Shading help?

[amrcndt324]

Shading really isn't my strong suite. :C I reference my clothes a lot for help and pictures. However, I just can't seem to get one thing. Hair. I have such problems shading it and highlighting it. Properly anyway. I've checked countless tutorials, which don't help a ton as most are either more 'realistic,' just don't fit with my manga-styled art or aren't detailed enough. I really like to get in depth, but I've seen some tutorials on deviantart where people said "Make a color darker, here. Use the burn and dodge tool. Then clean it up." In turn the picture goes from a sloppy mess to looking completely different. sweatdrop Maybe I'm just too slow to understand...

Also, the art program I use is Gimp. So Photoshop and Sai tutorials really aren't a lot of help(or at least they aren't when they use PS-only/Sai-only tools -n-;; )

Can anyone give me some tips, tricks, maybe even help me find some decent tutorials?

Thank you very very very much in advance! heart

P.S. I'm really trying to improve my art as I'm making a special piece for my boyfriend for our 2 year anniversary. whee

And for anyone curious, this is the line art~ (I already have the base colors filled in, I just have to shade/highlight everything. ;^; )

[Saturn22]

amrcndt324

Shading really isn't my strong suite. :C I reference my clothes a lot for help and pictures. However, I just can't seem to get one thing. Hair. I have such problems shading it and highlighting it. Properly anyway. I've checked countless tutorials, which don't help a ton as most are either more 'realistic,' just don't fit with my manga-styled art or aren't detailed enough. I really like to get in depth, but I've seen some tutorials on deviantart where people said "Make a color darker, here. Use the burn and dodge tool. Then clean it up." In turn the picture goes from a sloppy mess to looking completely different. sweatdrop Maybe I'm just too slow to understand...

Also, the art program I use is Gimp. So Photoshop and Sai tutorials really aren't a lot of help(or at least they aren't when they use PS-only/Sai-only tools -n-;; )

Can anyone give me some tips, tricks, maybe even help me find some decent tutorials?

Thank you very very very much in advance! heart

P.S. I'm really trying to improve my art as I'm making a special piece for my boyfriend for our 2 year anniversary. whee

And for anyone curious, this is the line art~ (I already have the base colors filled in, I just have to shade/highlight everything. ;^; )

Well I don't use gimp but i'm pretty sure it can do something simple like this. A really easy way of shading, especially for something that starts out so bright like your line art is reverse shading. That's what i would recommend. How you do this is you start out by making a levels adjustment layer and sliding the handles so that the entire image is very dark. Then click on the adjustment layer mask and use a BLACK brush on the areas you want to HIGHLIGHT. Just pick a light source and draw on the areas you think the light would hit most.. Then lower the opacity of the black brush and draw on the areas that would be light but not as much like midtones. You don't have to do anything to the shadow areas because you already made them dark with the levels adjustment. Then use Gaussian blur to blend the shading together nicely. Finally just use a soft eraser to clean up the lines, And the beauty of doing it this way is that you can "un-highlight" any areas you lightened by drawing on them with a white brush. everything is non-destructive and reversible :3
I did this sloppily in like 5 minutes so you could get the idea razz

[amrcndt324]

Saturn22

Well I don't use gimp but i'm pretty sure it can do something simple like this. A really easy way of shading, especially for something that starts out so bright like your line art is reverse shading. That's what i would recommend. How you do this is you start out by making a levels adjustment layer and sliding the handles so that the entire image is very dark. Then click on the adjustment layer mask and use a BLACK brush on the areas you want to HIGHLIGHT. Just pick a light source and draw on the areas you think the light would hit most.. Then lower the opacity of the black brush and draw on the areas that would be light but not as much like midtones. You don't have to do anything to the shadow areas because you already made them dark with the levels adjustment. Then use Gaussian blur to blend the shading together nicely. Finally just use a soft eraser to clean up the lines, And the beauty of doing it this way is that you can "un-highlight" any areas you lightened by drawing on them with a white brush. everything is non-destructive and reversible :3
I did this sloppily in like 5 minutes so you could get the idea razz

Thank you very much! That's very helpful indeed. 4laugh The description + picture combo helped a lot. :3

[Saturn22]

amrcndt324

Thank you very much! That's very helpful indeed. 4laugh The description + picture combo helped a lot. :3

You're welcome, I'm happy I could be of some help :3

[Seijaku_Ishida]

...Realistic is where you need to start. How can you grasp the concept of lighting if you don't look at how light actually falls? Do studies of real life, putting things under a lamp and drawing them. Watch for interesting lighting on people and things and do a quick sketch. Observation is how you learn these things and simplifying them to manga art is how you get manga work like this.

Learning how to draw is hard. Sometimes you'll have to do things you don't want to do. I've been drawing boxes and still life drawings for the past six weeks. Do I want to? Hell no, but I need to to get to where I want to be.