Help with shading
3yr
Eli
I tried to draw my hand from live, and now im stuck with the shading process.
Any tips how to push it further?
I tried to apply some shadows to the bigger forms and some cast shadows of the fingers. However i fell they get easly mixed up with half tones and are not very clear to read. (especially on the fingers)
Is there any somewhat "neutral" shading approach of a hand that just makes it more 3-dimensional or do i have to think of a more dramatic light set-up (or shoot refernce)?
Looking forward for feedback!
also, please feel free to point out anything else you notice :)
When working out your lighting setup, it may help you to separate it from the drawing, that is to play with a light source to see how you can light your hand so its form in space shows up the way you like it. Shoot a reference, and then draw your hand using the reference.
Hi,you have done a really good job so far,as far as shading I notice that the line separating the wrist from the arm might be a little too dark….unless you make the arm darker.Also the thumb is bit too long ,take a look at the angle of the drawing compared to your hand again.That is what sticks out to me so far.
I see you struggle, and I guess that's because you missed one basic fundamental in shading. Before we decide to shade anything, it's important to know and be sure about the lighting setup and where the main light comes from. It seems to me that you haven't been sure about either of them. What you did was neutral form shading, that is the shading which result from the nature of the form (things that is farther from our eyes become darker and things that are closer become lighter). But you haven't involved the lighting into the form, and that will make your drawing look rather flat.
So I will advice you to try to decide the lighting first, then we can talk about shading further.
Hi Vincentius,
thanks for the feedback, very helpful!
I do wonder tho, should i apply neutral form shading anyway, before or after i start putting direct light on it? I figure the neutral shading would be a result of ambient light, but direct light would overtrump these neutral form shadows.
So i guess direct light > neutral form shadow?
I've seen some processes in digital, where they would subtly shade the forms first (under neutral ambient light) and then, on a new layer, added the direct lights - however, i guess thats not how you would do it traditionally, am i right?
Arrrghh... I feel like i understood the principals and rules, but i've seen so much processes and techniques that im left very confused... :/
Thanks for your expertise and help!
Hmm... maybe you could try cell shading first, to separate the dark areas and the light areas, then add gradients within the cell shading and add details. This could be helpful to make sure that the darkest value in the light area is lighter than the lightest value in the dark area (right now it looks like the details on the fingers are darker than the shadows on the sides of the hand). I hope that helped, if you have any questions, please ask!
You should decide where the light source is coming from, then Make shade accordingly.
I noticed that your shadows are too light. I recommend you to add more contrast, so you'll have a larger range of value to the halftones.
Also, you need to know the secondary shapes of the object. Some parts in the palm of the hand are round. You have to show that roundness with halftones. In fact, you need to know how to shade the three simple forms; spheres, cylinders and boxes.
Thanks for the feedback. l guess should go through the shading process of simple forms again before i jump back into complex drawings.
