Shade Drawings

Make your sketches, doodles, and drawings more realistic by learning how to add shade. Shading adds depth, contrast, character, and even movement to your drawings by capturing the shadows and highlights of your object. Learn how to shade drawings to improve your artwork, whether for your own enjoyment or for advancing your skills as an artist.

Steps

  1. Choose the right supplies. Although drawing can be done with a regular school pencil and printer paper, for complex shading it is necessary to use specialized artist pencils. You can find inexpensive artist graphite pencils at most craft and art supply stores. If you're able, find sturdy drawing paper with a fine grain to help absorb the shading you will be doing.
    • Artist pencils come in a range of hardness and softness. This is marked on the pencil by a "B" or "H". The mark "B" refers to soft graphite, and is typically available in 8B, 6B, 4B, and 2B with 8B being the softest. "H" refers to a hard pencil, with "8H" being the hardest and "2H" being the softest.
    • For the best shading, use the softest pencil you have available. This will allow you to blend the pencil easily, while a hard pencil will be very difficult to shade with.
    • Typical school pencils are HB, which is a middle ground of hardness/softness. You can use an HB pencil if it is all you have available, but softer pencils will be easier to work with. Also, a good pencil to look out for in school is a 2B pencil, because it can be more versatile in terms of deep shading. Using 2B and HB pencils in conjunction can get you a much greater range and depth of shades than with HB alone.
    • Paper that is too smooth (printer paper) or too rough (construction paper) will be very difficult to shade. If you can, use a good drawing paper.[1]
  2. Create a line drawing of your subject. Use an object in real life or take a photograph of your subject, and print a physical copy of it. Make sure that your subject is still, and that you have plenty of time to get a good outline of it.
    • Look around your home for ideas. Household objects like flowers, plants, kitchen utensils, or clocks make good subjects. You can also consider items you collect, like figurines or hats.
    • Refer to the negative space to create a more accurate line drawing. Negative space is the space and forms around your subject. For example, if you are drawing a chair, this is the space between the rungs and chair legs.
    • If you use a photograph to draw from, consider converting it to gray scale before printing it. This will help you to get more accurate shadings, because your object will already be in black and white.
  3. Make your value scale. Values are the lights and darks of your drawing. A value scale will help you determine the different depths of your shaded drawing. A complete value scale will range from white all the way to black with many shades of gray in between. However, most objects only use 5 adjacent values on the value scale.
    • To create a value scale, you should start by drawing a long rectangle. You can do this on the corner of your drawing. Or, if you prefer, draw it on a separate piece of paper.
    • Break the rectangle up into 5 squares, numbering them 1 through 5. You can do more than 5 as you grow in your shading skills, but 5 shades in the scale gives you a place to start.
    • Intensify the darkness for each number: 1 should be completely white, 2 should be lightly shaded, 3 should represent moderate shading, 4 should be dark, and 5 should be as dark as you can get it.
    • You should not have both white and black on your shading scale, unless your subject is under a very strong, direct light source. Otherwise you should be working with shades of gray only.
  4. Locate your light source. You will be shading away from your light source; the brightest (lightest) areas will be those closest to the light, and the darkest areas will be the furthest away.
    • Pay special attention to any glares or reflections, as those tend to be the brightest areas of your subject. Indicate these areas on your drawing.
    • Your light source will create shadows which you will need to fill in. The shadows are what create a realistic drawing, so don't forget to shade these as well as the bright areas.
  5. Choose a shading method. Depending on your subject, your light source, and your desired texture for the drawing, you can choose from several different shading methods. The most common include hatching, cross hatching, and circular shading.
    • Hatching is the process of drawing many parallel lines that are close together to create a shade. This is best for objects that lack texture or have a natural grain (such as hair).
    • Cross hatching is a shading method by which you draw crossing lines which form many little 'X' shapes on your drawing. This is a great way to add darkness quickly and easily while simultaneously adding texture.
    • Circular shading is done by creating small overlapping circles. You can create a lot of texture by spacing the circles far apart and using heavy lines, or create a smooth blend by keeping the circles tight and close together.[2]
  6. Create a preliminary shading of your drawing. Because you are still in the "edit" mode of your drawing, don't use the full darkness of your pencil so that you can erase or move shadows and light spots. This means press lightly, and only barely fill in areas that need shading.
    • Leave the very brightest parts of your drawing white. Or, use your eraser to remove the pencil and make a highlight or reflection.
    • Refer back to your subject frequently to compare it with your drawing. Make sure you get the main shadows and reflections in the right places.
  7. Add more layers of shading. Darken gradually, each time laying a thin layer of shade. The contrast between light areas and dark areas should become more clear and distinct.
    • Use your value scale as a guide. This will help you remain consistent throughout your drawing.
    • Take your time. "The process is much like a black & white photo slowly developing in the tray in the darkroom. Patience is key at this phase."
    • As you deepen your shading, the outline of your drawing should slowly disappear. In real life most things don't have solid outlines - simply a change in value. The same should hold true for your drawing; don't darken the outline, darken the shadows.
  8. Blend shaded areas. For the smoothest blend, use a blending stump. This smooths out any rough edges and makes the shading more gradual and realistic. Hold the blending stump just like a pencil. Press lightly at first, until you determine how much blending you want to do. You can always go over it again.
    • You can also use your fingertips or q-tips for blending if you don't have any blending stumps available.
    • Use an eraser to brighten up spots that might have been accidentally blended. This could be around the outline of shapes or in areas where there is direct light
    • Just remember that most people, even fine/famous artists, weren't as good as they are now when they were just starting out.



Tips

  • Use a vinyl eraser if you smudge the drawing unintentionally. Vinyl erasers get rid of pencil lines completely while not damaging your paper.
  • After blending with fingertips wash your hands or clean them with a bit wet cloth as your drawing can get dirty.
  • Hold your pencil nearly horizontal to your paper, laying it flat as you shade, instead of using the point. This will help you achieve a more blended look.
  • Use a strong light source. This will emphasize the contrast between highlights and shadows.
  • Lay a piece of paper in between your hand and the drawing. This helps prevent smudges on your drawing.
  • If you do use printer paper, use it to your advantage. Utilise shading techniques such as smudging, and don't press too hard. You want to get a smooth blend between light and dark, because then the shadows you put in will be crisp and stand out. Remember, printer paper is one of the easiest types of paper to get a hold of.
  • Don't use the tip of a sharpened pencil as the sharpened tip can create a dark line and a small scratch-like dent in the paper, making it hard to hide while shading.

Warnings

  • Make sure you don't use any paper under 80gsm. This paper will be too thin to obtain a decent level of shading and will often be rough and scratchy to draw on.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.learn-to-draw.com/drawing-basics/03-drawing-with-pencils.shtml
  2. ↑ http://idiotsguides.com/static/quickguides/artphotography/drawing-101-shading-techniques.html
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