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Shading tips & tricks
Daria
Hello earthlings! I come in peace! Today I will teach all you eager-for-learning- humans how to shade. Well... Not exactly, by that I mean I will give you a couple of arthacks that may make your artwork easier to shade with pencils; including what type of pencil you should use, pressure, and I’ll show you some rookie mistakes.
Graded Pencils
People often make the mistake of only using one pencil while shading. If you’re doing a small project then this is okay, as long as your pressure is correct. It takes a lot more time if you are doing a bigger drawing.
*the picture below is not mine*
As you can see, the Hs have harder lead, thus making the colour very light. The B pencils have the softest led, causing them to have a darker shade. You’re probably like: “wait wait, slow down! Wouldn’t it be the harder the lead, the darker the shade?” The answer to your confusion; nope. Let’s put it this way; the softer the lead, the easier the lead can be put on the paper.
To shade with graded pencils, I usually start with the darker pencils, but you can go the other way. I begin with the desired colour and blend my way through the gradient, going one pencil higher/lower each time.
I’m not saying that is the only way to shade with graded pencils - it’s only my strategy. It’s best to find something that suits your style that you feel comfortable with. But bare this in mind; graded pencils will most likely make your life easy.
Pressure
“No pressure!” As if… Usually to shade, you press the pencil harder when aiming for a darker outcome. Make sense? Good. Thus when shading, start with pressing really hard (or lightly, depending on what you like to do) and as you move your pencil along the page, press lighter/darker. That’s basically all you do. It’s pretty simple.
Mistakes
We all mistakes and learn from them, but you could be learning mistakes instead. How’s that for a paradox?
Mistake #1
You could be shading from left to right at first, but change to up and down at the next second. What? This is a big no-no when trying to shade smoothly. Not just for shading, but colouring in general! The second you change the direction of your pencil, your whole picture will look funny. This is fine if you’re just hatching and cross hatching the whole drawing, but when doing a simple piece, it can ruin it.
Mistake #2
Are you using an eraser when you shade? Then you’re shading wrong. This is a good technique when you want a part of your picture to be white or you need a clean edge... But while shading… Yeesh! Think about it; have you ever seen something that’s supposed to be a gradient go from extremely dark to white? No? Exactly, if it ever goes dark to light, it usually has a soft edge. Put away the eraser and just fade the dark into the light.
Thanks for reading this lengthy post! Time to go back to planet art-awesomeness. Beep beep bop bloop! *our awesome unidentified flying object leaving planet earth*
Daria
Hello earthlings! I come in peace! Today I will teach all you eager-for-learning- humans how to shade. Well... Not exactly, by that I mean I will give you a couple of arthacks that may make your artwork easier to shade with pencils; including what type of pencil you should use, pressure, and I’ll show you some rookie mistakes.
Graded Pencils
People often make the mistake of only using one pencil while shading. If you’re doing a small project then this is okay, as long as your pressure is correct. It takes a lot more time if you are doing a bigger drawing.
*the picture below is not mine*
As you can see, the Hs have harder lead, thus making the colour very light. The B pencils have the softest led, causing them to have a darker shade. You’re probably like: “wait wait, slow down! Wouldn’t it be the harder the lead, the darker the shade?” The answer to your confusion; nope. Let’s put it this way; the softer the lead, the easier the lead can be put on the paper.
To shade with graded pencils, I usually start with the darker pencils, but you can go the other way. I begin with the desired colour and blend my way through the gradient, going one pencil higher/lower each time.
I’m not saying that is the only way to shade with graded pencils - it’s only my strategy. It’s best to find something that suits your style that you feel comfortable with. But bare this in mind; graded pencils will most likely make your life easy.
Pressure
“No pressure!” As if… Usually to shade, you press the pencil harder when aiming for a darker outcome. Make sense? Good. Thus when shading, start with pressing really hard (or lightly, depending on what you like to do) and as you move your pencil along the page, press lighter/darker. That’s basically all you do. It’s pretty simple.
Mistakes
We all mistakes and learn from them, but you could be learning mistakes instead. How’s that for a paradox?
Mistake #1
You could be shading from left to right at first, but change to up and down at the next second. What? This is a big no-no when trying to shade smoothly. Not just for shading, but colouring in general! The second you change the direction of your pencil, your whole picture will look funny. This is fine if you’re just hatching and cross hatching the whole drawing, but when doing a simple piece, it can ruin it.
Mistake #2
Are you using an eraser when you shade? Then you’re shading wrong. This is a good technique when you want a part of your picture to be white or you need a clean edge... But while shading… Yeesh! Think about it; have you ever seen something that’s supposed to be a gradient go from extremely dark to white? No? Exactly, if it ever goes dark to light, it usually has a soft edge. Put away the eraser and just fade the dark into the light.
Thanks for reading this lengthy post! Time to go back to planet art-awesomeness. Beep beep bop bloop! *our awesome unidentified flying object leaving planet earth*