Start with a linear layin, in this case it’s just a circle and some ellipses for the cast shadow and terminator
Separate light from shadow with a flat value
Model the core shadow and reflected light
Render the halftones
Add the highlight
Deepen the occlusion shadow
Fade the penumbra
And make your final adjustments

The most important aspect of this exercise is getting your value relationships correct. If your edges are rough, and your spheres look like they're sculpted from clay or play-doh, that's totally fine!

Level 2

You’ll be doing timed studies. This will force you to internalize the process and improve efficiency.

Untimed - You give yourself as much time as you need to get it right. One slow, fully rendered, realistic sphere, with careful edges and clean values.
25 minutes - This is still plenty of time. You'll have several minutes to spend on refining each element.
10 minutes - You’re gonna start feeling rushed. You don’t have the time to labor over any details. You have only a minute or 2 to quickly indicate the correct values of each element.
5 minutes - This is hard. Don’t try to make your drawing look polished. Simplify everything and get that quick impression working. Repeat these until you internalize the process and get faster.

Reducing time forces you to prioritize. Taking 5 minutes instead of an hour to shade a sphere means cutting 57 minutes of something. You have to identify the critical 5% of effort creating the illusion of depth. You can carry that knowledge over to your longer drawings and spend more of your effort on those critical things.

Timed studies also build mark-making efficiency and better draftsmanship. You don't have time to overwork your lines and smudge things around. With no time to overwork your lines, you have to practice putting down a few strokes that indicate your intention.

Submit Your Drawings

After you’re done, upload your completed sphere drawings below. And try to reflect on it. What did you struggle with, what worked, what didn't. This helps me provide better feedback and allows you to practice more deliberately.

Level 2, write down what you prioritized, what you removed, if your approach changed at all between the studies, and anything you learned about efficient rendering.

Deadline - submit by April 18, 2025 for a chance to be in the critique video!

Ben Whitfield

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Here is my level 1 attempt. I am not sure I nailed the transition from the shadows to the highlights that well. Shading is always a struggle for me so I need to work on this a lot.

@ason

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Whew that took awhile! This took me around 2 hours. I only have 2hb pencils, getting the lighter side of the sphere was a big challenge for me, got through it though,. Although unfortunately, through using my finger to try to help with shading, I got some darker light grey blobs in the lighter area, now I know not to do that. But I also think the reflective shadow is a little to light. Glad to have gotten this one done though, I finally have a sphere I can be proud of! :)

Christopher Corbell

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Getting used to the range of H-4H pencils for mid-tones - just got a set that has them... Close to the highlight I feel like the paper started to shred a bit even though I was very light with the 4H, but the more I went over the more little rough tendrils popped out. Probably smoother paper would be better to avoid that.

Christopher Corbell

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Here's another smaller, quicker drawing I did after watching the cool Cesar Santos tutorial. This was almost entirely done with a 2B pencil and a brush to spread the graphite and create the light medium tones, and the penumbra. I used a gum eraser to lighten the reflected shadow area, and because the core shadow transition was a little harsh I also lightened it and used an HB pencil to create a bit smoother transition. But it was lots of work with a brush - much easier on my paper then the array of H pencils I used for the first drawing!

•

For how rough I think this is, I still think it came out pretty well.

Mika Vermeulen

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12d

Will do more of these, can definetly use the practice

Melanie Scearce

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12d

This is a great start @Mika Vermeulen! I wanted to drop this tip here. I think creating a bit more of a transition from your core shadow and halftone values will give your sphere a more rounded appearance. Good luck with your studies :)

Arthur Nesbitt

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20d

I also did not realize there was a reference image until seeing the previous post lol. I feel like either my halftones or my reflected light are the weakest points in my attempts

Chuck Ludwig Reina

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20d

These are great. Those reflections can be tricky. Try going a little dark in the whole shadow side, especially around the core shadow. Keep it up!

Sofy

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20d

I didn't realize there was a reference photo, so I did one from imagination ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@ironfern

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21d

Hello! This was a fun challenge! The unlimited time definitely allowed me to get acquainted with the process. The times challenged clearly showed the pressure since my sphere are bottom flat lol. I'd appreciate any feedback! Thank you!

Luke

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26d

Took a few extra attempts at unlimited time. My initial 2 were too high contrast, the light group was too narrow and it hurt the readability. The next 2 were better, intentionally going for a wider value range in the lights, but I think I could have gone darker on the darks, and I was putting the bounce light too close to the bottom of the spheres, the occlusion should have darkened the bottom-most section of the shadow, blending it with the cast shadow. With the timed studies I am finding that I spend the most time trying to get the dark halftones and the core shadow to blend together without having the core shadow extend over the terminator. I was also noticing some weird perspective issues I was having with the lay in, I kept trying for a higher angle, but I think i only managed it on the 5 minute one (though I wasted a minute trying to get it right).

Luis

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28d

This is my Level 1 shaded sphere. I wasn't very satisfied with my first attempt so I tried again. Even the second one needed some tweaking. Getting the values right so that the highlight was visible was tricky, as was judging the relative value of the top left of the sphere and the shadow (after drawing the sphere I actually got a color picker to check)

Wibble Wobbles

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1mo

Drawing circles is harder than one would think.

Michael Longhurst

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1mo

Here are my shaded spheres. I think my biggest challenge was getting the cast shadow shape correct. Also 5 minutes was really tough to get everything in, but felt like I improved as I did more and got more efficient. Also for the first two, I didn’t realize there was a reference photo, so I did those from imagination with a few checks back to how Stan demonstrated. Then I watched the critique and figured out I missed the photo.

Michael Yoila

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1mo

Chauncey Holder

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1mo

This is my first attempt at this assignment, I used a 2h for linear lay in and halftones while using 4b and 6b for the shadows and abit for the half tones. Does anyone have advice on how to make it look better? i tried making things transation cleanly but it ended up coming messy.

mike mcdonald

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1mo

I have been doing this project for weeks and I just don’t feel like I’m getting better. With line, perspective, everything else, eventually I am able get something similar. This feels like the strokes just don’t produce the same thing when I do it. I guess it’s just training the muscles still. This shows my progression but I still can’t get one im happy with.

@deepanshu12

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1mo

Tried these after watching critique, tried to not make same mistakes

@wegneran

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1mo

NAILED IT !

@deepanshu12

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2mo

Jordan Andersen

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2mo

Here is my attempt. I've tried this several times, each better than the last. This is the first one where I feel like I did a good job on the half tones. Still looks off to me though not sure why.

Gloria Wickman

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2mo

Here are my four spheres. I think the 25 minute one came out the best because I was going into it with the knowledge I had from the untimed sphere and was able to make the proportions and positioning of the sphere and shadow more accurate. Doing the 5 minute sphere actually showed me I had a lot more room to play around with lighter values that I didn't take advantage of in the previous 3 spheres. Rushing made me color the light part darker and consequently the highlight popped out a lot more which I think makes it look better. Giving me too much time makes me more timid which I think leads to less experimentation and less commitment to shading/choices.

@mwalker

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2mo

Tried a couple with pencil(s) and paper and also digitally - as much as I like digital toys and techniques it really is not the same thing as doing it in real life. Some times I find myself two-finger-tapping when drawing with pencil and paper and then I realize the real world does support undo like that ;)

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.