So the next best thing is to move away further from the drawing once in a while to judge the overall condition of your current creation. Theres no one way to hold a pencil. This allows you to find patterns of light more easily and can also improve youroveralldrawing accuracy. Step-by-step, the course will guide you to knowing how to draw, to knowing how to practice, to knowing how to draw anything. You can also hold your pencil with a regular grip which would give you more precision, but its not as good for shading large spaces where you need the shading to be smooth. Each side of the cube may be a different value representing the highlight, mid tone, or core shadow. Value becomes darker or lighter, depending on the lighting conditions. There are many great manufacturers that create wonderful drawing pencils. Use only your pencil to blend each of the values together. If youre going touse a blending tool onyour drawing, remove the dots first! We are using cookies to give you the best experience. What pencils to use, how to hold the pencil, shading techniques and so on. Often used in figurative drawing, pencil marks can follow the form of human anatomy, thereby making it easier for the viewer to understand the form being described. There are many advantages to this hold like getting cleaner lines when you move your pencil from your shoulder and from your elbow and not just use your wrist for shading. Part 7: ShadingPractice require that you step away from the drawing often to judge value and proportion of overall composition from a distance. Im not going to tell you that a face is best drawn with a 2H or 2B pencil, or that a still-life is best drawn with a 2B and 4B pencil. The 18 Steps will transform how you think when you draw which is the only way to achieve real results. Its a huge time saver. Use it as a blender, by rubbing the surface that already has graphite on it. The range of values can vary greatlyfromone portrait to anotherdue to lighting or skin color. The one on the left I did with just the 8B pencil, which is a great soft pencil and is definitely a must-try, and the one on the right I did with an 8B, 2H and an HB. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. For theface on the left, I would shade my drawing withan HB for outlines and eye-whites, a 4B for the rest of the face and maybe a 6B for the pupils. If youenjoyed the tutorial,share it with all your friends using the share buttons below! Practice drawing a few basic forms - a sphere, cube, and pyramid. The behavior of light (or how it is reflected) on the subject informs us about the texture and form of the subject. Once youre done, decide where the light is coming from and shade them in. As you study the drawings and try to replicate the techniques used youll find yourself going through many different pencils until you find what works best for you. Leaving more space between lines results in lighter values. Youre hatching with a pencil when you have a gap between each mark and arrange them in a way to create continuous coverage. 1.g)Select a few different pencil grades and shade a series of rectangles. Is Your Drawing Too Flat? Its great for creating realistic skin textures. Much of his hatching lines actually follow the muscles and the rhythm of the figure itself. Pencils are some of the most basic and versatile drawing tools. You can also use a sharp pencil to carefully fill in large or weirdly shaped dots to improve the texture of your shading. Using multiple grades of a pencil can provide an elevated sophistication to the value range used to render an image. There are many great manufacturers that create wonderful drawing pencils. Click here for a full step by step tutorial on how to shade a face. Let me know in the comments below! Blending - Smooth gradations of value are produced either by adjusting the amount of pressure applied to the medium or by using a blending tool, such a blending stump. But what about objects that have flat sides or planes that aren't cubes? Once you have a clear understanding of how light behaves and how you can communicate it to the viewer, then you are already "half-way" there. You can tell how hard or soft a pencil is by looking at the combination of letters and numbers printed on the end of each pencil. Aside from practicing proper shading and blending techniques, a good understanding of light, planes and contoursarecrucial for turning a flat line drawing into a realistic portrait that conveysthe illusion of form, bringing your drawing to life. This is a great shadingtechniqueto practicegivingform to your line drawings. This article is rated A1 in the Workshops Rating System because it discusses introductory art concepts. To simplify the manner in which light behaves on a subject and surrounding objects, we'll look at what happens with just one light source on a smooth surface. For example: If Im shading a face using the circulism method, I will also use circulism to outline shadows and highlights on the face. Although he used red and black chalk for his drawings, much of the visual representation of his drawings can be captured with pencils. It doesnt matter if you are a complete beginner with no drawing experience or a seasoned artist. For rounded objects, the lines may curve slightly around the form - following the contours of the object. As the planes start angling away from the light, they receive less and less light, hence appearingdarker. Using multiple grades of a pencil can provide an elevated sophistication to the value range used to render an image. 5a.) The side facing the light consists of the core light, highlight and mid-tones. This allows you to minimize gaps, making it easier to blend. If you want to practice shading onsimple objects, grab a bright lamp, a set of geometric shapes and set up a scene! Another great thing about pencils is how easy it is to achieve different line weights just by adjusting the angle at which you draw a line across the surface. Comparisons are made and the values are "pushed" in order to create a full range. Contrast is produced when any difference between elements such as texture, color, size, or value occurs. 5b.) Shade each one using vertical strokes. There are four main ways to shade with pencils: (1) shading, (2) hatching, (3) crosshatching, and (4) following the form. Pencils are made from graphite which is a form of carbon. By comparing contrasting areas, we can evaluate the value in the drawing and make adjustments as necessary. Another way is to start with a mid-range pencil, like an HB, and move to softer and harder pencils as you progress.

Below is abreakdown of what you can expect to learn from this shading tutorial. 4B:Mid-tones, light shadows, detailing, hair,first layer of shading for clothes, background. Before shading a portrait, its good practice to simplify what you see by breakingareas of the face into planesso your brain can process the information better. Move your hand high up on the pencil and away from the tip. Black: With graphite pencils, you wont get a deep black. B: Black. To address objects such as these, we simply consider the direction of light, thinking of it as a line. Blending smooths out your shading, but its not a miracle solution for lazy people. The side facing away from the light consists of the core shadow and reflected light. Around sharp edges, tighten your terminator and loosen it around smoother edges. The harder the pencil, the more difficult it is to blend or smudge. Theyreflexible enough to reach both ends of the value scale without much effort. Draw planar faces and shade them by coming up with as many lighting arrangements asyou can think of. While there are many variations and techniques for shading, the vast majority of pencil drawing masterpieces ever-made were created with some combination of the above four. This light bounces back onto objects producing an area of lighter value. Itried to cover as much as I could in this tutorial. If you dont outline your shadows or highlights, then this method may not apply to you (Its very effective for drawing hairlines though). Add contour lines to each of the shapes below. The addition of these values are subtle, but do their job in transforming a flat surface into a more shapely one. Light values are called tints and dark values are called shades. Here are a few things to keep in mind before and while you shade: If you want to convey a round edge, avoid abrupt shading transitions. Heres an example from my face shading tutorial using the hatching technique. HB: Hard Black 1.d)Shade a solid tone from one end of your sketchbook to the other. For me, the main value is the darkest or lightest value already established in the portrait. Mid Tone - Mid tones are areas on the subject where some light is hitting, but in a manner that is less intense than the highlight. Use light to medium pressureand switch to a softer pencil when the one you are using cannot go any darker. A drawing shaded like this will look very scratchy. A cast shadow appears when a form blocks light from reaching the surface of another form. Once you familiarize yourself with your subject, decide on how you will shade before you actually shade. You canapply differentshading techniques to the exercises too (cross hatching, circulism, etc). Below are a few portraitpencil shading techniques for beginners and experienced artists alike. When using this technique to draw skin with fine wrinkles,use a sharp tip. This can make your drawing look very grainy. The more that you practice, the stronger you will become! Contour lines can be drawn vertically, horizontally and even diagonally. How to create smooth shading with graphite. When executed correctly, shading can make a drawing appear three dimensional and create a convincing image. The hardest part of shading hands down is being able toadd the right amount of valuein the right spots. Then the same thing for 3. They are the best pencils for shading and drawingportraits! The drawing medium used may determine the shading technique that is applied in the drawing. Or you can blend the graphite using a blending tool of your choice. Stippling - Applying countless small dots to build up darker values in a drawing. Rendering - Using an eraser to remove the medium to produce lighter values. The longer a cast shadow gets, the lighter and softer it becomes due to reflected light from the environment around it. You know youre using a bad pencil if the lead is brittle and if you dont get good coverage. It so happens that for most of us, when they are very close to the drawing we get somewhat lost in the details. By now youre probably wondering which pencils you should be drawing with since there are so many variations of hardness and softness. Value Consistency Work on this assignment to develop a basic understanding of the accessibility and range that you can get with a pencil. Some of my favorite drawings are by Michelangelo.

The higher B numbers are softer and darker. Thats why I strive to create drawing tutorials that work for everyone! The following two images introduce a range of very subtle tones,giving the surface slight bumps. Soft pencils deposit more graphitewith less effort,making it easy to fill in space, blend, shade and add texture to your drawing. The Light and Dark Side If youre shading into a lighter area, though, it helps to reduce the amount of pressure at the end of the stroke so you get a nice gradient instead of an abrupt change in value. To get different line weights with the same pencil sharpen it to make sure more of the lead is visible and then tilt it until the pencil is less than 45 degrees to paper. The thicker, the better!

Contour Shading Do the same thing except this time stopping at 2. 1.c)Shade a solid tone without lifting yourpencil. Most artists work from light to dark. Heres an example. Shade in order from hardest to softest pencil and go from left to right. Im not going to tell you that a face is best drawn with a 2H or 2B pencil, or that a still-life is best drawn with a 2B and 4B pencil. He shares his knowledge in drawing and painting on this site. So whether youre a beginner or seasoned artist, you can still follow along. You can increase the value by applying more pressure and orusing a softer grade ofpencil. Locations of Value: Is your shadingincorrectly representing the form you intended to draw?

Whenshadingwith a variety of pencil grades, each pencil should only cover a small range of values. Part 2: Pencil Shading Techniques These strokes can be easily blended. This technique is typically used in conjunction with blending. You can also try the artists pencil hold. We will go over it all together in this introduction to pencils shading. You will still need to move away from the drawing to judge proportions and values of the whole, but perhaps not as often as you would when you draw very close to paper. Maintain consistent pressure for each individual stroke.