I have a homework assignment to do, and that is drawing a glass half full with water. The problem is I don't know how to shade it! All I can do is a contour drawing of it, I need help... and fast! D: Anybody have a tutorial for me? I've been searching google all day, trying different key words like glass drawing, how to shade glass, glass tutorial, etc. but I didn't find anything!

Please, someone help me!

and thanks to whoever does find something for me!

Hi
I googled for how to draw water and glass, and I found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SiE6c5L5oE

its not much but I hope it helps

good luck

I wrote this a while back, for a painting site, but its still relevant:

How to paint Glass (or anything else!)

Glass seems tricky - at least until you realise that you all you have to do, to paint it, or anything else, is put down spots of the right colour in the right places - for example - here is a photo of a glass:



Let's have a closer look, zoom in a bit:



Hmm - pixels... - and a bit closer still:



Still just about holding up the illusion that it's glassy, and that we are seeing some of the background through the glass - but let's get closer still.



- now it's apparent that there's nothing "glassy" about this at all - it's just a lot of little coloured squares , which "report" what colour the camera saw in that particular area.

Now those are pixels - but one can take the same approach with dabs of paint! (or areas of light and dark shading)


Dave

Absolutely! Dave, you have a way with... words and pictures

One thing to add: as with many things, contrast is what really makes this work. Make sure that your dark areas are really, really dark!

Hey, thanks you guys for replying! I appreciate it!

but the problem is I have to draw with pencil, so the idea with using dabs of paint wouldn't work out ):

I appreciate the tips, though (and the video) (:

Dave's point applies to any medium, paint, graphite, or anything. He's not suggesting that you make little dots of paint: he's saying that there's nothing magic about glass. It's just a pattern of light and dark areas, just like anything else. You just have to look, hard, and draw what you really see.

Exactly so.

The fact that glass is transparent is irrelevant - a major trick to drawing and painting is NOT to think of things as "objects" - but merely to observe the patterns of light - we DON'T draw the "objects", we draw the light.

Is this area lighter or darker than that area - is fundamentally the only question you need to ask, when drawing. It doesn't matter what it "is" - the nature of the physical object really is of no concern - just, area-by-area..Is this area lighter or darker than that area?

Dave