Shading

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Rolenthegreat
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Shading

Post by Rolenthegreat »

I've been asking a lot of questions lately, but you'll never learn if you don't ask.
Are there any tricks to shading? I’ve been trying to learn to Cell Shade. I have the process down, but it always looks wrong. I never know where to put shading, or highlights. I looked for a tutorial online but couldn't find any that were about how to shade, only Photoshop techniques for shading.
I even checked out the links in people’s sigs, but I couldn't find anything. Does anyone know of a good tutorial? Or any tips about learning to shade? Even an artist, or a good shaded color comic I could look at as an example?

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Toxic
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Post by Toxic »

This really belongs in Techniques and Tricks, but I can guide you to some tutorials.

http://www.thejaded.co.uk/studio/photos ... tiply.html
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Rolenthegreat
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Post by Rolenthegreat »

Ack!
I think you misunderstood..
I know <i>how</i> to shade. Add layers and the 'set to multiply' and all that.
But, I'm no good at it.
In an artistic sense.
I was hoping for drawing tips.
Sorry if it's in the wrong thread.
And unclear.

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Luprand
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Post by Luprand »

Draw a sun in one corner or wherever you think the light is coming from. Then darken anything facing away from it.

That's the quick and dirty part of it, anyway ...

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Dalis
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Post by Dalis »

Yeah, the sun to one corner is the best trick about it. Every time you do the shading, try to think of things like gel... Least that's how I do it. Clothing is a thicker type of gel, therefore shadowing the arms and legs underneath, for those that is shown. Eye reflections, are set up in a sense that, the large bulb will be in the same direction of the sun. I'll post again in a moment, I'll try to draw some examples...
-Dalis

Image

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Dalis
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Post by Dalis »

Image

Okie dokie... you don't have to take my word for anything, but this is how I think iin a sense of shading. The thing starts from top left, top right, then lower left. Light source basic, and the eyes are turned more towards the light source. On the lower left image, I drew with a red line to show the surfaces. On the face, the bridge of the nose and hair would be the factor that blocks. The best way you can practice this is with a flashlight and several objects. The neck and down, is abit different, the jaw line sticks out, therefore causing more shadows, but for a guy, there's more of an adam's apple to cause more shadows. So there's a slight curve in the neck area. In terms of clothing, I also showed the shading there. the top part of the folds would be the lightest, but the cloth will start to curve somewhat, and that causes shade and "hides" a part of the clothing fro mthe light source.

I hope this helps alittle... I'm not very good at explanations, but I hope this helps alittle at least.[/img]
-Dalis

Image

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Post by Phact0rri »

Rolenthegreat wrote:Ack!
I think you misunderstood..
I know <i>how</i> to shade. Add layers and the 'set to multiply' and all that.
But, I'm no good at it.
In an artistic sense.
I was hoping for drawing tips.
Sorry if it's in the wrong thread.
And unclear.
which means it needs to go to tips and techniques... not in general topics.

and if you are "no good at it" that implies you don't feel you know how to do it very well. and from experience relearning helps. go back the the basics and learn everything from scratch. thats what I've been doing to improve my over all art. *shrugs*
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Post by Dutch! »

Give it a try and see what comes out...you never know...before too long you might one day realise 'hey, I can do this now!'
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Post by JexKerome »

Three words: practice practice practice.

And this needs to be moved to TTT.
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Bekka
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Post by Bekka »

Image

This is an example of how I do it.
1. is the lineart, in a layer called 'sketch'.
2. is the flat colours, in a layer called 'flats'.
3. is the finished product, with the shading applied in a layer called 'highlights' and smudged in (light source is from the left).
4. shows where I apply the shading. Blue is a tone of the flat colour that is more to the right and to the bottom of the colour palette (darker and richer), while green is a tone of the flat colour that is to the left and top of the colour palette (lighter and greyer). I put the shades in then smudge them with the Smudge tool set at around 45%.

I had posted questions in tips and techniques about shading in the past but I don't feel like looking for the thread, anyway it should be still there somewhere, along with many other threads on the topic. It had received some very interesting and useful answers.

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Post by Sam_Charette »

One thing I would suggest, if you have a lamp you can move around and a digital camera, is take pictures of your own face/body with the light coming from the same direction as the light source in your drawing. Try to make the room dark, and the light fairly bright and close to you (i.e. the light on the ceiling of the room isn't going to help you, you need a less powerful lamp closer to you).

The reason for the dark room/close lamp is to exaggerate the shadows on your face to make them easier to see. So take the picture, look at it, and you will see how the shadows fall.

If you can't do that, then just look online for pictures of anyone doing anything. It'll be a little more difficult to see the shadows, but once you look for a while you'll see them.

As you copy them, think about the actual shape of the object you are shading, and what parts of it, exactly, are causing the shadows. This is what you need to know, and it will come with practise.

I can't offer any web pages, as I don't know of any, and I can't offer examples, as I'm not great at it either, but at least that's something that you can do. :)
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Post by War »

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Post by Rhellik »

Well I'm not that good an artist put I like doing shading in my comic. Maybe have a look at it: http://magica.keenspace.com
If not, I think this guy knows what hes doing: http://twokinds.keenspace.com/

Otherwise just try out a lot for yourself. :)
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Post by Collapse »

I actually have been learning about shadow by staring at people as they move around under lights. I also figured out a bit just by rotating my arm and watching the way the shadows change on it. It sounds rediculous, but it helps.

I don't recall if this is standard terminology or something I skewed/made up, but I tend to think of shadows in terms of soft shadows and hard shadows. Hard shadows are those case by a solid object between the surface and the light. Examples of this would be the head and arm shadows that several people have already shown. Soft shadows occur at rounded areas that are not directly exposed to lighting but still recieve it. These are areas where the shading is very gradual.

For example of this, hold your arm under a medium-brightness light. The top of your arm will be bright. On the sides, you can see where the shadow gradually gets darker. On the underside, it will be much darker.

I used to only use soft shadows, but now I'm starting to use hard shadows.

Here's an example picture, too. Image

Light source is around the top left of the picture. Soft shadowing is shown best on his cheek, neck, and right arm (the extended arm). Hard shadowing is shown on the back of his neck and behind his head, as well as where the arm of his jacket curves inward on the right side of the picture. You can see that I forgot to use hard shadowing on his left arm (the arm on the right), and so the very right side of it isn't dark enough and it looks strange in contrast with the shadow behind his head.

Ignore his hair, it looks kinda cool but it's not actually shaded right.
Image
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Post by Kris X »

It seems War likes to show his picture off a lot. :P Hmm?
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Post by JexKerome »

Kris X wrote:It seems War likes to show his picture off a lot. :P Hmm?
If he offers to send you a copy of his video with Toxic, decline, for your own good nyo.
Faith is what credulity becomes when it finally achieves escape velocity from the constraints of terrestrial discourse- reasonableness, internal coherence, civility, and candor. Thus, the men who commited the atrocities of September 11 were neither cowards nor lunatics of any sort, but Men of Faith- perfect faith- and this, it must finally be acknowleged, is a terrible thing to be.

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War
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Post by War »

Kris X wrote:It seems War likes to show his picture off a lot. :P Hmm?
All my photos were taken with a single light source and the b/w makes it easier to pick out the shadows. I took them so they would make good drawing aids :P.

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Post by Mercury Hat »

Kris X wrote:It seems War likes to show his picture off a lot. :P Hmm?
I'm not complaining :D .
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Post by Cope »

XD
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Post by Vorticus »

Cope wrote:XD
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