A few years ago I was playing around in a post on Huma and all of a sudden drew a shading tutorial online That was the only tutorial I ever drew and I was happy with it because after 2 weeks it fluttered out of existance I love tutorials Perhaps more than the resulting pictures themselves They add a third dimension to a piece of artwork time After viewing an oldschool tutorial recently I decided to recreate the newschool tutorial I drew so long ago 888888TTTiiii 88 Step One Simple outline 88888888888 88888888888888888888 888 88 88888888888888888888888888 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 888888 8 8 888888 8 8 888 8 8 888 8 8 888 8 88 88 888 888 888888 88888888888 888 8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 In case you can t tell from the outline this is a sphere sitting on a plane It s casting a shadow to the right I keep the outline simple it isn t important if the lines connect or not they re only there to make sure the basic shape looks good I spent about 2 minutes drawing this outline About 30 seconds of that was adding the plane and the shadow as an afterthought For complex objects this may take quite some time and when you re done you ll be disappointed at how much time you spent making something that looks so bad Don t be frustrated the shading is the most important thing it s unfortunate so many artists overlook it or toss it in as an afterthought 888888TTTiiii 88 Step Two Shade Dark Regions 88888888888 888 88 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 88 888 888 88888888888 iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I start from the darkest shade and work up to the brightest shade This lightening approach is very similar to drawing with a pencil I also draw over the outline as the contrast builds This should take a little longer than the outline did depending on what you have to shade For complex objects you re busy casting shadows everywhere and making the background dark If you make the background too bright the foreground won t stand out at all 888888TTTiiii 88 Step Three Lighter Shades Next iiiiiiiiiii iiiiTTTTTTTTTiiiiii iiiiiTTT8888TTTTTTTiiiiii iiiiTTT888888TTTTTTTTTiiiiii iiiTTTTT8888TTTTTTTTTiiiiiiiii iiiTTTTTTT88TTTTTTTTiiiiiiiiiiii iiiTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTiiiiii iiii iiiiTTTTTTTTTTTTTTiiiiiii iiii iiiiiTTTTTTTTTiiiiiiii iiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiii iiiiii iiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii8ii iiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Ok it s starting to look a little better I added a little more shadow at the base of the ball for contrast this was an unplanned change This step should take just as long as the previous step The main idea is to bring out your foreground as much as possible Work with brightness and concentrate on contrast I see (and fixed a couple) minor problems with the shape of the ball and the smoothness of the shading I would also like to change the evenness of the table shading I ll do this in the next step 888888TTTiiii 88 Step Four Fix Problems in overall shading iiiiii iiiTTTTTTTTTTTTiii iiTTTTMRKTTTTTTTTTTiiii iiTTTT888888TTTTTTTTTTTTTi iiTTT888888TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT iiTTTTT8888TTTTTTTTTTTTiiiiTi iiTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTiiiiiii iiTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTiiiii ii iiiTTTTTTTTTTTTTTiiiiii i iTiiiTTTTTTiiiiiiiii i iii iTiiiiiiiiiiiiii ii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iTTiiiii iii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iTTTTTiiii iiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I made the table shading a little more interesting I also decided that the shadow change in the previous step didn t quite work and I removed it I then slimmed the ball by a couple characters and cleaned up the shading I darkened the edges of the sphere and smoothed the transition All the steps up to this step are merely general You specified the general shading in the previous steps It s not until this step that we pay attention to details and make the shading as asthetic as possible This step takes as long as necessary It can take as little as a ten minutes (as this ball did) or as long as several weeks (as some of my other pictures) This is the final step so I also clean up the edges of objects making them as smooth as possible I also like to add my name in the object somewhere I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoy others And hopefully I ll find time to draw another picture by the time you read this ) -Mr Kite Remorse