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Post new topic   Reply to topic Shading
Pikmin



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 5:26 am Reply with quote        
Basically, I've been trying to draw properly for a while now, there are a few things that need work (like an annoying habit of getting the legs too short) but those I can work on, hopefully...
One thing I never seem to be able to get properly, is shading.

How do I get something from looking really basic like this: Example 1
(Note: Yes I know the shoulders are probably too small, it was drawn primarily, and quickly, as a face-drawing exercise.)
To looking like this: Example 2
(Note: Art is of my character off when I used to play Domo, when I held an art contest. And this picture won, if I remember right.)

The main problem I have, in my opinion, is with the hair... It always seems to end up looking flat, and I'd love it to look more like the hair in that picture.
Lips are also a problem, no matter what I do with them they always just look like a line.
Any advice is appreciated though.
In the meantime, I will have a go at shading the picture I drew up there, so I can show "problem areas" xD

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Dr. Tick Tock



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 5:47 am Reply with quote        
Just like with anatomy and proportions and any aspect of drawing, knowing how to shade perfectly only comes with years of study and practice, not only on the actual shading technique, but on understanding your art programs and tools and knowing how to use them properly and efficiently.

Your best bet is to start off looking at tutorials. A lot- and I mean /a lot/- of artists will tell you to never start drawing from art, and to instead study real life, but I'm not one of them. I believe studying other's art is much better than trying to train your eyes to look at real life objects in an art perspective. With a drawing, like the one you showed, it is so much easier to see the shape of the shade and lighting.

For basic face shading, these are great ones to study:

http://what-i-do-is-secret.deviantart.com/art/Face-shading-basic-planes-70223871?q=gallery%3Awhat-i-do-is-secret%2F25434&qo=9
http://what-i-do-is-secret.deviantart.com/art/Face-shading-trials-63818569?q=gallery%3Awhat-i-do-is-secret%2F25434&qo=10

I suggest looking at other deviantart tutorials. Just type into the search box, "shading tutorial" and a whole buttload will come up.

Don't get disheartened and avoid shading your art. That's what I did, because I just couldn't understand shading, and I am facing the serious consequences now that I'm more serious about my art and trying to create well dimensioned pieces with good line art and failtastic shading abilities.

For me to help you more, it would be great if you could tell me what art program you use. Each one is significantly different and has both its pros and cons.

Also it appears that the shaded example you gave was drawn with a tablet. No matter how hard you try, your digital art will never be up to par with those digital master pieces you see on the internet, unless you get a tablet and/or an art program that allows the tablet's pen pressure feature.

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Pikmin



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 5:52 am Reply with quote        
I use photoshop CS3, and I have a Trust drawing tablet....
But the software for it has never worked properly, sometimes making it stop working. So I ended up having to delete the software, which means the pressure technology on it doesn't work. =/
I keep trying to re-install and get it to work, but no luck yet. So at the moment, any "shading" I do, is just done by changing the colour rather than pressure.

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Dr. Tick Tock



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 5:56 am Reply with quote        
Yayyy we have the same art program -flails around- Weeeee I actually dislike Photoshop for a lot of reasons lol orz but that's currently irrelevant.

How old is your tablet? If it's not too old, I would suggest seeing if its warranty is still open, and send it back for a new one or a refund. If not, I would call the company and talk to them. If they can't help, I would sell the tablet and use the money towards buying a new one. I have a Wacom, so I guess I'm biased, but I would suggest a Wacom tablet. Bamboo I believe is from the same company/producer, but I know two people with Bamboo tablets who both have difficulties with them. It sounds to me like Wacom is the only dependable tablet so far orz

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Pikmin



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:04 am Reply with quote        
I doubt it still has the warranty now, and I don't have any receipts or anything, 'cos it was a Christmas present xD
I have been considering getting a new one, but it's irritating, because I know it's only the software, not the tablet.. So will keep trying a bit longer.

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Dr. Tick Tock



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:09 am Reply with quote        
Which is why I would call the company and talk to them o.o They may have some solutions.

If not, I would seriously suggest screwing it and getting a new tablet. Even if they do come out with a software that works, it probably won't be in top condition and will have plenty of more bugs and issues. It's better to buy from a company that has gone through dozens of versions of their tablet software, and has thus weeded out a lot of the glitches.

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Pikmin



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:11 am Reply with quote        
I will try calling them at some point then /o\
I'd feel bad about replacing it straight away simply because it was a present, and the people that bought it me still live here.. They'd notice and be all QQ
Still trying to shade my above example, but got somewhat distracted.... Mum has bought another bird, and that makes seven.

EDIT: This is what my shading generally turns out like

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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 8:36 am Reply with quote        
There's basically two way of doing digital art. The first one implies having a working tablet, and will result in "paint-like" art.
The second uses vectors - basically mathematical formulas for lines and forms, instead of a "this colored dot goes beside this colored dot" definition like in bitmap pictures. Most programs offer some vector-ish function (Pen tool in Photoshop, etc.), and it just requires a mouse to use it. It works by placing anchor points around the shape you want to define, and then using various functions to fill in the space, trace a line, etc. You can easily find tutorials over the internet explaining all those stuff (I can't really explain more, since I don't really use that method, but I've seen some nice art done that way).

Proper shading obviously requires some knowledge of anatomy and 3D structure of whatever it is you are trying to shade. Not the funniest or easiest thing, I know, but it will come if you practice enough.
Oh, and I'd also suggest playing with colors a bit (complementary colors and all). Adding a second shade to your shadows sorta give it more depth.

Getting braindead now, will see if I can add anything later orz

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Pikmin



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 8:40 am Reply with quote        
The vector thing sounds interesting, given the current state of my tablet, so I'll look into that more..
(Just bashed it for a moment on photoshop and made a splodge. Yay! 83)
And I agree with more tones, I've done the shading on the above one but it still looks relatively flat.
Will probably give it another go, later today or tomorrow.. Feel ill at the moment and no friggen idea why. -3-

EDIT1: Vector looks epically confusing...
EDIT2: The tutorials became frustrating, so I tried it without, and made a rainbow butterfly~
... This probably wasn't the point of vectoring, but at least I did something. o3o

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Dr. Tick Tock



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:08 am Reply with quote        
You definitely need to study 3D shapes more, and understand definition in an object. I used to have the same trouble with hair as you do- but hair isn't like cloth or skin. It is several thousand individual things all put together, not one solid substance that can be shaded as though its plastic. If you look at hair, even if there is only one light source, light splays across each individual piece and doesn't accumulate all into one spot.

Prime Example. You can see the depth in her hair- there are the parts in her hair- literally, the parts where her hair strands are parted- that you can see the under layer, which is of course darker than the rest of the hair. Then there is the normal color, and finally there is the lighting splayed across her bangs.

Another Example. I like this one because it doesn't have a light source, or a very low visible one. Even when something is not lit up, especially hair, you can still see the shading in it. This is what creates the hair depth, and makes it more realistic.

Another thing with your shading- you drew the lighting on the hair, but not the face or clothes. When you shine a light on something, it washes over the entire surface, it doesn't pinpoint a spot and stay there. I would suggest adding a light source to the right side of her face and her right shoulder. I would also study the photos I gave you in my first post. If the light source is coming from the upper left hand side of the screen (as I'm guessing with the light source on the hair) then under her nose would be shaded, as would under her eyebrows and below her left cheekbone. Also, her chin would cast a shadow on her neck, not just the side of her neck.

Click! Ignore the horribleness of this, I did it in a couple seconds just to give you a kinda sort beginning understanding. I'm also not that great at shading, it's something that takes me the longest and that I have to stare at thousands of references to do. But, like I said, I suggest looking at the pictures I showed you.

One last thing. It /appears/, though I could be wrong, that you are drawing this all on one layer. In Photoshop, go to the bar at the top, click "Layer" then "New" and then "Layer" again. If you draw something on a bottom layer, and then something on a different layer on top of it, you can erase one or the other without affecting the separate layers. Again, this (along with Maeve's pointing out of vectors) is why its just as important to know your art tools as it is to actually know how to draw.

Sorry if I'm sounding harsh, I don't mean to Duh I very easily fall into "critic" mode when helping someone.

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Pikmin



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:15 am Reply with quote        
It's not harsh at all xD I wouldn't make this post if I didn't want peoples help/opinions

One thing I can say is that they are all on seperate layers, just seems to make things easier... Just all gets flattened when I save it as a png, but most of the time unless I'm finished with a drawing, I'll keep the psd file too.

And I really like your shading you did on the hair, that's exactly the way I want to do it, I really just need to practice more, 'cos it's certainly at least progressed from when I first started a little while ago (not even posting that stuff, it's baaaad)

As I said anyway, it's definitely practice... And to be honest, nerves. I know it sounds silly but I think I worry that if I do too much detail, I'll do it wrong. But what'll happen? The art police will arrest me?
.... *hides from art police*
Is remotely proud of rainbow butterfly

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Dr. Tick Tock



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:16 am Reply with quote        
Oh, also! Drawing more folds in clothes will help TONS with shading. This isn't specifically for this piece you drew, as there isn't much for cloth. But just mentioning it.

Best friggin' tutorial on clothing folds that ever existed.

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Pikmin



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:21 am Reply with quote        
*runs away with tutorial*
Frustrating thing is, I knew at least some of this stuff but I just never used it right.
Still, will keep practicing it, one of these days I'll draw something properly x.o

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Dr. Tick Tock



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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:21 am Reply with quote        
Kupsy wrote:
It's not harsh at all xD I wouldn't make this post if I didn't want peoples help/opinions

One thing I can say is that they are all on seperate layers, just seems to make things easier... Just all gets flattened when I save it as a png, but most of the time unless I'm finished with a drawing, I'll keep the psd file too.

And I really like your shading you did on the hair, that's exactly the way I want to do it, I really just need to practice more, 'cos it's certainly at least progressed from when I first started a little while ago (not even posting that stuff, it's baaaad)

As I said anyway, it's definitely practice... And to be honest, nerves. I know it sounds silly but I think I worry that if I do too much detail, I'll do it wrong. But what'll happen? The art police will arrest me?
.... *hides from art police*
Is remotely proud of rainbow butterfly


Oh, I was just mentioning the layers because I can see the visible white line where you magic wand-ed the lines of the hair to color it. What I usually do is have the line art on its own separate layer/s and then make layers below it and color beneath the line art.

Also I'm not even sure how you made that butterfly so I'm not gonna comment xD I'm pretty sure it was just photo manipulating and not actually drawing.

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 PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:23 am Reply with quote        
Ah, those white lines were a mistake on my part which I don't normally do, but I was in a rush.
I accidentally drew the hair outline on the wrong layer which still had a white background, and I didn't want to draw it again, so I just wanded it to a new layer xD

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