How to Draw with Realistic Shading
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can EditThis is a basic way to teach a younger or less experienced artist to shade realistically with graphite, and eventually other media as well.
Steps
- Draw with a hard leaded (2H) pencil the outline of what you want. Every time it changes color, shade, or shape, or there is a shadow, sketch this in, lightly. Proportions are all that matter here, not colors.
- Pick the darkest part. This will be shaded black. By choosing black for your darkest color, it increases the contrast throughout the picture. Sometimes you want an especially light picture, as though staring at snow or a bright light. In this case, chose a medium grey for this, but usually, black is good.
- Shade all parts this color with a 4- or 6-B pencil, while pressing hard. This will give good, dark color.
- Choose things that are a smooth texture, and a medium tone. Shade these in next. When shading an area, go right up to the outline and over it by a little. When the art is done, those original outlines should be invisible. Instead, it should just be where a medium grey touches a dark grey, or where white touches grey, but not a line.
- Shade down a light basecoat of the lightest color for texture. Using a shard, somewhat hard pencil (HB, H, B) add on the texture as a darker layer. If it is a mostly dark texture, you can do a dark basecoat and texture with an eraser, but this is harder to control.
- Keep adding more shades to blend it until it looks smooth, with clean transitions.
- Use a tortillon to smooth edges or adjust tones.
- If you shaded an area too dark, lighten it with a kneaded putty eraser. Stretch it, squish it to the shape of the area you want to lighten and press it. Then peel it off. Stretch, squish, press and peel again until it's lightened to the degree you want, then shade around it to repair or change the edges of the highlight area. You can even "draw" into a heavily shaded area with a kneaded eraser. It's fun!
- Keep in mind, hard edges, like a kitchen knife or a CD should have a very sharp, distinct transition from darker to lighter at the edge, moderately angular surfaces like shoebox corners should have a quick but not immediate transition, and rounded objects like an orange should have a very gradual change in shade. Shadows on such objects behave the same way.
- Erase any unnecessary guidelines when you are finished.
- Sign in the bottom corner, and spray with a fixatif/ fixative. You can buy these at a craft store. Test first, and follow the directions. This will keep the art from smudging.
- Mount this in a frame, and if you can, matte your artwork. If you aren’t able to, buy a precut matte or get it professionally matted instead.
Video
Speed drawing video demonstrating the use of realistic shading.Tips
- Work slowly, and always start too light. It's easier to add pencil than remove it.
- For extra effect, highlight an area with colored pencil, then use a coordinating matte in the frame. For example, you could draw a rose in graphite, color the flower red but leave the stem and leaves grey, and use a red-in-black matte, inside a silver frame. The silver and black coordinated with the graphite, the red accentuated the flower.
- Pencil/graphite hardnesses go from hardest to softest in the following order: 6H, 4H, 2H, H, HB, B, 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B. HB is also called No.2. See Choose a Pencil for more information.
- DO NOT blend or smear with your finger. The oils can damage paper. If you can't find tortillons, use a tissue.
- Cross-hatch - crossed parallel lines.
- Hatch - parallel lines to infinity.
Warnings
- Softer graphite is harder to control and will smudge more easily. However, harder leads will cut the paper more often and are harder to get contrast with, along with being less blendable. Use HB or softer.
- Don't smear the graphite to blend it. It may leave smudges around the drawing. Use a tortillon to blend so that smears are prevented.
Related wikiHows
- How to Shade Drawings
- How to Draw Faster
- How to Draw Human Faces
- How to Draw a Human Head
- How to Start Drawing
- How to Draw With Charcoal
- How to Draw Still Life
- How to Draw a Skull