Learning how to create shading will take your art to a higher level. Shading art makes all the difference between an amateur drawing and a piece of art, simply because shadows add depth to your subject. Shading is the part that makes a drawing go from a flat contour drawing to a 3 dimensional illusion.

There are many types for shading and each type will change the style of  your drawing.

Cross Hatching

Cross hatching is where you overlap lines at various angles. It’s great for drawing fabrics like burlap, textured (wrinkly) skin and whatever else you can think of that displays such a pattern. To shade light areas, lighten your lines and space them further apart. In shadowed areas, darken them and bring them closer together.

I like to start by the lightest area and then add layers of cross hatching until I reach the darkest area of the drawing.

Hatching (with parallel lines)

Hatching with parallel lines is the same as cross hatching, except you are making all the lines go in the same direction. It is a bit more time consuming than cross hatching but can lead to interesting results.

Contour Shading

Contour shading is similar to hatching and cross hatching. The difference is that   the lines are curved to follow the contours of the subject. So these lines can be drawn horizontally, vertically and even diagonally.

Scribbles

A doodle is a drawing made while a person’s attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract lines, generally without ever lifting the drawing device from the paper, in which case it is usually called a “scribble”.

Scribbling or scumbling is a fun way to shade a drawing and it goes fast!                                          Scumbling or scribble drawings shading works particularly well for portraits and still life.

Strippling

Stippling is the creation of a pattern simulating varying degrees of solidity or shading by using small dots. Such a pattern may occur in nature and these effects are frequently emulated by artists.

Circulism

As the name suggests, circulism consists of many overlapping circles. The more circles you draw, the more smooth the texture becomes! You can use it to draw fuzzy fabrics, soft cottony fabrics, realistic skin textures and more.

This technique is time consuming, but the results are amazing!

Other Resources

If you’ve read all that and you still want to know more , you might have a bit of an obsession developing! We do know a few great places to send you, though, if you want more:

wikipadia.com detailed study of different type of shading 

paintingdemos.com study of type of shading techniques

rapidfireart.com study of different type of shading