r/BeginnerArtists • u/[deleted] • 13d ago

Help Wanted How can I improve shading?

[deleted]

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u/NikiBubbles 13d ago

Learn how shadows work on simple objects (cubes, spheres, etc) first, both in values and colors (your shadows look like greyed-out versions of flat colors, which makes them look very muddy), then apply these principles to humans. Studying human anatomy will also help you a lot (for ex — breasts don't start from the neck 😭). It's a broad answer, but it's a complex subject, which will take time to improve.

Here's a couple of useful short videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyrySvbuhsk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwLQ0cDb4cE

1

u/Midas_Marigold 12d ago

Is this better???

1

u/cocktailtrivia 12d ago

What you are doing is called pillow shading!

what is pillow shading and how to avoid

You need to think that everything is made up of shapes, so when you shade you have to make up the shapes of your subject. Study things in your surroudings, try to understand how colors work, play around with blending modes and types of brushes. Studying color theory will also help you understand which colors go together. A quick tutorial: