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[Daft]

I'd really love some advice. How the hell do you do shading?! As in when you ink? So I'm doing this,

 

 

But when I ink it I have no idea how to handle the shading. Helps please!! I'd love you so much.

[Eenuh]

What sort of help do you need? What kind of shading to use or where to put the shading?

 

 

As for types of shading when you ink, here's a nice short list with examples:

http://www.art-is-fun.com/drawing-techniques-creating-value-in-pen-and-ink-drawings.html

 

 

I think hatching/cross-hatching/contour hatching are the best ones to use, especially in the types of drawings you do. Stippling is very very time consuming, but can look very nice.

Here's an example of what I did with stippling (realistic recreation of an object).

 

And here's one with different kinds of hatching.

 

 

As for where to put the shading, it helps to look at black and white photos of objects. Shading isn't usually just black and white, but has grey areas in between. So unless you want to go for a complete black-white drawing, you'll have areas where you'll use your chosen inking technique to create different values (so dark grey, normal grey, light grey etc).

 

If you're not sure where the shading should go, it helps to imagine or to draw (in pencil) a sun/lightbulb where you want the lightsource to be. From that source, draw straight lines in every direction. Where the lines hit the object, there's where your white and light values should be. The opposite side is the shaded side.

 

Here is an example by someone else, the red parts being the highlighted parts which will remain white/have the lightest colour.

 

 

I hope that helps a bit heh. If you need help with anything, feel free to ask! =)

[Daft]

Wow. Okay, yes. Thank you. So helpful.

 

So I think I need to break it down a little more. I think I'm going to go for cross-hatching when I'm inking (THANKS!!).

 

So I think the second area I'm a little confused with is shading with regards to colour. If you look at my post before last, it's really flat. I'm cool with that because that's the first thing I ever coloured but I have two questions,

 

1. Is there anything special I have to do for shading with colours? (I did the layer>multiply thing you suggested and it worked but I feel like I'm missing something because it doesn't give that much depth. Or I'm just super bad at it.)

 

2. How do you get texture into the colour? Like your awesome drawing are awesome because they look textured and real and...I can't really think of the word, but they look like they weren't just done up on computer (which they probably weren't). How do you do that? Do you colour on the computer or in the real world and then scan?

 

Did that all make sense?

 

Soooo many questions, I apologise but you are the master!!

Edited September 24, 2011 by Daft

[Eenuh]

Alright, shading with colours is a bit different.

 

 

There are 2 main shading techniques that I'll try to explain. The first one is what you did in your drawing, which I call the hard shading (I don't know if there's a proper name for it haha).

Basically this is the type of shading that you'll often find in cartoons and animation and the like. The edges of the colours are clearly visible. Here's an example from one of my images.

 

 

As you can see, the colours are clearly divided from each other. You have your base colour, which is what you draw everything with (for the cup for example, I used a light blue). Then you pick a darker value from that colour and use that as your shading. Pick a lighter colour value to use for your highlights.

 

In your drawing, the shading you didn't isn't obvious enough. For example on the sleeve, there's only one colour. If you want things to stand out and have depth, you should use a base colour, a shade colour and a highlighting colour (so one side of the sleeve would be lighter coloured, the other side darker coloured). Quick example:

 

Do this type of shading and highlighting on every part of the image/object. As for the shape of the shading, that'll require a bit of practice. You will have to let it follow the shape of the object, so it will create the appropriate sense of depth.

 

 

I guess that's the basics for hard edged shading. Soft shading follows the same principles, but you will let the colours mix in with each other. To do this, you should play around with the brushes in Photoshop. Change the opacity and flow, use a brush with soft edges... You will notice a big difference from the normal brush which is set to 100% opacity and flow. By changing these settings (especially if you put the opacity and flow quite low), you can layer colours on top of each other and have them sort of blend in with each other. It's best to practice with this to see what sort of results you get.

 

Here's an example of soft shading, especially noticeable on the frosting:

 

As you can see, the colours aren't clearly divided from one another, they blend in. For this type of shading I use quite a few shading and highlighting colours, constantly changing them (the Alt key and the Color picker are my friends!). So don't just stick to three colours, try using multiple ones!

 

Also, if you're using Photoshop, try to create different layers for pretty much anything you do. For example on your drawing, I would create a layer for the colour for the skin, one for the hair, one for the trousers, one for the jacket etc. When you do the shading, put that on a different layer as well. That way when you mess up, it's easier to correct or change something. =)

 

 

 

What else...

 

For texture, you can try using different brushes. There are brushes in Photoshop that create a bit of texture when you use them.

 

But if you want actual texture (like I have in my anniversary card), it's best to use some kind of texture in your background. Simply find a texture online, then paste it on a new layer in your file. Now you can start fiddling with it: try changing the settings of the layer. Try to set it to multiply, color burn, linear burn, overlay... simply try out all the settings and see what it does.

 

For my anniversary card, I put two different layers in there with textures. Here is what the image looks like without those textures (colouring is set to 72% opacity, which I'll explain in a bit):

 

And here is the image with the texture layers turned on:

 

Layer 8 and layer 3 in that image are my textures. I set them as the bottom layers. Layer 3 is set to 100% opacity, while layer 8 is set to 76% opacity, so that layer 3 is still showing through it. To get the texture to also appear through my colouring of the characters however, I set layer 2 to an opacity of 72%, while also switching the layer to Linear Burn. That's how I got the texture of the background to show through the characters. Other settings other than Linear Burn work too (like Multiply), you'll just have to look through them all and see for yourself what looks best (do the same with the opacity).

 

 

 

I hope this makes some sort of sense haha. If not, just let me know and I'll help out some more (I'm a qualified art teacher after all). =P

[Daft]

Wow, that's amazing. Thank you!!

 

I think I'm going to have to test both kinds of shading. Will be back with my results soon. Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!

[Fierce_LiNk]

I've always thought that the shading on that frosting for Cupcake boy was insane. It looks really thick and whole.

[Coolness Bears]

The Cupcake just makes me insanely hungry!

[Hamishmash]

I've not been updating you guys on A is for Adventure that much but you can see all my updates on the official page for it her - http://www.hamishmash.com/adventure

 

But I wanted to post this page. The book has many visual references to video games, especially Nintendo and especially retro. But this clearly references Donkey Kong Country Returns (and Super Mario with the mushroom)

 

[Eenuh]

Wow, that's amazing. Thank you!!

 

I think I'm going to have to test both kinds of shading. Will be back with my results soon. Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!

 

You're welcome!

 

I know it's a bit much to take in and it's probably a bit confusing at first, but the more you practice and the more you look at real life shading, it'll start making more and more sense. =)

[Daft]

Seriously, those instructions are super clear. Thank you!

 

Okay, so I've almost finished the inking.

 

 

So, I think I've over inked it to do all the cool shading with colour. So should I next time just not bother doing shading with ink?

 

Uuurgh, what I'm doing is so confusing to me. I think I need to get a grip on my 'style'.

 

Maybe I should start with a less detailed drawing.

Edited September 26, 2011 by Daft

[Ellmeister]

I've not been updating you guys on A is for Adventure that much but you can see all my updates on the official page for it her - http://www.hamishmash.com/adventure

 

But I wanted to post this page. The book has many visual references to video games, especially Nintendo and especially retro. But this clearly references Donkey Kong Country Returns (and Super Mario with the mushroom)

 

 

Dude, last time I checked the alphabet didn't go from H straight to M! What happened! :p

[Diageo]

Holy duck fucking space monsters Batman! You're amazing Eenuh!

[Magnus]

Dude, last time I checked the alphabet didn't go from H straight to M! What happened! :p

Well, he says he's been inspired by video games, so he's probably saving I, J, K and L for DLC.

[jayseven]

Daft; doing hi-light and lo-lights (hard-shading) then merging the layers and just... using blur tool to softly infuse them gradually... is something I did back in the day. make sure you're comfortable with the mechanics of shading in general - i.e. do some shading exercises with pencil and paper - draw a sphere, a tree and a garbage bag or something, and just make sure you're comfortable 'visualising' where the shading goes.

 

Then I suppose it's a method-based choice when it comes to inking.

 

I'm sure this post isn't as helpful as eenuh's!

[chairdriver]

So, sat down for the first time in years and years and did some art:

 

 

Really pleased with how it turned out, the face especially. The hands are really bad, ignore them. :p

[Wesley]

Are you going for a particular style?

[Hamishmash]

I'm making Tintin-style covers for all the Zelda games.

 

[Magnus]

I like it.

 

(And I don't even like Tintin all that much.)

[Hamishmash]

Would any of you guys like to see more of these? And if so, which one next?

[ReZourceman]

ALL OF THEM.

 

Or do you mean video games? If video games then Donkey Kong Country.

[Hamishmash]

I'm going to stick to Zelda... I want to make a big piece for when Skyward Sword comes out as it is an exiting time for both Zelda and Tintin fans.

 

Next one will be Link's Awakening I think.

[ReZourceman]

Cool, well Four Swords and Majora's Mask would pique my interest a lot.

[Hamishmash]

I don't count Four Swords but I do count Four Swords Adventures... I kinda count them as the same thing just cos it makes the "list of the official zelda games" a bit neater. Plus it was originally Link to the Past Advance's multiplayer mode so it'd be a bit like counting the Star Fox 64 3D multiplayer as a seperate game.

 

Make sense?

[jayseven]

I find it mad-but-awesome that you live up to your mish-mash name so damn well. These ideas... it's insane because it seems you're the first person on the planet to think of them, and yet whenever I see them I immediately think "of COURSE!" Keep up the good work! When you're famous, tell the world about n-e :P

[Daft]

I drew my favorite Aquaman expression from issue 1.

 

 

I need to fix the hair. It's kind of wack.

 

I've put my other monster drawing on hold while I practice shading and colouring on something a little simpler.