Practice: Crosshatching
Practice: Crosshatching
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4:53

The Shading Course

Module 7 - How to Show Form

Practice: Crosshatching

795

Practice: Crosshatching

795

Overview

In this project, you'll sketch John Asaro's planar head and shade it with crosshatching.

Example

Steps

  1. Follow along with the video.
  2. Sketch the planar head.
  3. Upload your result.

Meet these Challenges

  • Follow the steps of the drawing process.
  • Control the tonal value of each plane with the darkness and spacing of your hatching lines.
  • Indicate the subtle curvature of the forms by keeping your hatching lines slightly curved.
    (This indicates vitality! Perfectly straight lines do not feel organic.)

Duration

This project should take 15–30 minutes to complete. 

Tips

Common Mistakes

1) Over-Rendering

Keep it a quick sketch, and, more importantly, shade with crosshatching, rather than smooth rendering.

2) Sloppy Value Groups

Make sure the value relationships between shadows, dark halftones, and light halftones represent the effect in the reference image. In the left image below, there is too little contrast between the dark halftones and the light halftones. In both images, there is too much contrast between the shadows and the dark halftones.

Further Resources

Alphonso Dunn has great demonstrations of crosshatching on his YouTube channel.

Newest
@tonyhcf
5d
Kristina Gehrmann
There seems to be something wrong with the subtitles. I typically use English CC; and when watching from 1:18 it doesn't seem to make sense anymore, because Dorian explains shading the Asaro head while crosshatching little demo squares and that doesn't fit together. With English (Auto-generated) CC it makes more sense, these seem to be the correct ones.
@kotka
8mo
Crosshatching is still such an extreme challenge to me! I definitely can imagine the form, but quickly start to overthink because of neighboring planes. One of Dorian's tips has especially helped set me straight: hatch along the most dramatic change of direction in a plane! I was inspired and immediately did another Asaro head to test my newfound reasoning, unfortunately, I accidentally closed the tab and did not finish the ear and some larger plane. Grateful for feedback!
Martha Muniz
Nice work applying all the tips! The distinction between all the value groups reads clearly and the crosshatching adds dimension to the planes.
Vin
9mo
Hello, here are my before(left) and after(right).I didn't know what is crosshatching drawing until today...I am glad I purchased this course. :) I appreciate any feedback.
Martha Muniz
Wow, great improvement! Your second attempt has clear organization and appears fully three-dimensional. I might suggest keeping your strokes more spaced out and visible as Dorian suggests in the lesson notes, as this can help continue the life-like quality through cross-hatching. Cross-hatching can be a lot of fun, it's definitely worth playing around with if you haven't already. And if it interests you further, check out artists like Bernie Wrightson and Sergio Toppi -- really inspiring work!
Samuel Sanjaya
I paused the video before the "spend 1-2 minutes" part. And did a longer drawing. I do the quicksketch afterward. Any feedback/critiques will be greatly appreciated
Romain Decotte
Hey! Here’s my crosshatching assignment. The first two pics are the block-in and my version of crosshatching - I should have kept it simple in hindsight. On the third pic, I made the changes according to @Dorian Iten‘s correction. It better communicates light this way definitely 👍! Thanks, Dorian 🙏😊!
@cindygs
2yr
Karlo H.
2yr
@ivat
2yr
@flugmodus1
Dorian Iten
Keep some curvature in your hatching lines when shading organic subjects. On machine parts, architecture, etc. straight lines are appropriate.
Félicia Gagnon
Brayden Copley
Before and after
Laura Barr
3yr
Yvann Innocent
I Jumped the gun on the first one and spent a bit too long on it.
@gasyadocro
1 before. 2 after. This quick sketch was so interesting. I thought making things looks 3d is hard because it takes time, but maybe it’s wrong. The hard thing is to set proper 1,2,3read.not time.
Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
Reading the news this morning I found 2 pictures of the new German chancellor, Olaf Scholtz with 2 different angles that I thought I would try to render rapidly in the same way as the Asaro head exercise. Cannot post the model à because of IP but can be found on lemonde
Tony Vu
3yr
Jean-François (Jeff) Durix
Here the my 2 cross hatched Assaro heads
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Former program director at Barcelona Academy of Art. Passionate about teaching craft and exploring the inner game of art.
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