how do you know where to shade?

Question

When shading a picture(cartoon), how do you know where to shade?
I dont have a clue how to figure out which parts should be darker, and which lighter.Help!!

and also on the computer, when making a picture, how do you know where to shade...?

what is cross hatching????

Answer 1

The trick is to remember where your ' light ' is coming from. If your ' lighting source ' is low, the shadows will be longer. Brighter ' lighting ' will give darker shadows. When in doubt, look to nature. A solid object will block light. So, anything that will block the ' light source ' ( nose, eyebrow, cheeckbone, etc. ) will require shading AWAY from the ' light source '. Usually the area closest to the solid object will be the darkest part with the shading gradually getting lighter as you move away from it. Crosshatching works well if you are unsure how you want it to look.

You mention cartooning. Shadows adds a lot of drama. Shading works really well in the manga medium.

Practice makes perfect.

Answer 2

hi you need to determine where the light is coming from ie the sun. draw an arrow in the directtion or your page and then lightly shade the areas that wont be touched by this. for eg a bottle in the sun, the sun on the left- so the left side of the bottle will have no shading. on the right side of the bottle there will be darker shading at the base (the ground) and less shading at the top. gradually getting lighter. as far as shading on the pc not sure. use a heavy pencil to like 3b or similar fore the darker areas. it is softer therefore easier to blend to the shape.

Answer 3

You have to either figure out where the light source is. Once you have a light source, create shadows on the sides of objects that are not touched as strongly by the light.

Answer 4

Pretend the sun is on one side of the paper. The darker sides should be on the opposite. It's called shadowing I believe.