8 art pencil shading

Pencil Shading

SHADING

Using a straightforward side-to-side shading motion, a smooth even layer of color is built up. A very light touch can be used to deposit the faintest amount of pigment for graduated shading.

HATCHING

Rapid, regular, evenly spaced lines are drawn, leaving a little white paper or underlying colour showing.

CROSS-HATCHING

Hatching overlaid at right-angles. This can be done with different colors, or carried through multiple layers, to create a textured effect.

SCUMBLING

The 'brillo pad' method, tiny overlapping circles rapidly drawn. It can be used to build up a single color or different colors.

DIRECTIONAL MARKS

Short directional lines which follow a contour, or the direction of hair or grass or other surfaces. These can be densely overlaid to form a rich textural effect.

BURNISHING

Layers of colored pencil overlaid with strong pressure so that the tooth of the paper is filled and a smooth surface results. This image shows a burnished surface compared with a basic overlay of color.

STIPPLING

Involves placing lots of tiny dots on your paper. The dots can be close together, far apart, or anywhere in between!

SPONGE

This mimics the texture of a sponge. There are larger circles nestled in many much smaller circles. This is good for stone, and for showing that something is falling apart.

COBBLESTONES

Is a rectangular type of repeating pattern used to show stone.

HAMMOCK

The lines are spaced and intersect each other. The lines can be wavy which show direction and warping. This texture is light.

Brick

This technique looks simple, but requires a lot of time. It is good to show brick and other geometric repeating shape.

POPCORN

This technique is very organic and can be used from green life, to clouds, to food.

TILES

This is similar to hammock but alternating squares are filled in, with no two squares side by side filled in. This is more common in surrealist and modern art.

MOUNTAIN

This is great for showing texture that is consistent and regular. It is very easy to do, and more lines gives it a denser feel.

BLENDING WITH A TORTILLON

A tortillon is a tight paper roll use to blend smoothly. It is better than a finger since oils from your finger can affect your drawing.

It’s hard to believe but all these beautiful pictures are not photos but pencil drawings. Hong Kong artist Paul Lung uses only an 0.5 mm technical pencil and A2 paper , doesn’t use an eraser and spends up to 60 hours sketching out his pictures. As he often admits people do not believe him and he has to make videos of his work to prove that these art works are not photographs.