Proper shading differentiates an advanced painter from a beginner. It adds depth, contrast, and hyper-realism in your painting, making it appear like a photograph. All you need to know is the proper technique and the appropriate place to apply it. Shading techniques differ in their process and effect, providing different value to your painting. Some techniques build layers in the painting, creating a 3D effect, while others portray the balance between light and shadow. Thus, shading is an integral part of art and drawing classes for adults, helping them take their drawing to new heights.
Advanced Shading Techniques for Adults
Blending
Overview: Blending shading is a technique in which light slowly transitions to darker shades. The straight pencil lines are stippled to soften the gradient through paper texturing. Additionally, this technique helps to add warmth by softening edges and building light pressure to provide a realistic look. Blending is the first shading technique taught in most art and drawing classes for adults.
The process: Take a soft drawing pencil with a mark B and draw a shape. Fill it up lines from lighter and thinner to darker and thicker. Use small and side-to-side movements for your shade and return to the areas to darken it. Refrain from using uniform pencil strokes; however, they must be in the same direction. Take the blending stump to smudge the lines to create a transition effect. If you’re using the graphite pencil, then a tissue would also work.
Contour Hatching
Overview: Contour hatching is a shading technique which uses pencil lines to create the light and shadow effect. Contour shading follows the shape of your outline, and thickness creates the effect of light and shadow.
The process: Sketch a shape with curves and contours, preferably a sphere. Visualise where the light will hit, and the shadow will be created. Start with light and thin lines and curve them along the contours. At this stage, avoid straight lines and let the line follow the shape of the object. Thereafter, focus on creating the shadow by bringing the lines closer and making them thicker. The diversity in the space and thickness of the lines creates the illusion of light and shadow.
Cross Hatching
Overview: Cross-hatching uses criss-crossing lines to create the effect of light and shadow. This technique has a woven look due to the overlapping marks, hence the name. Cross-hatching has been popular with iconic artists such as Van Gogh and Leonardo Da Vinci. Thus, it is a staple in art and drawing classes for adults.
The process: Draw a series of parallel lines along a shape in any direction (vertically, horizontally or diagonally). Draw another set of lines overlapping the previous one at an angle of 45 degrees. Add more lines for layers with directions and spacing. For a lighter shade, lower your density and increase your spacing. For darker shades, the lines should be thicker, closer, and with more density.
Rendering
Overview: The rendering process of shading involves using a graphite paper and lifting it off the page where you want to highlight. The impact can be grainy and smudgy, but it’s useful when you want an old and degraded look for your picture.
The process: Get putty rubber or a mouldable eraser for this technique. These erasers can be shaped to form a pointy end for rubbing off small regions in your drawings. Use the eraser to dab over your shading to get a dabbled look. If you don’t have an eraser nearby, you can also use your hand. However, erasers are useful for precision and correcting shading mistakes. Thus, using them is more beneficial.
Scribbling
Overview: Scribbling is a freeform shading technique that uses overlapping random strokes to create organic shading effects. This technique is useful for providing a realistic touch to natural objects, such as trees and flowers. The marks are unplanned and do not follow a specific direction. Scribbling creates a unique texture, often chaotic, to provide a natural element to your painting.
The process: Begin with light marks, side-to-side movements with varying stroke length. Layer more scribbles with more lines for shadows. Gradually, make your strokes lighter as you move towards the light. Curve your scribbles along the shape of your outline. Bring variation to your strokes, density and thickness to add texture and depth.
Scumbling
Overview: Scumbling is a freeform shading technique using swirling and circular motion to create darker patches around your main subject. These swirls create textured shadows and a soft gradient for portraying skin or foliage. In painting, scumbling is used for brushing over wet paint.
The process: Use the scribbling technique, but in a circular motion, moving in a single direction. Preferably, moving your swirls in the shape of an ‘8’, rather than spirals. Build up layers with denser areas, bringing the shadow effect. Bring gaps between shadows and lighter areas to create textures.
Why is shading important in drawing?
Creating 3D Effect
Shading creates interplay between light and shadow, adding an extra dimension to your painting. Moreover, shading helps to add volume to contouring surfaces, bringing a 3D effect to your painting.
Adding Realism
Advanced art and drawing classes for adults bring photorealism to their work. Shading mimics how light interacts with surfaces in the real world. Thus, it brings realism to your painting, making it feel advanced.
Portraying Depth and Space
Shading helps to bring lighter areas into focus and recede darker areas to the background. Thus, it creates the illusion of depth and space, adding drama to your picture. Shading can make your flat picture look more like a scene.
Building Mood and Focus
Shading can build tension and divert the viewer’s attention to certain elements, creating contrast. It sets the emotional tone of the painting or picture by invoking certain moods.
Defining Form and Texture
Through texturing, shading can help define the shape and contours in a picture. Shading can make a picture appear grainy or smooth, based on the technique you’re using.
Shading drawing tips and tricks
The above shading tactics will help you bring depth to your composition for the subject and scenario. However, Queensland Art School, a renowned institution providing painting classes in Brisbane, suggests the following tips to make your shading perfect:
- Shade with the side of your pencil nib: The side of the pencil nib provides more lead contact with the page. Thus, your pencil marks will be wider.
- Go woodless: Woodless pencils use the side of the nib for shading larger areas. Thus, they are better for shading than your average wooden pencil.
- Blunt nibs are better at blending: Sharpened pencils aren’t always desirable if you want smoother blending. Blunt nibs can help to do that instead.
- Alter your angle: Uniform angles can make shading look unrealistic. Alter your angles to overlap lines to add authentic, darker shades.
- Try new media: Graphite pencils aren’t the only tools for shading. Some painting classes in Brisbane, such as Queensland Art School, suggest graphite powder applied with a paintbrush or cloth can also be a better medium.
Conclusion
Shading not only adds realism but also drama and storytelling in a picture. Art and drawing classes for adults focus on shading to create narratives around a subject through the interplay of light and shadows. Therefore, learning different shading techniques allows for adding various effects to the painting. Queensland Art School can not only train you in these techniques but also teach you to apply them under various circumstances. Shading is not only about using the right techniques but also about the right equipment. We can also train you to use the right pencil, brush, and other tools required for the shading technique. So, join your classes to elevate your creativity and upskill your artistic abilities.
