Get To Grips With Pencil Shading

Timothy Von Rueden Continues His Series On Drawing Techniques By Covering A Range Of Shading Methods And How To Execute Them

Learning how to produce good shading results will only be truly achieved from regular practice. This is because different pencils create marks that are noticeably different from one another, and so understanding which pencil does what is extremely important.

I used HB mechanical pencils for a long time when I changed my focus from digital to traditional art. However, once I started working with regular pencils, there was a clear execution difference that I wasn’t able to produce with mechanical pencils alone. Since then I’ve discovered techniques on how to produce different textures, tones and results that I combine to create my pieces.

It wasn’t just the different HB hardness pencils that showed me the clear difference, such as shading with a 4B versus a 4H. I learnt that the tip of the pencil also gave vastly different results. For example, a more rounded tip gave a larger, softer result and was more efficient to work with.

So while my best advice to learn shading is to go out and practice with multiple pencils and explore different methods, in this article I’ll share my insight to help clarify this learning process. My goal is to inspire you to try shading with intent and create drawings by employing a range of shading techniques.