Basic Shading Technique

So I know I promised a tutorial to one of my friends,

and that I’m a little late getting around to it. Well, here it is, finally finished and perfect for beginning beginners learning how to shade. Learning how to shade is one of the first steps to drawing realistically. Let’s get started, here is the list of supplies:

 

• Sheet of paper
• Tortillon
•   2b pencil

 

Now here is how we start, first take your 2b pencil and make up and down pencil marks on your paper, building up the darks a little bit at a time until it is almost black. Lighten up your touch, moving to the right, getting lighter and lighter as you go fading out to gray. Make sure to keep your pencil lines very close together so that there are no blank spaces. Always go up and down never go side to side! 

 

Then take your tortillon and rub it up and down, blending your lines together. Shade with your tortillon on its side, NOT point down like a pencil.

 

Your result should look something like this:

 

 

You have now completed your first shading exercise. Keep practicing this until you can shade your lines together evenly without leaving any distinct lines.

 

The next tutorial will show you how to shade different shapes, and how light differs at different angles. 

 

I hope this was helpful to someone and if you have any questions, suggestions, or comments I would love to hear them! You can just post them at the end of this tutorial.