How to shade objects correctly. Pencil shading is a special form of art
The basis of the drawing is this line, it can do a lot of wonders. If you decide to devote yourself to learning how to draw with a pencil, then you definitely need to know the basics of shading. The site has many lessons on pencil drawing techniques, each lesson shows a little bit of the technique, and this lesson is the lesson that should be studied first, especially since it was compiled by a professional American artist.
Once you can do shading well, you will find that it is a very quick and easy way to achieve realism in your drawings.
This lesson is divided into three sections:
1. Study of shading.
2. Drawing basic types of shading.
3. Creating a shadow scale.
Take pencils to put the lesson into practice. We will need 2H, HB, 2B, 4B and 6B pencils, an eraser and drawing paper.
This article is recommended for artists of all ages and backgrounds.
Study of hatching intensity.
You will be more comfortable if you know how to draw various shades. Different shades of shading are created by changing the density of the drawn lines, pressing on the pencil, and using different types of pencils. Shades can go from light to dark or from dark to light.
Drawing shading in different shades requires a lot of practice before you achieve perfection.
1) Oblique shading, look at the four shading options. The group of lines that are on the left have very few lines and are far apart from each other, which creates the illusion of a light tone. In subsequent examples, the lines become closer and closer and the tone becomes darker, the outermost being the darkest.
2)Try yourself in drawing parallel lines with an arbitrary distance from each other in your album. You have to try a lot different ways movements of your pencil, flip the paper, or change the angles of your lines until you find the pose(s) that feel most natural to you. 
Drawing basic types of shading.
For this exercise, take a 2B pencil and you will draw lines far apart and then closer to create 4 different shading options.
3) Draw the first set of hatch lines with a lot of space between them and a small number.
4) Draw the second row a little closer together. The lines in it are closer to each other than in the first case, so the tone value is darker.
5) Draw a third option, where the lines will be closer to each other than in the previous cases. At the same time, the lines become much larger, and the tone itself is darker.
6) Draw the fourth option, where the lines are even closer than in the previous options, they are almost adjacent to each other, but the paper is still visible.
7) Look at the picture, shown here different kinds hatching, for example, curved and straight, and long and short. Try drawing these options in your sketchbook.
Creating a scale.
In this section, you'll learn how to achieve a full range of shadows, varying line density and pressure, while using pencils of varying softness.
8) Let's start practicing and see the differences between pencils. 2H is very light (hard) and 2B is quite dark (soft). In the following exercises you will use three different pencils, to create different shades. 2B pencil is best used for creating dark shades, HB is great for medium shades and 2H is ideal for creating light tones.
9) Take a 2H pencil and draw the first three options, the result is light shading. Take the HB pencil and draw the next two options, take 2B and draw the next remaining two options.
Draw these variations of strokes, when done, try in the opposite direction from dark to light. 
We drew the lines close to each other, while clearly seeing the strokes, now your task will be to draw so close as to create the illusion of a smooth, dark tone (without blending). In the following steps, your goal is to make seven different variations of smooth shading, drawing lines close to each other.
10) Take pencils 2H and HB, make three light options, as in the picture below.
11) Use 2B, 4B and 6B pencils to draw four dark tones.
12) Draw a scale of ten various options from light to dark.
13) Draw the same another scale of ten different tones, only from dark to light.
Before us is a drawing “Bananas”, owned by the artist Yuri Yudaev-Rachey. Using this wonderful and very revealing example, we will look at the features of correct and beautiful shading.
5 principles
beautiful shading:
1. First, pay attention to clear parallel straight lines. Straight lines need to be trained separately; they are needed as an element of the stroke, and not on their own (“look how I can draw a straight line without a ruler!”). In the figure these lines are very readable. To draw straight lines this way, you need to hold the pencil correctly. A beautiful stroke is made with confident and quick movements. Lines drawn by a trembling, uncertain hand are unlikely to look impressive).
2. No shading is used. Nobody forbids extinguishing at all. But you cannot mix cross-hatching and shading in one drawing. If you rub it, then the entire drawing and do not leave strokes. Because when the graphite is smeared only in some places, it seems as if this is a consequence of general sloppiness. This happens, for example, when, while shading, your hand moves across the paper and smears the drawing. This is bad manners. By the way, to avoid smearing with your hand, do not forget to place a clean piece of paper under your hand.
3. The most attention is paid to the development of what is in the foreground, because there are the strongest contrasts of light and shade. In the distance, the tonal transitions are smoother and smoother, everything seems to be shrouded in haze. This is no coincidence: this is a way to convey aerial perspective in a drawing.
4. The stroke is applied according to the shape. For example, in bananas you can see that the strokes are slightly rounded, and this is how the round shape fetus In addition, looking at the picture, we see that the bananas lie on a horizontal plane, and behind them there is a vertical plane, apparently this is a wall. The artist conveyed this to us precisely through the direction of the stroke. If a horizontal plane is hatched with vertical lines, it will rear up. Which, in general, partly happened in the lower right corner of the picture.
5. A darker tone is achieved by increasing pressure, cross-hatching, and more frequent overlapping of strokes. But first of all, it is important to cross the lines. Look, even in the darkest place the paper shines through the shading. This gives general impression cleanliness.
And most importantly, there is no need to be afraid of stepping outside the line, drawing the line incorrectly, etc. This feeling of constraint will certainly be transmitted to the viewer (if you decide to show someone a tortured drawing). To do well, you need to draw WITH PLEASURE and think less about the result. So practice your strokes. I mean special exercises, which are done separately, just as in childhood we trained writing numbers, displaying entire pages of ones and twos.
We will need 2H, HB, 2B, 4B and 6B pencils, an eraser and drawing paper. This article is recommended for artists of all ages and backgrounds.
Basics of smooth shading (gradient shading).
In this section, you will use a 2B pencil to draw a very simple gradient, drawing strokes of varying lengths either far apart or close together. Gradient shadow creation is a transition from dark to light or from light to dark. Hatching refers to lines that are drawn close together to create the illusion of shadow. Shading refers to the different shades used to give a three-dimensional appearance to a drawing.
1. Before you start drawing, take a few minutes to find natural hand movements. Make several parallel lines. As you draw, pay attention to how to make these lines. Try it different variants moving your pencil, turning the paper or changing the angle of your lines, do this until you find a position and movement that is comfortable for you.
2. Draw the first set of lines, with the shading taking up a little more than half of your paper horizontally. On the left side of the paper, press lightly with your 2B pencil to draw light lines far apart and in small quantities. Closer to the middle there are fewer small lines, more long ones and they are a little closer to each other. By using hatching lines of different lengths, you can make a subtle transition from a shadow of one intensity to a shadow of another intensity.
3. Draw more lines darker and closer together until you reach the end of the paper (horizontally). Add a few more short lines between your individual lines if the transition between tones is not very smooth.
4. Draw more lines closer together, all the way until the end result is dark. Start making your lines closer together with 2/3 of the paper. Notice that the lines that make up the dark areas are very close together and the paper is very difficult to see, but is still visible.
Gradient shading.
Before you start this part of the tutorial, draw a line with each pencil and see how they differ. 2H is the lightest (hard) and 6B pencil is the darkest (soft). 2H is ideal for creating light tones, HB and 2B are good for medium tones, 4B and 6B are good for creating dark shades. You will use them for a smooth transition, and pressing on the pencil will also change the color.
5. On the left side of the paper, using light pressure with a 2H pencil, draw light lines. As you move closer to the middle, make your lines closer to each other and press a little more on the pencil. Use an HB and/or 2B pencil to achieve a medium-tone shading in your work. Continue to darken your tone as you move to the right.
6. Using the HB and/or 2B pencil(s), make dark shading almost to the end of your sheet.
7. Using 4B and 6B pencils, draw in the darkest tones. Make sure your pencils are sharp. Draw the lines close together. 6B will create very dark shade. If you notice that the transition between your tones is abrupt, you can make it smoother by adding a few more short lines between your lines.
Look at the smooth transition between tones in the picture below. The individual lines are barely noticeable because they are so close to each other. No smudging was used here, although it looks almost like a continuous gradient. Patience and a lot of practice and you will be able to do this later. Try it!
8. Use curved lines to draw the transition of 10 different tones from light to dark, the drawing shows the texture of the hair. The author divided the sheet width into 10 parts so that you understand how the tone changes, with each subsequent one darker than the previous one. Curves are drawn with the letters C and U. When drawing human hair and animal fur, curved hatching lines should follow the contour of the shape of the head and body.
9. In practice, use more different tones, drawing from light to dark. Your pencils play an important role in creating your shading. Beginners can use three or four pencils. Most often the author uses 2H, HB, 2B, 4B and 6B pencils. With a full range of pencils from 6H-8B, the potential range of tones that can be made is endless.
Pencil shading on plain paper is the main drawing technique. In this article you will learn how to hatch a drawing with a classic, or academic, stroke. The fact is that it is possible to cover a drawing with tone different techniques, and pencil shading can be different. But it is precisely this technique that is school, so to speak. basic technology, which should be comprehended by any student.
Basic principles of shading
Correct shading in academic technique involves the following principles:
- We apply the strokes separately, one next to the other.
When you make strokes, lift the pencil from the paper after each stroke.
- We don't use commas.
The strokes are not just separate, they have equally sharp ends, without a comma at one end
- Do not apply zigzag strokes.
It’s clear that there shouldn’t be zigzags; if you have zigzags, it means you don’t lift your hand after each stroke.
- The cross stroke is not perpendicular to the previous one.
The strokes of subsequent layers are superimposed under high angle relative to the previous layer in stages. That is, first you apply the first layer within a certain area and then cover it with subsequent layers.
- We draw the basic stroke according to the shape of the object.
The direction of the stroke follows the shape of the object. For example, if an object has a rounded shape, then the stroke gradually changes direction according to the shape of the object, according to its rounding. We will talk about the shape of the object in detail below.
How to extend a series of strokes
Everything seems quite easy if you have one row of strokes, but if you need to extend it, it turns out something like this:
How to avoid this obvious border between the rows? This is the most difficult moment in shading. The main thing is patience!
There are several ways to avoid this seam effect between rows:
First, do not start the next row on the previous one. That is, the rows are separate, the next row begins close to the previous one, but does not overlap it. The tails of the previous row seem to continue with the strokes of the next row. The next layer will cover the unevenness.
Second, the strokes usually turn out thicker at the beginning and diverge into a thin line at the end. Of course, ideally, you should make a uniform stroke throughout. But this does not work for everyone and is not suitable in all situations. So the strokes of the next layer can be drawn from the gaps of the previous ones. That is, one row smoothly merges with the others. This method is the best.
And third - adjustment with subsequent layers. No matter how good the theory is and no matter how well you perfect the stroke, even professionals cannot avoid mistakes in full-fledged work. If your first two options don’t work well, and it doesn’t work out correctly everywhere, then try to correct it with subsequent layers.
Problems with shading
Students often have problems with how to hatch. It seems that in theory everything is clear, but in practice it turns out very hairy, rough, and due to the chaos of strokes the shape of the object is not visible.
First of all, this is due to the lack of shading skills. That is, a person has little experience, his hand is not trained, he has no skill. This comes with practice.
The most basic problem is chaotic and liquid shading. Chaotic - strokes not in shape and with a cross direction at a large angle or even perpendicular. Liquid - a lot of gaps, the distance between the strokes is very large.
And the third problem is an insecure hand, which is afraid to do something rude and does everything very gray, washed out, indistinguishable. This is the opposite of the first, and it is worse than sloppy, but hatched. Don't be afraid to do something ugly, it will get better over time! We must not be afraid, but strive, albeit roughly, but confidently.
Stroke direction and object shape
How to hatch according to shape? The question is how to apply strokes, in what direction, and how to determine this direction. If we have, for example, the face of a cube, then, of course, within the area of this face, all the strokes go in one chosen direction and in each subsequent layer the stroke does not change its direction.
Another tip, always shade from dark to light areas.
It’s another matter if the surface is rounded and even changes direction. Let's say we have a cone, it has a rounded surface, that is, the base stroke (the main stroke of the first layer) should follow the rounding of its shape. For example, like this:
But the question remains open: maybe choose a different direction? For example, shade like this:
How to choose the stroke direction? It's all about the shape of the object and how you feel this shape.
The direction of shading that best emphasizes the shape of the object is most suitable.
That is, the cone looks more expressive in the first picture.
If our direction changes, then the direction of the stroke changes smoothly. For example, when drawing a portrait with a pencil, this is very important. The lines of the face constantly change directions and have smooth roundings.
If you look closely, the direction of the stroke changes smoothly as the direction of the faces of the face changes. Smoothly rounded from one direction to another.
Other drawing techniques and how to develop shading skills
You should not mix other techniques with academic shading. There are many of them, but the most basic ones, which often spoil academic drawings, are:
- Cross and chaotic stroke direction, different types shading in one drawing.
- Shading and shading
These methods of applying material to the surface of a sheet are good in other techniques. For example, in sketching.
Here, for example, is a pen-and-ink sketch by Eduard Kichigin, a master of architectural sketching.
As you noticed, the drawing is made with rough, sharp strokes, in some places they intersect at a large angle. Here the task of such a stroke is to convey the shape of the body using minimal means, emphasize its direction, convey the pose, how the silhouette is rounded, give accents of light and shadow, and make a hint of the surroundings.
As you understand, you can hatch in a completely different way, and it will not be worse. But classical technique drawing allows such a stroke only at the sketch stage.
Sketching is a separate and integral part of the drawing. Making sketches, outlines, sketches is the main, basic skill for an artist. And it is very useful for training your hand. A hand trained on such sketches will be more confident and lively in working with more subtle and complex techniques.
Therefore, to develop your shading skills, do as many sketches and sketches using shading as possible.
What pencils to use
Use professional art materials if you want to achieve good result. I work with koh-i-noor and Faber-Castell pencils. Of course, pencils should be sharpened with a stationery knife. Do not use mechanical pencils; they are designed for other purposes.
Use pencils of varying softness. From NV to 4B. It is advisable to shade light areas with harder pencils, and use softer pencils for the darkest areas. I do not recommend using softer pencils (softer than 4B). They can cause excess blackness and dirt on the work; in addition, due to their softness, they strongly merge the stroke, resulting in a shading effect instead of a clear stroke. There is simply no point in using hard pencils - they do not give a beautiful stroke and can press down the paper too much. For example, you are trying to squeeze out a tone from a hard pencil and start pressing a little harder - you end up with pressed grooves on which the cross-stroke no longer fits correctly.
Hence another rule for good shading: use a suitable pencil for each tone, that is, one that will give the desired tone without strong pressure. The tone should be enhanced by subsequent application of layers, and not by pressing on the pencil.
Use the 4B pencil least often - only for the darkest places. Use the HB pencil only for the lightest areas. Mainly use 2B and 3B pencils.
There are two main drawing techniques - shading and pencil shading. Most of those who studied at art school, will choose the second drawing technique. This is what is considered the correct drawing technique, and shading is not recognized at all. But there are also those who did not pass art courses, and do not have an artistic education, including me, but they also draw and very often use shading.
We will not figure out which technique is better and more correct, but will simply talk about these two drawing techniques.
Pencil drawing rules
As you already know, there are two ways to transmit tone - shading And pencil shading. Hatching is more suitable for drawing illustrations, while shading makes the drawing more realistic.
In drawing textbooks you can find many articles about the rules of working with a pencil, about the correct positioning of the hand, about developing artistic skills.
By no means should you question all these rules, but, in my opinion, they are not suitable for everyone. By virtue of different characters, artistic skills, desire for freedom in drawing - people are looking for those drawing techniques that are more convenient for them. They don’t want to force themselves into the rules. I think this is why many people do not use pencil shading, but shading, which many call incorrect.
Shading with a pencil
In the “” lesson, like other lessons, I used two drawing techniques - first shading and then shading. Shading, as mentioned earlier, will help make the drawing more realistic.
There are basic rules for shading that will help you make it better. The first is to do it only along the strokes, which will give the shading a more natural look. Secondly, for shading you can use not only simple, but also zigzag shading. Third, don’t shade the drawing with your finger! Use cotton buds or a piece of soft white paper.
Pencil shading
Using pencil shading you can easily convey the desired tone. Hatching in progress short lines(strokes), which makes it possible to obtain different degrees of tone saturation. In order to enhance its depth, cross hatching is used.
If you look closely, you can see that in the very dark tone hatching will be combined different directions: oblique, vertical and horizontal.
Pencil shading not only has the ability to convey tone, but will also help convey the surfaces of the objects in the drawing.
Relief shading
In conclusion, I would like to say a few words about relief shading. This type of shading is used when you need to convey the surface relief of the object being drawn. For example, in the lesson “” I drew lips with arched strokes.
As a rule, relief shading with a pencil is the use of non-direct strokes.
