Top 5 sai lầm Shading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrHfrncvODQ&t=114s

Hey guys, I'm Stan Prokopenko.

I've been teaching drawing and painting for 10 years now.

I've seen a lot of portfolios.

I've critiqued thousands of assignments.

And the problems I saw in student work back

when I first started teaching are the same

one's I'm still seeing now.

These are fundamental issues that don't change

with the latest version of photoshop or even

what century you live in.

Before we jump in, I want to quickly mention

that I'm working on a drawing basics course.

It's meant to be a new artist's first course.

Get you started doing the right things and

hit the ground running.

If you don't want to miss it when it comes

out, get on the newsletter at proko.com/subscribe.

So, here are 5 shading mistakes you're probably

making, and how to fix them.

#5 - Icing Before Cake

I meet artists all the time who are just starting

out, and they're practicing techniques and

anatomy and shading details and all this really

cool stuff...

But it's not making their drawings better.

Why is that?

While they're focused on all the fancy fun

stuff, they're making huge proportion mistakes,

their perspective is off, and their gesture

is stiff.

That's not even icing before cake, that's

icing without cake.

You've got to build your pictures and your

skills with the fundamentals first.

Each concept builds on the last.

Surface stuff like anatomy, techniques and

rendering details are all at the tippy-top,

awesome but initially unnecessary and less

important than the stuff at the bottom.

You can't shade correctly if you don't know

the simple form; you can't draw the simple

form if you don't understand perspective;

The forms don't matter if you can't draw a

straight line, keep your proportions in check

or establish a dynamic pose.

This is a drawing I did a few years into my

studies.
If you think it's really good, you've fallen
for my tricks.

At this point in my development I got good

at shading.

But it's filled with structural errors.

I didn't really understand form.

I just learned some effective tricks to make

the drawing appear 3d.

An exaggerated core shadow, some reflected

light, and a bright highlight as a cherry on top.

Wow, it's so easy!

But it's all just a cheap distraction from

the uninformed construction.

The icing might be the part that makes it

look pretty or makes it stand out, but icing

by itself is gross...

It's empty calories.

Remember this every time you want to draw

eyelashes before the eye socket.

#4 - Bad reference

Whoa, hold up guys, I just got tagged and

I've got to take a selfie... let's see...

First, camera up high, very slimming.

Kinda dark in here, turn flash on...

Click...

Alright, now I've got to choose a nice filter...

Hmm... Tweak that a little bit...

Perfect.

We've distorted and edited the shit out of

that photo.

It might be flattering or maybe even a good

photo, but photography and drawing are two

different fields.

Something that makes a good photo won't necessarily

make good reference for drawing.

You won't be able to draw something like this,

from a photo like this.

Drawing from bad photos is super common, but

super easy to fix.

I wrote a blog post about it ages ago, so

you can go there for a more detailed lesson

on what makes good photo reference.

But to paraphrase...

Don't use overexposed or underexposed photos.

Don't use flat-lit or flash-lit photos

Don't use blurry photos

Don't use photos with extreme lens distortion

Don't use tiny photos.

Make sure the resolution is high enough so

you can at least see the forms of the nostrils

and eyelids

And don't use photoshopped photos from magazines

When looking for reference, look for photos

with good lighting and clear shadows, like this.

This will translate into a dimensional drawing.

Drawing from a flash photo like this with

no shadows makes it much harder to define

the forms in your drawing.

It's possible, I've done it, but it takes

a trained eye and ability to use subtle halftones

to define the forms.

Beginners usually end up with flat, muddy

looking patches of tone.

If you're just getting started, I recommend

sticking to photos with lighting that clearly

defines the forms.

You can find photo packs made specifically

for artists that have good lighting and minimal

touch-ups.

I've got some here.

In the long run, the best thing to do is learn
how to take your own reference photos.

And if you can draw from life instead, well, that's

better than any photo.

#3 - Outlines

There's always a silver lining, but there's

also not, because the real world doesn't have

outlines.

Yet as beginners, we all start by drawing

thick, dark outlines around everything.

Now, there's nothing wrong with linear drawing

or cartoons if that's your intention.

But if you're trying to draw realistically,

you need to be thoughtful about your outlines.

It's ok to use them.

It's a mistake to overuse them, or use them

as a crutch.

Stop thinking of 2D shapes and start thinking

of 3D planes.

Knowing the structure of the nose - that means

the planes of the nose, which are based off

of anatomy, will help you place patches of

tone that make it look like a convincing nose.

No need for outlines.

You can draw a whole picture without any outlines,

since that's how we actually see things.
Masters like John Singer Sargent, know how
to use both.

In the face of this drawing, he's not using

outlines, just tone.

It's the center of interest, so he makes it

more realistic.

In all these secondary elements, he uses outlines.

The outlines are deliberate.

The tonal face and the outlined parts have

a nice contrast.

And the outlines don't look boring.

They have a variety to their weight.

The jaw and neck are outlined.

But the ear isn't.

The edge is lost into the background.

He used the outline sparingly, and only in areas

where he wanted the forms to pop.

The left side of the figure is separated from

the background with a value difference.

The jaw, neck, shirt, bowtie, and jacket are

all very similar in value.

To separate them with tone, would require

very subtle shading.

In a quick drawing like this, too much detail

in secondary elements could look overworked.

A well placed outline is clean and simple.

It does the job.

#2 - Afraid of the Dark

The next mistake is not going dark enough

with your shadows.

I see this all the time, especially on portraits.

People are afraid to put dark shadows on fair

skin, because they know that the local color

of the skin is pale, so they think light skin,

light values.

But the shadow is just a shadow.

It's the lack of light.

It's supposed to be dark.

Or some people are afraid to go too dark because

they might not be able to erase it, so their

shadows end up being just as light as their

halftones.

By removing the shadows, you remove the mood

that the lighting created.

And you're losing the 3-dimensionality of

the forms.

If you don't like the lighting in the photo,

why did you use the photo?
Retake it!

Don't make it that hard on yourself.

Inventing a new light setup on a face is really

hard.

If you're advanced you can do whatever.

You can draw a pretty girl while looking at

a beaver!

But if you're a beginner, don't.

So, to avoid muddy or cartoony drawings, learn

how to see values correctly.

When you're drawing, make sure you separate

the light family from the shadow family.

Remember the rule: the lightest dark is darker

than the darkest light.

If you're not sure what that means, this next

mistake is for you.

And #1 - Sloppy Values

The most common shading mistake I see is not

organizing your values correctly.

Not making your shadows dark enough like I

mentioned in the last mistake is one way,

but making your halftones too dark is just

as bad.

So, general sloppiness with your value control

is the bigger issue.
The first thing that is important to understand
is that the value on any particular point

on the surface is mostly determined by the

angle of the surface in relation to the light source.

Unless you're dealing with highly reflective

surfaces, then they act more like a mirror

to the environment.

For now, let's stick to surfaces like skin,

which are slightly reflective.

I did a lesson on "How to Shade a Drawing"

a while ago.

I highly recommend you watch that next.

But generally, the part of the surface that

points directly toward the light is called

the center light.

It will be the brightest spot, excluding any

reflected highlights.

As the surface turns away from the light source,

those planes will get progressively darker.

These are known as halftones.

The more they face away the darker they are.

After we pass what's called the "terminator"

the planes don't receive any direct light

from the light source, since they are facing

away from the light.
Everything in there is shadow.

Unless you're in space, shadows won't be pure

black.

Light will bounce off other things in the

environment.

So, within the shadows you'll have bounce

light, or reflected light.

But those are still darker than the halftones

in the lit side.

That's the general concept.

There's also occlusion shadows, cast shadows,

core shadows and highlights, but you can go

go over the other lesson for the full explanation.

Ok, now that you understand form and how light

reveals form, it's important to stay consistent

throughout your drawing.

Light revealed the 3 dimensional forms because

the value of a plane tells the viewer the

angle of that plane.

If you make your halftones as dark as your

shadows, then you're not communicating the

correct plane angles and that breaks the illusion

of form.

That brings us back to that rule: the lightest

dark is darker than the darkest light.
Let me rephrase that a little.

The lightest shadow is darker than the darkest

halftone.

Make a little more sense?

You'd think that this reflected light under

the jaw is lighter than this halftone on the

side of his check, right?

Well... wrong!

I'll prove it.

Sample this color.

Extend it out so you can see it's the same

color.

Then do the same with this side.

Whoooooa.

So, if it's in the shadow family, it should

be darker than anything in the light family.

Organize your values and use them correctly

in your drawing.

And I don't mean that you have to organize

your values exactly like this.

You can stretch your light family and shrink

the shadows.

Or you can add more contrast between the two.

You don't even have to use the full value

scale.

You can limit your values so that your darkest

dark is a value 5.

But the relationship of the values are still

organized.

And the key is to stay consistent with that

throughout your drawing.

If you break that, it should be intentional.

There's also incomplete shadows.

Scratchy shading that has all these little

holes of light in the shadow.

The holes are as light as a highlight, and

they break up the shadow and ruin the effect

of light on form.

So the shadows don't actually look dark, they

just look spotty.

Shadows look like halftones and halftones

look like shadows...The result is dirty looking skin.

You can fix this by filling in the holes manually,

blending, or preventing it from happening

in the first place by shading with tight,

close-together lines.

When the shadows are consistent and clean

like this, it has a much more realistic and

3-dimensional feeling.
The goal is to clearly communicate what is
light and what is shadow.

That makes clear 3D form.

Here's another example of a master breaking

the rules.

Harry Carmean doesn't always fill in his shadows

with clean tone.

But, he's still clearly communicating what

is shadow and what is light.

He uses the dark pencil only in the shadows.

He uses the white pencil only in the lights.

This clearly distinguishes the two.

His mess is extremely well controlled.

It's full of energy and fun to look at.

It's skillfully designed, the anatomy is accurate

and dynamic.

It all holds together.

Again, if you want to participate in the Drawing

Basics course, make sure you're subscribed.

And if you have a few seconds, do me a favor.

If you have any friends or classmates that

make some of these mistakes, save them!
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