amby0es

[Style!] sPECtacular shading

Added 2025-10-30 19:25:02 +0000 UTC

(+Lee’s 2025 pectober picture)

You know what shade is, right? Other than something you throw, shade is some sort of thing that happens when the light doesn’t touch a certain part of an object or person. Like it’s too shy to touch there.

Think about it, would you touch everyone everywhere? Yeah, didn’t think so.

The truth is, there are multiple shading techniques in drawing. I am not about to tell you the way you should shade your drawings, because honestly, I just do whatever and hope it looks fine. But after doing whatever several times, I’ve learned that I like a specific shading technique the most.

To understand this, let’s ask our friend Lee to show us his wide chest, and help him find the diagonal lines.

As a general rule that’s out there, it is encouraged to use a color other than black to do the shading, in this case, we have a greenish shadow.

Also, I guess I read somewhere that it’s valid to give the lighting some texture, or whatever is going on here.

And there they are! The shadows now have diagonal lines. Lee probably can’t see the shadow under his pecs because they’re too big.

And in case you couldn’t see them either, here they are, with maximum opacity. Mind you, I don’t always use Multiply, but for the purpose of this post, I used it to make them more visible. These diagonal lines are made using a brush called Comic halftones.

As for why I use this shading style, aside from liking the way it looks, it’s a way to give the picture more texture, you know? Something more to look at! After all, isn’t that what shading does?

There are several shows and media out there with a style of shading that also uses overlay lines, and after seeing many of them, I guess I decided to start doing it too at some point. Granted, I don’t necessarily always do the shading like that, but if I remember to add it to a picture I’m working on, I’ll find a way to make it work.

Join me next time on [Style!], and I’ll answer the question: What are faces, and why are they everywhere?

Here’s a link to the file folder: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/c72kd5osy06n3b9nfnkbr/AKyOD_R73gIMtsMmRHokq8Q?rlkey=774e67t439aj2eexonzpfkku3&st=zypsjst9&dl=0

(Credit goes to the owners of each character)