This week and next, I'm bringing you a very special guest, one of my all-time favorite artists and instructors, Steve Huston. When I was a full-time student many years ago, I took a workshop with him. And the stuff he taught about gesture and structure really resonated with me. In the Intuitive Perspective section, you'll find his first new lesson on Simplifying Gesture and Structure. It's there because it ties in really well to my lessons on Gestural Perspective. Next week, he'll expand on it and show you how gesture and structure apply to tonal rendering. These will all lead in really nicely to our next project. We're very lucky to have Steve Huston here to share his wisdom. Go check it out!!

Cesar Santos shows how to simplify a portrait into flat shadow values and gradually build form using controlled value transitions, starting with large shapes and working toward smaller features.

Let's look through your sphere submissions and break down common shading mistakes - wrong terminator and cast shadow shapes, spotty or linear halftone transitions, and shadows that are too light.

In this unnarrated demo, I shade a sphere using a charcoal pencil, with a 5 minute time limit.

In this unnarrated demo, I shade a sphere using a graphite pencil, with a 5 minute time limit.

In this unnarrated demo, I show you how I shade a sphere with a 10 minute time limit.

In this unnarrated demo, I show you how I shade a sphere without a time limitation.