I am Leonardo Pereznieto and because I have gotten so many requests about it, Ill do a

a basic video on shading.

I will begin sketching a solid figure and Ill do a very basic shading a series of parallel

lines called hatching.

This is very natural and fast. I will do the same on the other sides, but pressing less.

If I want it darker, I can go over it again, or do a cross hatching.

And the projected shadow, or cast shadow, would be something like this

if the light came from the upper left.

And I can do what is called an accent, that is where the figure touches something else.

Ok. Ill sketch another figure, for another example. For a more realistic shading I do

a series of circles or ovals or twirly things, covering the plane.

I repeat the same thing over here, but pressing less.

I may use a brush to smudge the graphite.

And then, with the kneaded eraser, I can pull the dark spots to make it look more uniform.

Of course you can use different types of shading in the same drawing.

When shading, sometimes is good to follow the shape of the object.

Lets do an example with a sphere.

It could be shaded with circular lines, to show the form.

I will make it a cast shadow, so that it doesn't look like it is up in the air!

In the drawing I made when I did the tutorial on hands, you can see how I followed the shapes.

But lets look at a much better example.

This is from the great Raphael, and you can see how he followed the shapes when doing

the shading, to the detail.

This is by Rembrandt. He not only followed the shape of the face, but also on the hat!

This technique is not only for drawings. Lets look at a Rembrandts painting now.

I am not sure if you are able to see this in the video, but he did the brush strokes

following the shape of the head, the shape of the cheek, of the nose, etcetera.

I am not saying that you have to draw or paint like this, but it is a technique worth knowing

to give emphasis to the volume.

There is another aspect worth knowing when shading curves

And as you know, I LOVE drawing and shading beautiful curves. [Chuckles]

No, seriously. First I draw a line that divides the areas of light, from the shadow.

And I tone the dark area.

With a light tone I lose the edge, because I don't want it to look like

there is a corner, or something.

But here is the point that is not as intuitive: And that is that the darkest area is just

by the light, it is called a core shadow, while the shadow that is further away gets

a little bit of a reflected light and therefore, is not as dark.

I was referring of course to the shadows on the sphere.

The cast shadow, generally speaking is the darkest of all.

I smudge a little.

If I wish, with the eraser, I can pull this darker spot.

The reason the core shadow happens, is this: The beams of light come straight and lets

say they come from this side. All this area will be in the light. Here is a curve and

the beams of light dont curve as fast (actually, they dont curve at all, but they illuminate

the small particles in the atmosphere and they reflect light to other particles and

give the illusion as if the light curved.)

But doesnt curve as fast so this area is the darkest.

And this other area, as it gets some reflected light, is not as dark.

Now, in regards to where the cast shadow falls, that depends where the light is coming from.

Lets follow the direction of the light and we see that this corner falls here and this

one here and so, the shadow will be something like that.

But if the light came from the flat side instead of the corner, then it would be different.

Lets say that the light came in this direction, then the shadow would be something of this sort.

Something like that. To resolve any questions on this, I recommend look at an actual

object and its shadow.

Ok, I have received many questions asking how do I shade. And the answer is: It depends

totally what I am shading. For example I could use little dots. Dots and dots. This is not

fast but gives a special effect. It is nice when drawing a concrete or rock wall.

But if I were to draw something made up of wool or something like this, Id probably use scribbles.

While for drawing a bright metal, like the chromed rim cover of a car, I would shade

it totally smooth and with a high contrast of tone. I make a horizon line, very dark,

the reflexion of the street, and the reflexion of the sky.

And to shade something totally different, like the feathers of an owl, Ill sketch it

with short and soft lines to try to give that texture.

It came out very bad, but thats ok! [chuckles].

Now, realize that the brightest you want something to look, the darkest you need to draw.

For example, this poor star is not shining. And you can not go lighter, because she is as

light as the paper. So I go darker, all around it. The darker you go, the brighter it will become.

Ill smudge with the brush and then pull the light again with the eraser.

Very well. Now she is bright and shiny!

There are tools that help us shading, such as a brush, a stump, etcetera. Of course what

they do is that they smudge the graphite or the charcoal. I explain and demonstrate this

a little bit more in my tutorial about materials. If you havent seen it I recommend to watch

that one and the one on the line, which are the basics. I will give the links at the end

of this video, when the credits come out.

Very well!

If it was helpful please give it a LIKE and subscribe to my channel, you know where to

follow me and where the links are. And Ill see you on Tuesday.