Drawing Fundamentals 4: Shading Basics for Illustration

Most people are familiar with the traditional way of drawing where a dark pencil is used to make marks on a white piece of paper. Here, the pencil is used to create the shadows and the white of the paper is used to depict the highlights. But there is another method of shading using toned colored paper where a white pencil is used to create the highlights.

Toned paper is my favorite method of drawing because it allows you to shade more quickly and with less work while still achieving the same level of realism as regular white paper. And it also results in really high contrast dynamic drawings. In this 4th part of the Drawing Fundamentals Made Simple series, you're going to learn the different ways to use toned paper to make your artworks more exciting.

We'll begin by going over the materials you'll need as well as some basic shading exercise to get you comfortable with this medium. You'll learn how to create a toned value scale and how to shade a basic 3D form. Then we'll progress to drawing a variety of still life and organic subjects.

We'll start with a simple wooden figure, then a porcelain teapot, and then a human eye. You'll be able to see the entire process laid out in a step-by-step way, from the initial lay-in to applying all the shadows and highlights. Once you're comfortable with shading on grey toned paper, I'll introduce you to drawing on black paper.