How to Shade a Drawing
How to Shade a Drawing
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Figure Drawing Fundamentals

Shading

How to Shade a Drawing

3M
Mark as Completed

How to Shade a Drawing

3M
Mark as Completed

Use the photo of Yoni or choose another pose from my pose sets to draw a fully shaded figure. I recommend drawing large so that you have room to shade some details. In my example, I’ll be drawing on an 18×24 inch paper. Also, don’t rush it. A student in most ateliers will spend at least 3 hours on a figure drawing. Personally, I recommend longer, especially if this is one of your first long figure drawings.

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Eveline Rupenko
Hello! Here is my first try for this assigment! Think I Still lack the anatomy knowledge to convert it into decent structure. Plan to make a copy of Stan's demo fron the next lesson and make a secon pass on this assigment.
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Jesper Axelsson
Really nice! I actually think the structure is the strongest part of this drawing, so don't worry about that. - The structure and rendering looks pretty good, but the values are a bit confusing. Some of the values in the light are as dark as the darker parts of the shadows. And some of the values in the shade are as light as the lightest parts of the lights. As a rule of thumb, the lightest dark should be darker than the darkest light. Check out this video Mind-Blowing Realistic Shading Tricks. One important part of shading is value control. Are you familiar with values? If think this could be a great time to go on a short detour from the figure drawing course, and do some value studies. Dorian Iten has a great video on value studies How to Organize Values . You can get it for free in the Proko Course Sampler. For me it helped to start by doing 2-value studies. Then when I felt like I had a good grasp of that, I moved to 3-value studies. Then 4, then 5. For the 5 value study you might use this process: first a 2-value separation. Then add a midtone (3rd value), then add a darker light (4th value) and a lighter dark (5th value). Pick or take photos of a subject you like to make the exercise even more enjoyable. Having good value control and having a good grasp of value grouping will really help when shading. Plus I think you'll find that you can do some really cool stuff with it. - Another thing that has helped me when shading is to clearly define the shadow shapes in a lay-in. Making sure that they're not ambigous, but clearly designed. Making the terminator edge soft, and giving a hard edge to cast shadows and the end of a form in shadow, gives a clear effect of light right away. Hope this helps :) Let me know if you have any questions.
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Dwight
I've tried using my manniquinization knowledge to jump of the deep end, but I'm not sure I swam. I also tried a less line-based core shadow, which you can also comment on.
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cimaar
The drawing is really cool, if a bit confusing to me, but then again, the pose is also kind of confusing, it took me a second to realize she is looking at the camera in the floor... I think the proportions are a bit off, since the perspective is so dramatic her feet and lower legs should be a bit bigger in comparison to her torso...
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Dwight
Hey, I haven't posted in a while, mostly because I don't have any completed things to share. But here's something I did today; nothing new, just more practice. I've been trying to paint digitally, but can't seem to get the right feeling for my brushes. I'm using IBIS paint if anyone has tips. Anyway, tell me what I can improve on. - Dwight
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Dwight
Sorry it's been a minute. I tried to do Drawabox to improve my knowledge of forms, and instead it made me lose interest in drawing all together. I'm going to take a break from it for now, and just go back to figure drawing. Here's an interesting angle, and I tried to capture it (I see now that the head's a too big). Let me know what you find off. - Dwight
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Benjamin Green
Pretty good. I got 2 comments I think may help a little here. First is that the edges look a bit jagged, and missing some overlapping in some areas that would help the depth out. If the linework was a bit more fluid and stylistic, it would really come to life with energy. Second, is that the reference was shot with a fisheye lens effect and you can really bring this out by foreshortening the back leg, especially the foot and her right arm a bit more. And even make her bend back a little more with exaggeration to make the shot more dynamic. Show the difference in size between the appendages that are closer to camera vs those in the background. Overall, great job! cheers.
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tyna
5mo
why In this case there’s no terminator line?
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Dwight
Hey, I'm back with more pen drawings. I've temporarily fazed out of gesture, and wanted to do some fountain pen drawings. The last two of the attached pictures had underdrawings, and the first was straight to pen. Some things to consider: 1. The references. The last picture (labelled 35cd6ac) isn't a good reference, as the light is very soft. I had to darken some values to add form. And also yes, the reference is cut off, hence the vague shading on that leg. 2. The terminator. For the first picture, I just straight drew the separation of dark and light, then coloring book-ed the shadow in. Now, I've tried doing this in conjunction with hatching, but I'm not skilled enough yet to do that. And so the other way is almost no terminator lines and opt for all hatching. I say almost because I would draw it if there's an especially hard turn of form, but for the most part I tried to express depth with just line weight and spacing. 3. Hair. I think the hair looks fine by itself, but detracts from the hatching method as it seems too messy. I'm not at the point of composition, but it seems to lead the eye to the hair and head, which isn't necessarily my desired focal point. 4. Scared shading. In a previous post about hatching, Steve let me know that line spacing and line overlap create darker values, and in these drawings I didn't make use of that. My excuse is that I wanted these to turn out okay, and was worried that darkening values would lead to a messy hatching. Regardless, my value range is really small, and I'm going to try to have a large one in the future. That's it for now, let me know of anything wrong in my drawings. - Dwight
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opaqueapple
Hi all, I finished another figure drawing. Since i got recommended to do a value comp to figure out initial values, i did a quick sketch of the figure (1st image) - I dont exactly know if i approached it like a 'value comp'. the second image is my final. This is my final figure drawing for this course specifically! The course was a lot of fun & I learned a ton. Thanks to all the people who kindly gave me critiques & Pushed me just that bit more to improve & Thanks Proko for putting this course together :D As far as that, Any critiques as usual would be much appreciated, Thanks!
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Dwight
Hey Apple, not really a shading critique because I like your shading, but I really think you should spend a bit more time on proportion. Trust me, proportion is my least favorite part of drawing, but it really makes your drawing feel more cohesive if done correctly. In most drawings I do, about one 1/3 of my time spent is just on proportion because of it's importance (and my lack of intuitive proportion). Now there's a ton of ways to measure proportion, and many videos are here on Proko about it, so I won't relate what I do here (unless you'd like me to). A good exercise is to compare your reference to your drawing and see what things you tend to make bigger or smaller, and remember that next time you go into a longer drawing. But yeah, in case you forgot, I've been following you for a bit because I really like seeing your progress, and I hope you'll continue to grow as fast as you are now. - Dwight
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opaqueapple
Hi all, I ended up finishing another Figure Drawing & tried to apply whatever i learnt with the master study of Stan's own work. I think @mrfrar you mentioned to start off with 6 values or less in my last one, I'm pretty sure this is more than 6. I found it difficult to simplify down to 6 values as simple as it sounded. If you see this & you don't mind, would you send an example of a figure drawing minimized to 6 values so I could use it as reference for my next? Beside from that, Any feedback would be much appreciated as usual! I'm planning on finishing 1 more for this course before i move on.
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John Harper
You may need more contrast between your background color and what your model. On that topic, sometimes we define edges with shading and other times with line. You can do some really interesting things using both methods. Good try.
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mrfrar
Hello. The shading on this one looks much more clearer and readable. If you want a figure with only 6 values, the figure drawing demo of Yoni from Stan applies this principle. If you want more of a challenge, you could try to replicate one of Michael Angelo's anatomy studies. It's a very complex drawing but the shading is only reduced to 5 values. I've attached it to the post. Something that might also help is doing a compositional study where you just do a quick drawing of the figure but with the flat values and assign the 5 of them to the figure before starting the real drawing (2 for the shadows, 3 or 4 to the lights). Try to make the core shadow darker than the reflected light. You did this well on the leg but on the torso it's much less noticeable. This is optional but another thing that I like to do is hatching to give it some texture. For example, I would do some hatching surrounding the leg near the core shadow to better represent the cylindrical form of the leg. As for the general form and gesture its pretty good. The only thing is the breast shape is a bit different from the reference. In the reference is more elongated but in yours it has a more rounder shape. Not that big of a deal tbh.
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opaqueapple
Hey all, I finished this section of shading a figure drawing, Any critiques would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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mrfrar
The reference you used has soft lighting but you made your shadows too confusing. Dont overcomplicate the shadow family and make it compete with the light family. If you do, there's no harmony to the figure. For example in the legs, you have a mixture of shadow tones and half tones and this breaks the shading. For the shadows just use two tones for the start (one for the core shadow and other for the reflected light) and also dark cast shadows when the surface is covered by something. The rule is the lightest dark is always darker than the darkest halftone. It's hard to keep this in mind but this must apply throughout the entire drawing. I usually take a few breaks when shading to keep my mind clear because it can get tiring if you shade for hours straight. There are also some lines that seem unnecessary like the one between the shoulders near the spine and the other one the butt. Those sharp lines hurt your drawing so avoid them as much as possible unless it's absolutely necessary to indicate a sharp turn. Always start by separating light and shadow with a single line (the terminator) variating between soft and hard edges observing the reference. In this case, it's mostly just soft edges. Make sure the shadow family has less details and focus more on the light family. You need to make a plane get lighter in the center (center light) with the highlights (if there's one) and that light slowly fades has it goes away from the center (halftones) If you're just starting with shading, I recommend you use fewer values (5 to 6) just to master the fundamental concepts, then you slowly build up details by increasing the value range. The form, gesture, proportions look pretty good.
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Peter Tinkler
These are a couple of tonal studies from my life drawing class. I wanted to zone in on a specific area and try and take that to finish. I was aiming to keep my drawings around the 6 value mark, so as to simplify to a certain extent. I used Conte for these on newsprint paper.
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Andrew Wilson
Is there any way to replicate how you shade traditionally but digitally, or just rendering digitally in general? Does that come down to the brushes or do the techniques change?
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Chris Moore
You can definitely replicate the traditional method. It could help to use a more "traditional" based digital program, such as Rebelle 5 Pro, or Corel Painter. However, it's not strictly necessary. You can set up your digital drawing pen (I'm assuming you will use something like a wacom if on a pc, or an apple pencil if on an ipad) so the brush thickness will increase when you tilt the pen. This make sit behave similar to a real pencil... wider when you hold it more flat, and sharp and pointed when you hold the pencil more upright.
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tudor
11mo
Hello folks I am studying the figure and I'm moving to shading. I think the line quality is decent for these studies but the shaded drawing is lacking. Do you have any tips for improving? Or should I practice the basics more :)
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Chris Bodary
My phone definitely didn’t capture the halftones and kind of grouped them with the lights too much in my photos. I appreciate any feedback. Charcoal on drawing paper 300 series strathmore.
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Christopher Beaven
I think the shading looks great but the proportions could use some work. To see where your proportions are off do an overlay in Photoshop or another editing program. Once you see where your proportions don't match try the figure again and get the structure and drawing down first before shading. Shading is like the icing on the cake, but first you gotta make a good cake. Most importantly keep drawing!
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squeen
Chris, you definitely linked your shadow shapes in an appealing manner. The half-tones got over exposed in the photo, as you say. The rib-cage doesn't imply a egg-shaped roundness on the left. Perhaps soften that curve a little more...without losing a small straight. Have you every tried using toned paper to discretize your values a bit more? Overall, nicely done.
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Sandra Süsser
This episode was such a good blast of knowledge. Learned a ton / had some nice reminders and I will be doing more of these sketchy not finished studies since I find the most learning happens in these early stages and rendering details isn’t such a challenge for me anymore. I followed the process shown, however I am thinking about flooding the subject with a base local value after the layin before starting the shadow mapping since every object has its own range of value and Color as explained and otherwise I tend to go into more contrast than is realistic.
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Jethro Medina
Here are my sketches for shading. I haven't taken my anatomy class yet so im basically draw what I think is right. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Proportions, gesture, shadows, you name it.
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Jethro Medina
Wow, how come my pictures are so pixelated. It was captured at high quality resolution.
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hiflow
My process was a huge struggle and all over the place. I shaded the muscles individually instead of grouping shadow shapes like Proko instructed. Now I'm trying a new study by grouping shadow shapes, but I still kinda feel like I'm guessing my way through. Every critique is appreciated!
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Benjamin Mayer
I think the biggest thing you can do that would help the piece is adding hard edges to your shadows. You achieve a pretty great range of values which is great and something I struggle with. When looking at the piece though, sometimes things get "mushy" for lack of a better word. In the area of the scapula and traps for example, in the reference there is a hard edge, where your piece has a gradation in the same area. I really think just finding some places to add in hard edges will make your piece pop!
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Thieum
Very nice job! If I compare with the reference I would say that the left shoulder seems a little too narrow to me as well as the wrists. I feel like you're losing a bit of gesture in the left arm and the dorsal spine (a little too round comparing to the ref). But otherwise great job!
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tomasb
First completed figure drawing on this course. Charcoal, white chalk and toned paper (fairly coarse grained). Any critique and comments appreciated!
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Peter Tinkler
Really solid looking figure, and the proportions look good. Lovely work.
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tomasb
Did a bit more work with this and took a photo with a proper camera.
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Christopher Beaven
Overall the shading is very good. I would have liked to see a larger drawing on paper that coarse. When it's larger the texture of the paper doesn't present itself so much. Her forehead feel a bit tall but other than that the proportions are looking great. This is subjective but I prefer not outlining the figure so much especially when it's presented in a traditional way. The outline flattens the figure too much and prevents you from taking of some nice soft and lost edges. I love the subtle use of the white chalk. Too often that is used too much and the drawings look washed out. Great job overall, keep moving forward!
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Camellito
Here is my Shading assignment. This drawing is the culmination of everything I learned from this course. Do you guys think I’m ready for the anatomy course?
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nothanks
Heck yeah, go for it. If you feel overwhelmed you can always take a break and revisit the fundies or look for additional learning resources.
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Ernesto Palma
Go for it! I see great promise in your effort. Through repeated practice you can only keep getting better. I´m studying the anatomy course alongside the figure drawing course, and even the portrait drawing one! It helps not get bored and burned out when you can jump between subjects. The time between subjects helps let the brain do its thing in the background, and when you review it all, it will surely make more sense and become more a part of your personal knowledge library. Don´t be afraid to check out other fundamentals! Of course recommend stick to something at least 20 minutes and really intentionally study it, but there is nothing wrong with mixing it up!
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Laura Estrada
Oooh, pretty neat! In my humble opinion, I think your figure drawing foundations are looking great and you should be ready to tackle anatomy just fine. However, I'll also suggest that even when you've become a mega pro, it'll probably be a useful thing to keep on reviewing the lessons from the figure course over and over, just to keep those same foundations well oiled and in great shape. :) At least, that's what I intend to do!
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Bonnie Gable
I probably didn't take this far enough yet, but I didn't want to overwork it with my cold hands. I used two Prismacolors, a No 2 pencil, and a blending stump. I took care to measure and be clean with my beginning sketches. And proportions. Any advice?
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Bonnie Gable
My biggest weakness so far has been structure but I think I'm doing really well on that now that I've been practicing.
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Rizwan Piracha
Hi Guys, Shading assignment attached. Any feedback appreciated.
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