What type of paper is best for shading. If it's not paper, is it the skill of blending I need? How do I shade properly. If anyone has any help, I'rd be greatful. I'm just a beginner!

What you need to do is to tell us what kind of paper you are currently using, to post a sample of your shading work and also list the pencils used.

Elena's right, a bit more information on what you're drawing and trying to achieve would be useful.

As a rule, the smoother the paper, the smoother the shading you'll get. Paper is composed of many 'hills' and 'valleys' called the tooth of the paper. The rougher paper, such as watercolour or pastel paper has a more pronounced tooth to provide a surface for the medium.

Graphite is usually used on smooth paper. I recommend Bristol smooth to start out with as its forgiving and usually easily available in most areas. You should and will experiment on a variety of papers before you find the one that you like most. So buy a sheet of some different kinds and practice.

And yes, technique is important in shading. There are a variety of different ways of shading, all giving the result of values, but anywhere from sketchy to highly rendered.

Hi Oliver, just letting you know that I have written an entire little lesson on this, have a go at this one; G05 - Getting Started with Shading by Cindy Wider then upload your drawing into the forum for the drawspace team to look at.

Choose a smooth good quality drawing paper for a nice fine shading. Your pencil must be correctly prepared read the lesson plan it will help alot.

All the best Cindy

The exercises are an excellent place to begin to learn shading. Learn the basics first, concentrating less on the composition but rather on producing a good range of values. Move on from there trying different techniques for shading and with different papers and drawing media (graphite, charcoal, etc).

I have the tendency to want to produce something without working on the skills required to produce the result. I should probably take my own advice and start from the beginning even though I think I'm beyond it in skill. I have a tendency to skip techniques that I think I'll never use, but It is good to have a rich skill set that you "draw" upon.

Good luck! Post your results.

I am so glad you posted your comment. It is reassuring to know that others do the same thing you do. I, too, skip around acquiring skills as I feel I need them. Now I am regretting that I skipped the pen and ink techniques. Oh well, new challenges all the time!

canson paper has a tooth and is difficult to make it smooth. i dont like canson paper at all. i personally like strathmore paper better. there is a 2 subtypes of sketch paper called velium and smooth bristol. what you want is cold pressed bristol paper for the best result. velium has a tooth so its not that smooth.

also harder pencils are not that great for shading. they dont leave enough graphite on the paper to smudge.

i like to smooth my gradiants with a kleenex. i dont like stumps or tortillions much since they have the tendency to smash the tooth of the paper even when used lightly. i dont like this because as mentioned below graphite particles are flat. it has a sheen. if you crush the tooth of the paper the area is more flat, making the graphite in that area even more shiny. this can look like crap if its meant to be a shadow.

graphite looks shiny the darker it is because its particles are flat. if you looked at charcoal upclose its not flat. so when you darken it in it is not shiny / reflective. so sometimes using charcoal for like a shadow is better because you can go dark without the reflectiveness of graphite. shiny shadows look like crap.

im no expert just what ive read and my own experience messing around