Shading Drills
Like a musician practices, so should the artist. If you want to become proficient at your art, then you must pay for proficiency with hard work. Do your work.
Assignments for Shading Drills
Practice shading drills in your drawing notebook often. Practice daily if possible. Practice with both ink and pencil. Use a fine point ink pen or a pen with a fine nib. Below are several examples of what I want you to do. In your drawing book, draw a small square that is approximately an inch square in your notebook. Draw several of the squares in your notebook and practice as described below.
 Ink: In a small square that you have drawn on your paper, try to evenly cover the square with ink. Use a fine point. Evenness of tone is what you are aiming for. From: The Elements of Drawing, By John Ruskin |
A Shading Scale see also Shading Scale Exercise Example
Draw a long thin rectangle on your paper. With a pen/ink or
with a pencil, draw in the rectangle minuscule strokes shading
from dark to light. |
Example
of creating a tone with lines.  Ink: Practice drawing lines evenly to achieve an even tone. |
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Two examples of shading with lines.   Ink: In a small square that you have drawn on your paper, try to shade from dark to light by drawing lines. |
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Examples
of Cross Hatching   Ink: Practice cross hatching lines to achieve shading. |
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Example
of contours created with lines You can imply contours by drawing lines as shown in the image above. Ink: Draw a cylinder on your paper. Imply its curvature by drawing curved lines. Practice this on other shapes. Draw an outline of a tree on your paper and draw lines to contour the tree. |
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 Pen or Pencil Shading Practice |
See also: Scale Chart I or II for examples and instructions |
Application: Illustration
Learning from a Master Illustrator and Satirist
John Ruskin says this in his book of George Cruikshank's illustrations, specifically the ones from German Popular Stories ...
"You cannot look at them too much, nor copy them too often". [Elements of Drawing, page 226]
I went in search of German Popular Stories and recently found it in its entirety and free to download from books.google at the link below.
Index of George Cruikshank's Illustration -- It seems that the illustrations are off by one page, go back one page or forward one page after clicking illustration link.
George Cruikshank at Wikipedia
Original Illustration
Your child can apply her growing skill in drawing, shading, and texture by illustrating scenes from stories, verses, plays, or poems.
Example (not necessarily a good one) of a deeply shaded illustration that I drew for a "Theme Drawing" high school homework drawing assignment [1977].
"The Fall of the House of Usher"
[read more about these theme assignments]
Fix This Dragon
Use various shading techniques to give this "dragon in clouds" drawing texture and depth. Or, draw something like this yourself and add texture and depth using the shading techniques.
Click here to see the original drawing.
