Anonymous wrote:I don't understand shading.
The theory behind it isn't hard, but the practise is.
Basically, you have to decide on a light source before you can shade anything. Where is the light coming from? Lets say we're in a room with a lamp in the corner, thats your light source. The side of the character which is closest to the lamp will be paler and the side which is furthest away will have the darker tones. Things that jut out, like noses and sometimes cheeks will catch light whereas things which are sunken in, like eyes or indentations in the skin (temples, as an example) will generally be dark.
If you're drawing something that actually exists, like a bowl of fruit, its pretty easy to look at an existing bowl and see exactly where to shade. But when you're drawing something from your own head, like a character you've invented, there often isn't anything similar enough to reference so you have to do somethinking. Imagine the character as genuinely being 3d, not a flat image. Imagine where he'd curve in real life, where the light would hit and where it wouldn't reach.
Its something that comes with practise, and observing things. I draw rats, or animals in general, but I still look at human faces and see where the shading is on them because it can be applied to animals, just tweaked a bit.
Its something Im still learning. I know when it doesn't look right, And I know when it does, but a lot of it is trial and error.
