SHADING ~ METAL

When you think of metal, think of gradient and contrast.

GRADIENT (light to dark)
CONTRAST (light against dark)
GRADIENT AND CONTRAST

Examples of gradient and contrast used in shading metal:

© Kia Asamiya, 'Silent Mobius'

BASIC METAL TEXTURE

A generic cylinder. For a light source from the top, as shown in red...

... a metal surface may be rendered using:

[1] Just black [2] Black & a grey [3] Gradient grey [4] Gradient grey with highlight
(high contrast) (semi-contrast) (gradient) (gradient & contrast)

For a sphere...

For a depression (like a frying pan)...

Use opposite light and dark areas. Remember, contrast and gradient are your friends.

APPLYING VARIOUS TECHNIQUES

Using a gun as an example...
SHADING IN BLACK & WHITE
When you don't want to waste those screentones, you can use black ink to get the basic metal texture. Have to rely
mainly on CONTRAST.
[2] Use simple contrast shading on the
[1] Start by adding basic shadows to groove areas.
cylinder areas.

[3] Suggest SHINE on the flat surfaces using wavy [4] For lighter contrast, suggest grey
lines. Use pure black for high contrast. using small strokes.

[5] You can combine 3 & 4 to suggest more gradient.

[6] Another way is to use black & suggest grey... [7] Then use white-out to add highlight.

[8] For a very dark gun, shade everything in black except for the highlight areas.
You can be really meticulous here, Shima-chan. ^^
SHADING WITH CONTRAST
This is just like shading in b&w, but using a screentone grey instead of black.
Lay down the screentone and scrape off the highlight areas.

You can combine with black shading for a more complicated look.

SHADING WITH GRADIENT

For when you want to show off those lovely expensive screentones. This is so easy you can roll over laughing!
Add gradient screentone... Scrape off highlight. Hahahahaha --!

NOTE that for all tutorials, I've done the shading on computer, which is even easier and also environmentally
friendly ^-^

EXAMPLES
Excellent example of mainly b&w Gradient shading. Simple
rendering. stroke
rendering
(sword and
shield).
Gradient with highlight. Note variation: even though light source is from Talk about
above, a dark shade is at the top, to increase contrast of the highlight. In another detail... This
panel, the same gun has a light shade at the top – which shows that rules can always guy's the
be broken.
ultimate.
Gun image © Kia Asamiya, 'Silent Mobius'. All others © Yu Kinutani, 'Angel Arm'.
Ja... Hope this helps,
Bee-chan deshita.
SHADING ~ FACE & BODY
In anime and manga, the face and body is generally FLAT.
Round shading: Flat shading:
The shading follows the outlines of the body. This The shading follows flat contours of
makes the body look like geometric shapes (spheres, the body, which is what this section is
cylinders etc) all about.

FACE
FACE TEMPLATE

This is the cheat guide to shading anime manga faces. It shows the contours of the face in front and side view.
These are the major areas of the face that artists tend to use. Memorise it and you can shade like a pro!! (...um, a
little exaggerated perhaps?)

APPLYING
See how artists actually shade according to guide (and that I'm not just making this up).

© Kia Asamiya 'Silent Mobius'

© Kia Asamiya 'Silent Mobius'

© Bandai 'Gundam W'

© Miki Kosuke/Oshima Yasuichi 'Action Star'

© Akemi Takada 'Kimagure Orange Road'

© CLAMP 'RG Veda'

© Yu Kinutani 'Angel Arm'

For complex shading with light source from various angles, check these out...

© Yu Kinutani 'Angel Arm'

BODY
Same idea as for the face. The body template is the guide to shading a generic anime manga body. It's slightly more
complicated, of course.
The contours are based on real human anatomy, but anime manga seems to be more stylised – sorta FLAT!
See if you can make sense of it.
 Lighting from
Shading template Lighting from left Lighting from right
behind-left

Not much to say, just look at the pictures. Hope you can understand them.
That's it! Shading is so easy... at least how I do them anyway – which is the cheat way, haha. The 'proper' way
would be to study the actual objects, from photos and such. For aal people only... like you maybe? Just kidding! Just
kidding! Do whatever you want, just don't send Mocha to gnaw my head please!
Dewa, odaijini ne!
- Bee-chan datta -