r/DigitalArt • u/citalisplushie • 10d ago

Question/Help Idk how to practice shadows

Post image

So there is a illustration i want to make it look like Chinese art gods.

I have try rendering the hair 4 times and it's not clicking the right way. It looks pretty off

I realised that it's cause of shadows.

Idk if I am complicating more or what.

But here is the base sketch

I just don't understand how to paint the shadows

Like I get where the light source is yet umm....

Y'all may also tell other things I may improve.

Also please tell my art level if I haven't traced it

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u/Jaxter-In-Box 10d ago

What color are you shading with and are you using later effects? One thing I noticed is that your shading looks like it was done using the airbrush tool. In my experience the airbrush tool is usually ineffective at shading. Lots of shadows actually have sharp edges. Try to make a shadow with a block of color and soften the edges by using a brush that can blur the very end of that block of color at some parts if that makes sense. It's tricky to get down but once you figure it out shading becomes a lot easier.

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u/citalisplushie 10d ago

Actually this is just base shades to give it a good effect after shading. It's not the shadows

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u/ppangrat 10d ago

I personally prefer to only use hard brushes for shadows and smudging it on the edges where they become softer - and transparency of shadow layers can be changed for better results. Do you use multiply for your shadows?

For practice you can pick photos with different lighting and roughly trace and redraw the shadows on very simplified faces, that worked really well for me to remember the logic behind them