Hey everyone,

Firstly I want to say a big thanks to everyone for all the comments I have recieved off you, and all the continuing support from you all. Much appreciated!

This tuotorial hads been designed to offer you helpful hints and tips on pencil shading and how to make a drawing look alive rather than flat and lifeless. I will try to make it as straghtforward as possible but will make sure that I appropraitely discuss the important aspects to shading. This tutorial will aplly mainly to those who like to draw still life/animals/humans.

PENCIL SHADING TUTORIAL

For most practising artists who are in the early stages of drawing, pencil shading can at first be a rather prolonged and lethargic process. Shading can take great skill and attention. But be patient, the results will be worth it in the end.

Before you begin, draft out a very light outline of your chosen image using a H or HB pencil. Then, try to work on lighter areas of the image first. This way should you make an error it's alot easier erasing lightly applied pencil than it is areas of harsh black.

Here are a few basic points to shading that I will elaborate in throughout the tutorial:

1) Best pencils to use
2) How to gradualy build up shadows
3) Smudging to achieve soft edges
4) How to pick out lighter areas/highlights


1. PENCILS BEST FOR SHADING

For my drawings I choose to use a range of graded graphite pencil. These are:

2H
H
HB
2B
4B
6B
8B
(Mechanical pencils are very useful)

I used a H/HB pencil for the most light areas of my pictures (where it is almost white), as these two pencils are extremely light and are great for blending. Mechanical pencils are more expensive than normal ones but they allow you to create a smoother finish. I use HB lead in a Mechanical pencil for all of my drawings. To creat the areas of dense black that you see in my drawings, I recommend using an 8B Graphite pencil which is a very soft, and blendable lead type. 6B and 4B are also useful for achieveing dark grey tones. All the pencils I mentioned are great for smudging and for blending.

2. BUILDING UP YOUR SHADING/AND BUILDING UP SHADOWS

When I start to build up shading in pictures or build up shadows, I tend to start with the lighter areas first and keep working on top of them until I am happy with the level of shading achieved. As I stated before, lightly applied pencil is ten times easier to erase than harshly applied blacker lead pencil.

One good tip is before you actually apply any pencil to the drawing is grab a scrap piece of paper and draw some circles on it, just in outline form any size you desire. Then, practise shading these circles with the aim of making them appear 3D. This is also useful for you to match up the depth of your pencil to how it appears on the reference image or subject. Again, this little technique avoids you making any real mistakes on your focal drawing.

QUICK NOTE: Try to use a pencil that has been sharpened well. It's hard to shade and get nice clear lines with a blunt pencil.

Ok so to start off shading, applying a light amount of pressure with your hand, start adding any area of light (light grey, almost white) to the paper in smooth circular motions. Then simply apply more pressure with the hand to get darker areas on the paper, making sure you don't press down too much and damage the paper or the lead. From this point you then have to keep building on the layers you have already drawn, until it is as dark as it needs to be, or until you feel happy with it.

3. SMUDGING TO ACHIEVE SOFT EDGES

When I draw, to achieve softness to my pictures, I smudge the pencil with my fingers. It is a simple yet effective technique that I have picked up over time, and is also one that many pencil artists practice. It helps you to get shadows looking smooth, and also removes and harshness from the pencil application. Smudging is easiest depending on how lightly you have applied the pencil. HB is great to smudge, it is a very blendable lead type and forms a perfect base from which to build up darker shades. It is possible to smudge lead as soft (and intense)as 6B upwards. The only thing you have to watch out for here is staning the paper (meaning you mark is due to the smudging and it is not erasable), and ripping the paper depending on its thickness.