Shading and Values; Don't Be Afraid To Go Dark!

Its so often that I see artists put so much work into shading, and then lower the opacity so low that no one can see all that amazing detail! Don't be afraid to go dark, to show off that shading and definition. The fear of having too much contrast or too many dark values in a piece often keeps artists from reaching their full potential. Of course, not every piece needs all that contrast but whats the point of doing the shading so detailed if your not going to show it off a little? The real world has LOTS of contrast, try this; Take a photo of a scene you would like to draw, in your house, in your yard, anywhere! Then upload that to your art PC and make it Grayscale with your program of choice. Don't have a program? Try Medibang its free, go to filters, and apply Grayscale. Or create a new layer above your photo color it in gray and then set the layer to "color". See all those dark shadows? Now try to recreate that, just drawing the shadows nothing else, no color only value.

When you've done that a few times and you feel like you have stepped up from your contrast fearing ways. Step up to full grayscale! Don't just mimic the shadows, draw everything in the scene in grayscale, the values, the edges, the little tiny details, the textures, everything in black, white, and gray. Then apply color and watch the magic happen! A picture is mostly that; Values. If you have value then you have a full blown picture color is important but does not make up the whole piece. Values make a art pop with definition and detail, focus on values and then apply color and you will be surprised at what you see.

So give it a try and watch your shading skills grow as you study the world of black and white!

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