Re: Shading Basics
Posted by effektdmentality on 2007/5/20 22:08:09
Going with what Jr said, blending stumps work awesome, and they give you really smooth looking pieces (google-up Deacon Black's work). If you want that smooth, crisp look, blending stumps/tortillons are the way to go.
Hawk's idea is also great. By using an eraser, you can make brighter higlights if you need to, making your darks darker and widening the value scale of the picture (see below).
Bio's exercises are exactly the kind of thing we do at the Academy of Art in SF, where I took an "Analysis of Form" class, which I got an A in. The main purpose of each exercise is to recognize value, the lightness and or darkness of that part of the drawing; shadows have darker values, highlights have lighter values. The divided box exercise works really well, and it works even better if the box lines are light, thin, and in pencil, so that all you have is value against value, without the harsh black lines. What I would do is make one with boxes (the first one) and do the entire smooth gradient (the second one), and if they looked the same when I squinted my eyes, I'm there. It also helps to have a greyscale printed from a computer or something, as a guide so you can match up 0% value(white), 25% value grey, 50% value grey, 100% value (black) etc.
Speaking in terms of values, the best way to make something look round and three dimensional is to have a full scale of value, from really dark darks to really bright whites. Not necessarily just stark black and white like Frank Miller's stuff, but in that you've got smooth transitions from one end of the value scale to the other. The wider the scale, the better: a 1-10 value picture will have more contrast and more impact than a 3-7 value picture.
Hope all that helps.
Hawk's idea is also great. By using an eraser, you can make brighter higlights if you need to, making your darks darker and widening the value scale of the picture (see below).
Bio's exercises are exactly the kind of thing we do at the Academy of Art in SF, where I took an "Analysis of Form" class, which I got an A in. The main purpose of each exercise is to recognize value, the lightness and or darkness of that part of the drawing; shadows have darker values, highlights have lighter values. The divided box exercise works really well, and it works even better if the box lines are light, thin, and in pencil, so that all you have is value against value, without the harsh black lines. What I would do is make one with boxes (the first one) and do the entire smooth gradient (the second one), and if they looked the same when I squinted my eyes, I'm there. It also helps to have a greyscale printed from a computer or something, as a guide so you can match up 0% value(white), 25% value grey, 50% value grey, 100% value (black) etc.
Speaking in terms of values, the best way to make something look round and three dimensional is to have a full scale of value, from really dark darks to really bright whites. Not necessarily just stark black and white like Frank Miller's stuff, but in that you've got smooth transitions from one end of the value scale to the other. The wider the scale, the better: a 1-10 value picture will have more contrast and more impact than a 3-7 value picture.
Hope all that helps.
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