Shading Made Easy: 5 Tips You Can Start Using Now

Learning the basics of art can be something that a lot of artists skip in favor of more exciting techniques. After all, who wants to spend hours shading spheres? That's boring! It doesn't have to be, however, and taking the time to get familiar with the less exciting aspect of art making will pay dividends in a short amount of time.

In this tutorial we're talking all about shading, including:

• How to give your work dimension.
• How to stylize your shading for authentic retro effects.
• How to employ different shading techniques.

We guarantee you'll have fun, especially when you see how good your work looks afterwards.

So let's get into it!

Watch Our Shading tutorial Video

This week, we're going to be demonstrating shading techniques using the following products:

• DupliTone
• Dot Dreams

You don't have to have these exact products to follow along, you could even do everything by hand. The benefit of using halftone and stippling brushes is that it will save you time (and some serious hand cramps) while capturing an authentic retro look.

Before we get into how to shade, how do we define shading? Put simply, shading gives dimensionality to visual art through varying levels of darkness. We are creating the perception of 3D when we are shading, meaning the way that it would appear in real life. An object in complete darkness has no dimension, and neither does a flat line drawing, so we are giving it dimension by creating shading in our work.

01. Understanding Light

Creating cartoon shading is as easy as simplifying shadows to just a few tones.

Every shadow starts with a light source. The effect light has on an object can depend on multiple factors.

• Where the light is in relation to the object.
• How close or far away the light is.
• How strong the light source is.
• How many light sources there are in an image.

To keep things simple, let's practice with one light source coming in from a top corner like in the video. The light will hit the object where it will be the brightest before gradually falling off and creating shadow.

When light hits an object it actually creates two distinct forms of shadow.

• Core shadow: the darker side of an object where the light isn't hitting.
• Cast shadow: the shadow thrown onto another surface caused by the obeject obscuring the light.

All that information may seem like a lot to keep track of with so many different variables, but you don't need to be perfect to create something believable. Try drawing from life to practice different light sources and eventually you will be more comfortable with the concept.

If you are interested in cartoon shading or comic book shading techniques then your job is even easier. Condense the shadows to just a handful of tones (often a highlight, midtone, and shadow) using crisp lines to clearly separate them.

02. Study and Modify Forms

Anything you can draw can be built from simple shapes.

Shading in artwork serves to give shapes form or dimension, and basic shapes serve as the building blocks of anything you could think to draw. Triangles become cones or pyramids, circles become spheres, and squares become cubes. Knowing how to properly shade these shapes will be the key to creating believable artwork when they are put together to form more complex objects such as faces, vehicles, or terrain.

03. Shading Brush Techniques

Pay attention to where your light source is to establish light shading and shadow in the direction of the light.

Another way to think of shading is creating tone. Artists have been devising different ways to create tones with their marks for centuries, so you have a lot of options to choose from. What you choose will mostly be about aesthetic and personal choice as they will all achieve the same effect. Reference different sources to see what might have been used most often if you are trying to recreate work from a particular time period.

• Halftone: a photographic shading technique that uses dots placed closer or further apart to create variations in tone.
• Stippling: utilizes dots in the same way as halftones, but the dots are placed individually by the artist using a pen.
• Hatching: drawing parallel lines closer and further apart to create variations in tone.
• Cross-hatching: drawing parallel and intersecting lines to create variations in tone.

The core concept here is that the closer and more densely placed the dot or line the darker it will appear creating increasing levels of shadow. Practice these techniques by filling in a strip from white to black in a smooth gradient.

04. Use Shadow to Set Mood

Experiment with dramatic lighting in your digital art shading to bring it to life.

Shading can be used to create different moods in your artwork. Think of different films you've seen and how many different ways light can be used to tell a story. Study film stills and practice recreating their lighting to see how it changes your drawings.

Used effectively, dynamic digital art shading can convey the time of day, a particular genre, where the viewer should be looking, and more. Pay attention to how lighting is used in different art forms to inspire you.

05. Negative Space

Black spotting creates areas of negative space while still giving your art shape and shadow.

Often we're so concerned with how to fill a blank space that we neglect to consider the value that blank space can bring to a piece of artwork. Also called negative space areas of untouched or otherwise blank areas within your artwork provide balance, frame focal points, and provide resting places for a viewer's eye.

Knowing how much negative space to include in your artwork can be a matter of trial and error. Too much can make your work appear unfinished or uninteresting, too little and your work looks like a wash of visual noise.

Take time to consider your negative space thoughtfully and think about how it can be used to uplift what you do choose to depict within your work.

Final Thoughts

Although at first glance shading may seem intimidating, we hope that we've broken it down in a way that shows how accessible it can be. Whether you're aiming for realism or something more like cartoon shading, the foundations and considerations are the same.

• Consider your light source.
• Start with basic shapes.
• Utilize different marks to build tone.
• Use dynamic lighting to give your work mood.
• Add negative space to help your work breathe.

With just a little practice, you'll notice a marked difference in your work quickly.

Dig Deeper into Vintage Art Techniques