I seem to be shading/hatching challenged. I know the only way to improve is to practice which I am. My question is, what the best way to practice? Should I just shade shaped, spheres, cubes, etc?

Thanks for your help!

Well Jon, unless you are drawing cartoon type characters in line drawings you are shading. It is shading that gives shape and form to anything. So it really doesn't matter what you shade.. be it shapes, flowers, animals or faces.

Maybe you could be more explicit about the type of problems you are having.

Jon, in most cases, its easiest to start with simply shapes and grasp the concept of shading there before moving on to more complex drawings.

Brenda has a number of lessons on shading and simple shapes that will give you practice in this.

Shading really isn't difficult, its a matter of observation. Looking at values and light,reflected light and shadows. Shading also takes different techniques from hatching to blending, circulism, etc. Is there a particular method of shading that you need to know more about?

I will post my latest drawing this evening. Its Smelly Spheres. Basically, my spheres dont look round, and my hatching has definite seperations between tones. Its not gradual like it should be. I know I just started doing this, but I just want to make sure I am practicing in the most efficient way.

thanks again for your help

Jon, if it's any consolation, have a look at this thread which I started more or less at the same stage where you are now. I too was having a lot of problems then. I think you will find the replies I got both interesting and helpful.

Jon, in my opinion, it it the darkness, lightness, and position of the lines that matter more than the straghtness or smoothness. I don't have a steady hand. And I've seen the work of other artist whose lines looked like a chicken scratching, but the final results looked amazing.

People say, "I can't draw a straight line." Well, very few of us can. That's why a ruler is so handy. Sketching is more in the eye than the hand. It's just that the hand gets most of the credit!

I think the two most important things are placement and value. If you get your stuff in the right spot and the right shade, well, then you've got yourself an image that gets the point across, even if the shading is a bit iffy. I prefer chicken scratch images to really smooth shading, I must confess.

A project I've seen done before is a simple colored picture of a red ball or green cube, then trying to render the values in pencil exactly. After ya finish, just take the picture and turn it to greyscale and then compare that image to your finished one to see where the values and shading are a bit wonky. Really helps!