-Subject:Shading tips.
Finishing up a tattoo design today. It’s a big shading piece. found some useful ideas on the way doing it, hopefully will be helpful for you as well, Let’s go over the step by step quickly.
1.Basic underline. The ideas of the monsters are given by the client, The fun part is to compose the four armed monster at the right, The action pose is exactly what the client requested, Since the two arms on the right is free, I’ve decided to make them expressive, Giving ideas what nasty things it will do to the smaller monster when he gets him. Stronger line weight on parts I want you to see.
2.Basic shadow shapes. Using soft edges I’ve added a 80% black basic shade, Wanted to save the darkest assents for directing the eye.Individual shading makes the piece all over the place, I try to use the core shadow to group up smaller forms so they read as a big shape.
3.Finishing up adding the darkest dark and high lights, Wanted the reader to look at the face of the monsters so the contrast is strongest at the face area.
So now some thoughts on improving my shading.
1. Use reference, I was not sure about some shadow shapes so I pulled out my skull and alien model. It really help me to design most of the shapes. Finding relevant reference is huge.
2.As I said before, shading all the small shapes will make the piece very messy, I try to use light direction and a core shadow to group up the little shapes and read as a bigger form.
3.Edge contrast between light and shadow. I try to use sharp edges on the highlights and softer edges on the shadows, It makes the image more interesting to look at.
Last thoughts: I think I can do a better job on designing the shapes and line weight. I should hide more things in the shadows to prevent making the piece too busy. So turning points for me on wards is better line variation, Design more interesting light and shadow shapes, And to reduce details by hiding them in shadow.Hope you’ve learn something.
Keep Growing,
-Din.
More Ideas:
Hello Folks, Studying value is one of the most important task as an artist, And even more so as a tattoo artist since we don’t have full access to full values when we are working on skin. So today we’re going to do a mid tone study.