Shade!

Time for shading. I always like to shade before highlighting... it's just what I'm used to. Okay, now, if you don't need it anymore, you can turn off the sketch layer by clicking on the little eyeball icon next to it. This makes it invisible; it's still there but you just can't see it. If you still want it up, then leave it! It won't hurt anything. Sometimes I need to leave sketch lines up to figure out where my shading is, but here I turned it off because it was distracting my shading process..

Create a new layer above the layer(s) you want to shade. Since I'm gonna attack everything at once, I've got my shading layer above everything but the sketch. Set the layer to "Multiply", like we did with the sketch layer.

Everyone shades differently! Some people like to dodge and burn, some don't, everyone does it different. If you found a method of shading that you like better than this one, by all means use it! This is just the way I like to do it.

Since the light source is a bright white, I chose a medium grey to shade with. A warning, however, don't shade with greys and blacks all the time. You can create much better moods and lifelike paintings by shading with the opposite color than the light source. A good example would be a sunset picture, with the sun being oranges and reds and such... in that situation I would shade using a greyish purple color. Check out this painting and notice the color of the shading! If the shading on the snow drifts was a flat grey, would it change the mood and overall feel of the painting..?

Okay, back to this drawing! Lyosha here happens to be resting during a snowy day with bright white light. The snow makes the light very ambient and "soft", so grey isn't a bad shading color. Starting lightly, chose a big brush and shade the large, soft areas first, and continue, getting darker as you go, with smaller brushes. Usually the darker the shadow, the more contrast you'll have to create, and you'll want to create sharper edges. I inserted a picture of what the shading by itself looks like so you can get an idea.. notice the softer edges in some areas and the harder, darker edges in other areas and the shapes they make. Shading takes patience and a knowledge of how light falls upon a three dimensonal object. Shading is also the best way to create realistic textures. Experiment and don't get frustrated!

Even more shading?!

Yup, more shading. Sometimes I want to add so much detail that shading can take up to 5 layers or so. Create another leyer, set to multiply, and select a shading color. This time I went with a darker color, and it's slightly blue. Add this only to areas that would be darkest, to really start filling out the subject and create deeper textures. I added another insert of the shading From this step and the pervious step to show you what all the shading together looks like by itself.

(By the way, I keep showing the layers window right in the way to let you see it and how I have it set up. This is probably just common sense, but it's best to keep it out of the way someplace off to the side.)

It's all about the highlights baby

Highlights are fun! Depending on how your drawing is lit, there may be tons of highlights, or hardly any. This drawing has hardly any because the lighting is soft and ambient; there's no harsh light source. (Yes, I know there's a very bright spot in the sky, but the millions of falling snowflakes disperse that..) If you had a backlit subject, you'd want much more harsh highlighting. Texture really comes into play here. A shiny beak will have a much more sharp highlight than soft, downy feathers, and so on.

I usually do my highlights in two steps and two layers; one layer set to "screen", and one set to "color dodge". First I do the "screen" layer; this creates "flat" hilights, the kind dull plastic could create. So I went through and added (in this case an off-white; because the light sorce is white. Again, if the light source was yellow, I'd use an off-white yellowish tone) highlights to her beak, her feathers in some areas, the snow on the rocks, her legs and tail, etc. You'll notice that they are subtle highlights. I also added the shine to her eye.

Next step, I created yet another new layer above that, and set it to "color dodge". Color dodge is interesting to use. It creates very vivid, and glossy highlights. It's actually a photographic term, but I won't get into it. It's best just to play around with it and find out what it does for yourself; you'll learn the most that way. I added, with white, to her eye to make it glow, to the outer edges of her feathers that would allow the light through, to her legs, to the snow.. just a tiny bit can create the shine. It's best not to overuse color dodge, I think.. it's very tempting but it can make a drawing look gawdy. A note, however, it really works nicely on glossy objects, such as scales, very silky hair, glass objects, metal, etc.