Shade Drawing Using Photoshop

Learn how to shade drawing using photoshop.

Shadow is one of the more difficult to create both traditional and digital art. Heavy attention should be given on how light casts an object, and then interact with clothes like shadows and textures. Fortunately, there are tricks that can be used to determine where the light does not shine. For this design, the light source is located in the upper left. Read on to learn how to shade a drawing with Photoshop.

1. Open a line art file.

2. Duplicate the background layer. Use the eraser to erase all lines that will not cast a shadow on anything.

3. Stretch the top layer down. Erase all of the lines on the top layer that overlap areas that wouldn't have shadows cast on them.

4. Set the layer to multiply. This will allow you to color over darker lines without changing the lines. Choose a darker shade than the base color and draw over the lines.

5. Shade the parts of the drawing that are under the desk, such as the legs of the desk and human, since the light source does not hit these parts. Again, use multiply so that the gray does not cover the lines.

6. Shade half of each strand of hair. The part of the hair that is farther away from the light source should be shaded. In this picture, you will find shaded the right side of each strand of hair, since the light source is on the left side.

7. Understand that sometimes objects cast specific shadows on an object. To draw a shadow cast by an object, imagine the shape of the object and distort that object to fit the subject that the shadow is being cast upon. This requires some guessing, since there is no formula to determine exactly how the shadows should cast on the subject.

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