How to Draw

Basic Pencil Shading

After a line drawing is done, it's always gratifying to add realistic shading to it. Shading makes the subject look three dimensional and solid.

Use an overhand grip for these exercises. Fill a sheet of scrap paper with broad marks made with the side of the lead until you're comfortable working with a pencil held this way.

Make this kind of shading with the side of the lead held at a low angle. A back and forth motion creates a textured shading that's easy to control.

Here's an illustration showing the "crosshatching" of a pencil stroke. It's a very simple principle—you just do the pencil strokes in several different directions, one over the other! Each different direction adds more tone to the shading, and gets it progressively darker, and darker.