How to Shade with PENCIL for BEGINNERS

Summary

In this rapid fire art tutorial, Darlene teaches the fundamentals of adding depth to line drawings through shading. She covers pressure control, smooth shading techniques, and understanding light behavior. With practical exercises and insights on light reflection, core shadows, and highlights, viewers learn to create realistic shading on a sphere and an apple, enhancing their artistic skills without needing special tools.

Takeaways

• 🎨 Adding light and shadow to line drawings can create the illusion of form and depth, making the subject appear to jump off the page.
• ✏️ To improve shading, practice pressure control, smooth shading, and understanding light behavior.
• 📚 Pressure control involves creating a range of values from light to dark by varying the pressure applied to the pencil.
• 📐 Practice shading in a consistent manner across a page or within squares to develop muscle memory for consistent pressure.
• 🛠️ Any pencil can be used for realistic shading; special pencils are not necessary, even a burnt stick can serve as a pencil.
• 📏 To shade smoothly, avoid gaps between strokes and use a dull pencil tip or the side of the lead for broader strokes.
• 🤲 Use an overhand grip and pivot from the elbow and shoulder for longer, gap-free strokes when shading large areas.
• 💡 Understanding light is crucial; knowing the difference between direct light, reflected light, core shadows, and highlights can greatly affect the realism of artwork.
• 🌐 Light behavior can be studied using a simple sphere to understand how light and shadow patterns form on different surfaces.
• 🍎 When shading an object like an apple, start with a basic sketch, determine the light source, and then add cast shadows and core shadows considering the reflective properties of the surface.
• 🌟 Highlights are the brightest points on an object and can change position depending on the viewer's perspective; they indicate direct light reflection.
• 👀 Mid-tones are essential for creating the illusion of roundness on the light side of an object, and blending these with shadows helps to create a cohesive appearance.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of adding light and shadow to line drawings?

Adding light and shadow to line drawings creates the illusion of form and depth, making the subject appear more lifelike and three-dimensional.

What are the three key practices Darlene suggests for better shading in art?

The three key practices suggested are pressure control, shading smoothly, and understanding how light behaves.

How can one practice pressure control in shading?

Pressure control can be practiced by shading from one end of a sketchbook to the other while increasing pressure to create a range of values, or by filling squares with varying values from dark to light.

Why is it important to maintain consistent pressure when shading?

Maintaining consistent pressure ensures a smooth transition between values and helps develop muscle memory for realistic shading.

What does Darlene suggest as an alternative to using a pencil for shading?

Darlene suggests using a burnt stick from the kitchen as an alternative to a pencil, emphasizing that any tool that can make light to dark marks can be used for shading.

How can one shade smoothly without leaving gaps between strokes?

To shade smoothly, one should use a dull pencil tip or the side of the lead, and avoid using a writing grip, instead pivoting from the elbow and shoulder for longer strokes.

What are the two types of light that contribute to the appearance of shadows?

The two types of light are direct light, which comes straight from the light source, and reflected light, which bounces off surfaces and illuminates shadowed areas.

What is the term used to describe the dark strip running along the boundary between the light and shadow sides of an object?

The term is 'core shadow', which is most visible on reflective surfaces like white tables.

What is an occlusion shadow and how does it differ from a cast shadow?

An occlusion shadow is the dark area where the object touches the surface it's resting on, while a cast shadow is the shadow the object casts on the surface, indicating the direction of the light source.

What are the three elements of the light side of a sphere that Darlene points out?

The three elements are the core light, which is the area facing the light source directly; the highlight, which is the brightest point due to reflection of the light source; and the mid-tones, which are the darker values where the form curves away from the light.

How can one practice shading to improve their understanding of light behavior?

One can practice by placing objects under a single light source, observing the patterns of light and shadow, and drawing the scene from different angles or even drawing from imagination based on the understanding of light behavior.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Mastering Realistic Shading Techniques

Darlene introduces a rapid fire art tutorial focusing on adding light and shadow to line drawings to create an illusion of form and depth. She emphasizes the importance of pressure control, smooth shading, and understanding light behavior. Darlene demonstrates how varying pressure can create a range of values from light to dark, which is crucial for realistic shading. She suggests exercises to improve this skill, such as shading across a page and filling squares with a gradation of values. Additionally, she mentions that while tools can aid in shading, basic pencils are sufficient to start, and even a burnt stick can be used as a pencil. The key is to begin practicing.

05:02

🌞 Understanding Light and Shadow Dynamics

The tutorial delves into the fundamentals of light and shadow, explaining how they interact to give a subject three-dimensionality. Darlene uses a sphere as a model to illustrate the concepts of direct light, reflected light, core shadow, and highlights. She clarifies the difference between core shadows, which are the darkest part of the shadow, and occlusion shadows, which form in tight spaces where light cannot reach. Additionally, she discusses cast shadows, which indicate the light source's direction. The importance of mid-tones in creating a rounded form is highlighted, and Darlene provides a step-by-step guide to shading an apple, considering the light source and the effects of reflected light, to demonstrate these principles practically.

10:04

🍎 Practicing Shading with an Apple Example

In this part of the tutorial, Darlene engages the viewers in a practical exercise of shading an apple. She advises starting with a light sketch and determining the light source's position. The process involves drawing a cast shadow, considering the reflective properties of the surface underneath, and adding a core shadow. She then explains how to fill in the shadow side with a flat layer of graphite and blend the areas to avoid harsh edges, especially important for matte surfaces. The tutorial continues with adding mid-tones to the light side and using an eraser to highlight the brightest points, emphasizing the importance of exaggerating values for depth. Darlene concludes with tips on making the drawing pop by manipulating light and shadow and suggests further practice with different objects and even people as subjects.

Keywords

💡Light and Shadow

Light and shadow are fundamental elements in creating the illusion of depth and form in art. In the context of this video, they are used to bring a line drawing to life by adding dimensionality. The script emphasizes how the interaction between light and shadow can make a flat image appear three-dimensional. For example, the tutorial explains how to use light and shadow to shade an apple, considering the direction of the light source and the resulting cast shadow.

💡Pressure Control

Pressure control is a technique in shading that involves varying the amount of pressure applied to a drawing tool to create a range of values from light to dark. It is crucial for realistic shading, as it allows artists to create depth and form. The script describes practicing pressure control by shading across a page, increasing pressure to achieve darker values, which is essential for creating a dynamic range of tones in an artwork.

💡Shading Smoothly

Shading smoothly refers to the ability to create a continuous tone without visible gaps between individual pencil strokes. This technique is important for achieving a realistic and polished look in a drawing. The script suggests wearing down the pencil tip to avoid sharp edges that can create gaps and recommends using an overhand grip to achieve longer, gap-free strokes.

💡Understanding Light

Understanding light involves comprehending how light behaves and interacts with objects, which is vital for realistic shading. The video script discusses the importance of knowing where to add light or shadow to enhance the realism of artwork. It uses a sphere as an example to illustrate the concepts of direct light, reflected light, core shadow, and highlights, which are all influenced by the understanding of light.

💡Core Shadow

A core shadow is the darkest part of a shadowed area, forming a strip along the boundary between the light and shadow sides of an object. It is most visible when the object is on a reflective surface. The script mentions the core shadow when discussing the shading of a sphere, explaining how it is created by direct light and the reflective properties of the surface beneath the object.

💡Reflected Light

Reflected light is the light that bounces off a surface and illuminates the shadow side of an object. It plays a significant role in determining the appearance of shadows and adds realism to a drawing. The script explains that reflected light is responsible for the illumination of the shadow side of a sphere when placed on a white, reflective table.

💡Occlusion Shadow

An occlusion shadow occurs in areas where an object blocks light from reaching a surface, creating a darker area. The script describes the occlusion shadow as the area where the ball touches the table, which receives less light due to the obstruction, thus appearing darker.

💡Cast Shadow

A cast shadow is the shadow that extends from an object when it blocks light from reaching another surface. It can indicate the direction of the light source. The script instructs the viewer to draw a cast shadow for an apple, using the light source's position to determine its length and shape.

💡Highlight

A highlight is the brightest point on an object, often a reflection of the light source. It signifies the area receiving the most direct light. The script explains that the position of the highlight can change depending on the viewer's perspective and that it can make an object appear rounder when blended with mid-tones.

💡Mid-Tones

Mid-tones, also known as half-tones, are the intermediate values between the lightest and darkest areas on the lit side of an object. They help create the appearance of roundness and depth. The script advises adding mid-tones to the apple where the form turns away from the direct light to enhance the sense of three-dimensionality.

💡Practice

Practice is emphasized throughout the script as an essential part of learning to shade effectively. It involves experimenting with different techniques, such as pressure control and shading smoothly, and applying the understanding of light to various objects. The script suggests practicing with real objects under a single light source to observe and replicate light and shadow patterns.

Highlights

Adding light and shadow to line drawings can create an illusion of form and depth, making a flat drawing appear three-dimensional.

Three key practices for better shading are pressure control, smooth shading, and understanding light behavior.

Pressure control in shading involves creating a range of values from light to dark by varying the pressure on the pencil.

Portraits with a wider value range appear more realistic and less flat compared to those with a limited value range.

Practicing shading from one end of a sketchbook to the other helps develop muscle memory for pressure control.

Using a long rectangle divided into squares allows for practicing shading from the darkest to the lightest values.

Maintaining consistent pressure between strokes is crucial for realistic shading.

Any pencil can be used for shading, and special pencils are not necessary to start.

A burnt stick can be used as a pencil to demonstrate that any tool can make light to dark marks for shading.

Smooth shading involves eliminating gaps between strokes and maintaining good pressure control.

Using a dull pencil tip or the side of the lead helps in achieving smooth shading by creating thicker strokes.

An overhand grip and pivoting from the elbow and shoulder allows for longer, gap-free strokes.

Understanding light direction and behavior is fundamental to realistic shading.

A sphere is used to demonstrate the elements of light, including direct light, reflected light, core shadow, and highlights.

Core shadows are visible on reflective surfaces, while black surfaces absorb light and do not show them.

Occlusion shadows occur in tight spaces where light cannot reach, and cast shadows indicate the light source's direction.

The light side of an object has core light, highlights, and mid-tones, which contribute to the appearance of roundness.

Shading an apple involves sketching, determining light direction, drawing cast shadows, and blending light and shadow sides.

Exaggerating values can create depth and make a drawing pop, while blending outlines with shading avoids a cartoony look.

Practice shading by placing objects under a single light source and observing the patterns of light and shadow.

Drawing people you know well under a single light source can be a challenging yet effective practice for shading.

Transcripts

hey i'm darlene and you're watching a

rapid fire art tutorial

when you add light and shadow to your

line drawings you can make your subject

come to life by creating the illusion of

form and depth

you can make a flat line drawing jump

right off the page

in order to shade better you'll need to

practice three things

pressure control

how to shade smoothly

and most importantly understand how

light behaves

i'm going to walk you through all three

things and then we'll shade something

together

pressure control

realistic shading is done by creating a

series of values ranging from light to

dark

the harder i press down on the pencil

the darker the strokes

portraits displaying a limited value

range can end up looking very flat

while portraits with a wider value range

will pop

to have good pressure control practice

shading from one end of your sketchbook

to the other while pressing harder and

harder until the values get darker

gradually

another way to practice is to draw a

long rectangle and divide it into

several squares

fill the squares from right to left

start with the darkest value you can

possibly make and work your way towards

the lightest

[Music]

it's important to maintain a consistent

pressure between each back and forth

stroke or each individual stroke

this will take some practice and

concentration to develop the muscle

memory for

if you're interested in the tools i use

and want to learn more about the

different pencil types check out the

link below

some tools can make shading easier for

you but you absolutely do not need any

special pencils to get started because

you can draw and shade realistically

with pretty much anything that can make

light to dark marks

here let me show you

i'm going to draw using this random

stick i found in my kitchen once it's

burnt i can use it just like a regular

pencil

my point is that any old pencil will do

there is no reason why you can't start

shading today

really the most important thing is just

to start

how to shade smoothly

to shade smoothly try to eliminate major

gaps between your strokes while

maintaining good pressure control

now it's difficult to eliminate gaps if

your pencil is sharp so what you can do

is wear the pencil down until the tip is

dull or use the side of the lead to draw

so your strokes are thicker

if you're shading a large area and want

to avoid these dark stripes avoid using

your writing grip while pivoting at the

wrist instead use an overhand grip and

pivot from your elbow and shoulder to

achieve much longer strokes

just remember to keep those strokes

close together eliminating gaps that can

make your drawing look scratchy

[Music]

understanding light

have you ever tried shading something

over and over without it looking even

close to your subject

for most beginners shading is probably a

guessing game that's totally what it was

for me

until i learned a few basics about light

things just started making more sense

knowing where to correctly add light or

shadow can make a really big difference

in how realistic your artwork will come

across

i'm going to use a sphere to point out

the different elements of light because

the patterns are a lot easier to point

out than a complex form such as a nose

for example

[Music]

here we have a plain wooden ball with a

light source coming down from the top

left

we have two distinct sides

the light side which is facing the light

source and the shadow side which is

turned away

at the edge of our shadow we have

something called a core shadow which is

a dark strip running along the boundary

between the two sides

the core shadow is most visible on a

white table because white is highly

reflective

light rays come down bounce off the

table and illuminates the shadow side of

the ball leaving a dark band so as you

can see we have two types of light

direct light and reflected light

that's why shadows are rarely all black

there are so many things in the

environment that light can reflect off

of

walls nearby objects or even dust

particles floating around in the air

do keep in mind that black surfaces

absorb light

so in this example the core shadow is no

longer visible

going back to the image of the nose can

you tell which areas are lit by

reflections and where the core shadows

are

as mentioned earlier light can reflect

off of many things in the environment

but they have a difficult time bouncing

their way into tight spaces such as the

area where the ball touches the table

this is called an occlusion shadow

[Music]

and this is a cast shadow which appears

when a form blocks light from reaching

another in this case the ball is

blocking light from reaching the table

the cast shadow can tell you where the

light source is coming from all you have

to do is trace the edges against your

object

how many cast shadows can you find on

the

nose let's move on to the light side of

the ball

on this side there are only three things

i need to point out there's the core

light which is the area facing the light

directly

then there's the highlight which is

actually a reflection of the light

source this is the brightest point on an

object

the edges can appear soft on matte

surfaces like this wooden ball or hard

on shining surfaces such as a plastic

ball

and as unintuitive as it seems the

highlight can change position depending

on where you're standing

[Music]

the very last thing are mid-tones or

half tones

mid-tones are the darkest values on this

side of the ball where the edges start

curving away from the light source these

areas receive less and less light the

more they angle away

can you point out the coralite highlight

and mid-tones on the nose

shade with me

let's shade an apple together without

looking at any reference images with our

basic knowledge of how light behaves we

can essentially draw from our

imagination

we might not be very accurate but it's a

great way to actively think about how

light behaves first sketch your apple it

doesn't have to be perfect at all just

try to get something down on your

sketchbook

try to keep your outlines as light as

possible my sketch is extra dark so you

guys can see it better

we want it to sit on a table so draw the

edge of that table behind your apple

then erase any unneeded lines

the next step is to determine where the

light is coming from let's have one

shining down from the top left

draw a little flashlight or sun just to

remember where it is

where the apple blocks light from

reaching the table let's draw a cast

shadow you can use a ruler to find the

cast shadow's length just align it to

your light source and the edge of the

[Music]

apple now we know how long to draw the

cast shadow

i'm just going to draw a long oval shape

where the dotted lines touch the apple

we have our boundary between the light

and shadow side

let's say the apple is sitting on a

white table how do you think the shadow

side will look taking reflected light

into consideration

draw a core shadow making sure the

thickest section is the darkest

[Music]

where the apple touches the table

there's less light so let's shade that

area darker

now that i've taken care of those two

areas i'm going to fill in the rest of

the shadow side by adding a flat layer

of graphite that is lighter than the

core shadow

once you're done soften the transition

between each area to avoid that hard

edge between light and dark values

now don't forget to soften the bottom

portion as well

if you're shading an object with a matte

surface an abrupt or immediate

transition can indicate a sharp edge

while a gradual transition can indicate

a round edge

since cast shadows are darkest near the

object they're being cast from

i'm going to shade the area directly

under the apple darker than the far

right

[Music]

how bright do you want the light side of

the apple to be

it's totally up to you

pick a light value and then shade the

entire space flatly

the next thing we need to do is blend

the two distinct sides of our apple so

it all comes together nicely

where the form turns away from the

direct light add your mid-tones which

will immediately make the surface appear

rounder

[Music]

when you're done use an eraser to

indicate the highlight

if you want your drawing to pop out of

the page exaggerate some of those values

to create depth

if your drawing consists of mostly a

small range of light grays try to get a

bright highlight in there and some

darker values

[Music]

now outlines can make a drawing look

cartoony so make sure they blend in with

your shading or erase them as you go

along

definitely try to make your initial

sketches as light as possible so they

don't show through in the end

if they're too dark to erase you can

shade a dark background until they

disappear

practice

place a few objects on a table under a

single light source

observe the patterns of light and shadow

on each object understand what you're

looking at and try to draw the scene in

a fairly organized manner

it can help to pick an object up and

turn it around to study it from

different angles

if you want a bigger challenge ask a

willing friend or family member to be

your study subject

use only one light source on his or her

face it really helps to draw people that

you know very well

and that's a wrap guys

if you're already subscribed to my

channel thanks for helping me get the

silver play button

if you haven't subscribed yet hit that

big red button down below

let me know if you like this format and

if you want more shading related videos

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you