Learning to Draw: Shading

Hello Hello!

Ok so we got the sketch done and got it ready for shading or coloring. Shading a cartoon is pretty simple because there's really not a lot of depth to it.  The shadows and highlights have clear lines instead of blending into another shade.

Pencil and Paper

Ok so here's where it's really good to have a graphite pencil set but if not that's ok too.  It would also be really good to have a kneaded eraser.  That eraser is used for the highlights but if you don't have one there's other ways to go about highlighting on a cartoon.

What you need:

• 3 shades of graphite pencils (personally I would use 2H, HB, and 2B) or a #2 pencil
• Kneaded eraser
• Blending stump (if you don't have one, you can make your own with a piece of paper. Click here and it will take you to a site that shows you how.)

Ok, on pencil and paper you shouldn't get all sloppy like I did in the video.  In other words, stay in the lines.  I usually start with my lightest pencil (in this case 2H)

• Give a base shade for entire drawing. Don't press too hard but put some pressure on there. (This step isn't really necessary. I'm just weird)
• Now take that same pencil and go over his hands and face with slightly more pressure.  You want his hair to be lighter than his skin (since he has blonde hair).
• Now take the HB pencil and shade his shirt using medium-hard pressure. (This is the darkest shade you'll use with this pencil)
• With that same pencil shade in the front of his hat with medium pressure. 
• Use the same amount of pressure for his hat on the shadows of his skin.
• Now take your darkest pencil (2B) and shade his pants.  Remember you don't want all of his pants to be black.  Only the shaded parts are black (or close) so use enough pressure to keep them a dark gray.
• Now take that same pencil and shade in the shadowed part of his pants pressing pretty hard.
• Take the same pencil and shade the black part of his hat and stripes in his shoes. 
• Now take a blending stump and blend the pencil strokes together. 
• Now take the kneaded eraser and shape it however you desire.  I usually point it out like a pencil (depending on where I'm using it).  Then lightly erase where the highlights should be. Do a little at a time so you can judge how light it needs to be. 

If you're using a #2 pencil, follow these directions but use the correct amount of pressure for each area.  If you don't have a kneaded eraser, you can give it a shot with a normal one.  Don't press hard when erasing though, that'll totally screw you up.  The other option is to shade around the highlights, then once you have everything shaded, lightly shade in the highlights to the desired amount of light. 

I did a video for you guys for a change.  The lighting is terrible and apparently I'm not capable of drawing and talking at the same time lol. 

Computer

What you need

• Graphics tablet and pen
• Sketch brush (if you don't have one you can download mine)
• Eraser of your choice
• Smudge brush (the one in my set that looks like an x and strength should be set at 25%)
• a total of 9 layers

Ok so you should already have 3 layers, your background layer, sketch layer, and outline layer. You're going to add 6 more which are; base, pants and hat, shirt and hat, skin, shadows and highlights. From top to bottom  all 9 layers should be in this order.

• outline (I named mine clean lines)
• sketch
• highlights
• shadows
• skin
• shirt and hat (mine just says shirt)
• pants and hat
• base
• layer 1 (background)

Set those up first thing and click save.  Always save your work about every 15 minutes.  That way if your computer goes stupid or there's a power outage you're safe and should only lose a max of 15 minutes of work.  

Base layer:

1. Click on your base layer
2. Then click on your foreground color and change it to #d4d4d4
3. Click on first brush set at 9 and change diameter to about 55.  Brush opacity should be 100%
4. Color all of Chris
5. Erase everything that went outside lines.

Pants and hat layer:

1. Click on pants and hat layer
2. Switch your colors back to default.  Foreground should be black and background white. 
3. Switch your brush to the last one set to 4 and change the diameter to about 40.  Change your brush opacity to 75%
4. Color in his pants, black part of hat and stripes in shoes
5. Now click on smudge tool (this is found in the dropbox of blur tool (tear drop) and smudge tool looks like a hand)
6. Click on brush that looks like an X and is set at 4
7. Now smudge or blend all the brushstrokes together
8. Erase anything that went outside the pants line, hat line or shoe stripes lines.

Shirt and hat layer:

1. Click on shirt and hat layer
2. Go back to brush tool and adjust brush opacity to 60%
3. Color in his shirt
4. Change brush opacity to 50%
5. Color the front of his hat
6. Now go back to smudge tool and smudge shirt and hat
7. Erase everything that went out of lines

Skin layer:

1. Click on the skin layer.
2. Go back to brush tool and adjust opacity to 10%
3. Color in his arms and face
4. Go back to smudge tool and smudge arms and face
5. Erase all the went out of lines

Shadows layer:

1. Click on shadows layer
2. Go back to brush took, change diameter to 30 and adjust brush opacity to 50%
3. Color in all shadowed areas.  (If you're having a hard time seeing your shading marks, you can turn off the layers you colored by click the eyeball beside them)
4. Go back to smudge tool and carefully smudge those areas
5. Now erase what went out of lines

Highlights layer:

1. Click on highlights layer
2. Go back to brush tool.  Change your foreground color to white and background color to #dddddd. Brush opacity stays at 50%
3. Now color all highlight areas
4. Go back to smudge tool and smudge those areas
5. Erase what went outside the lines
6. Now turn on all layers (if you turned any off)
7. Turn off your sketch layer

Now touch up anything that doesn't look right to you. Sign it and you're done!

Here's a vid. Enjoy some more Smashing Pumpkins. 

And here's my finished drawing :)

Alrighty!! The next blog will be on color and should be up in the next couple days. 

Check ya later!!