawing a light circle with a pencil. Then begin adding contour hatching lines that curve around the form. As you move away from the light source, make your lines darker. Work up to adding cross hatching to the shadowed areas.
Start by drawing an organic shape with pencil on paper. It could be a leaf, or a simple flower form. Once you have your outline, begin adding hatching lines within the shape, varying the pressure you apply and the spacing between lines to create different tones.
Consider experimenting with hatching and cross-hatching in your ink drawing. This involves shading your drawing with a series of parallel or perpendicular lines and building up line thickness and density to add shadow. You can create this look through filters and brushes in Adobe Photoshop or by crafting shapes in Adobe Illustrator.
Vanden Broeck uses a variety of techniques in the creation of his illustrations from graphic engraving and scratchboard techniques, to the painterly, including acrylics, color pencil drawing, and watercolors always searching for the best medium to express the work's essence. Not only does his style demonstrate a technical evolution, but he has also undergone a conceptual one. He integrates many graphic and technical elements that highlight Mexican popular culture, indigenous imagery, and mythology, and also offers a universal view of the texts he illustrates. He is cited as one of the first Mexican plastic artists concerned with the creation of children's books as a total work. He uses traditional techniques such as engraving and serigraphy to illustrate children's books, promoting the value of graphic arts in works for children and young adults. 2ff7e9595c
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