IF YOUR SHADING

@theartcoach

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The video provides a clear, actionable tip for a common artistic struggle, demonstrating the technique visually and offering a direct path to further learning through a course, making it highly relevant and valuable to aspiring artists.

Summary

This video explains how to improve drawing values and shading by grouping lights and darks into broader masses. The creator demonstrates this technique on a cliffside drawing and encourages viewers to tap the link in their bio for a drawing course.

Structure

1Introduce the problem of terrible shading.
2Explain the concept of value grouping.
3Demonstrate grouping lights and darks.

Original caption

Tap the link in my bio to start the drawing drills course. Good shading isn’t about having a hundred different values. It’s about organizing them. Instead of treating every little shadow as its own separate thing, look for areas that are close enough in value to group together into larger masses. Connect your darks. Connect your lights. Let those larger groups move through the drawing instead of breaking everything into dozens of disconnected patches. That’s what creates a cohesive value structure. Then you can go back into those groups and add smaller variations where they actually matter. Organize first. Nuance second. The fewer decisions you can use to clearly describe the subject, the stronger your drawing usually becomes.

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Product placement

POSCA: ACTS - used to add white highlights to the drawing, changing its appearance. Removing it would change the visual outcome of the drawing. Gelly Roll: APPEARS - a pen brand visible on the tool used for highlights. Removing it would not change what happens in the video.

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Tap the link in my bio to start the drawing drills course.

On-screen text

sarahm_214 4h ago why do my values and shading always look TERRIBLE??? IF YOUR SHADING LOOKS TERRIBLE IT'S LIKELY BECAUSE YOU AREN'T GROUPING YOUR VALUES WHEN YOU GROUP TOGETHER ALL THE LIGHTS AND DARKS YOUR OWN SELF FOR THIS DRAWING SIMPLE EVERYTHING FACING UP AND TO LIGHT EVERYTHING FACING LEFT AND DOWNWARD GETS DARK THESE TWO BROAD GROUPINGS ALLOW YOU TO DESIGNATE A VALUE STRUCTURE ADD GROUPS OF DARKER DARKS AND EVEN LIGHTER LIGHTS TO SLOWLY ADD NUANCE TO YOUR DRAWING YOUR LIGHTS AND BROAD SWEEP SO YOUR VALUE STRUCTURE IS SET IN STONE AND YOUR DARKS DON'T ACCIDENTALLY SLIP INTO THE LIGHTS OR VICE VERSA REMEMBER ALWAYS WORK GENERAL TO SPECIFIC LEARN ALL THE DRAWING FUNDAMENTALS DRAW LIKE THIS TAP THE LINK IN MY BIO DRAWING DRILL'S COURSE

Transcript

IF YOUR SHADING LOOKS TERRIBLE IT'S LIKELY BECAUSE YOU AREN'T GROUPING YOUR VALUES WHEN YOU GROUP TOGETHER ALL THE LIGHTS AND DARKS YOUR OWN SELF FOR THIS DRAWING SIMPLE EVERYTHING FACING UP AND TO LIGHT EVERYTHING FACING LEFT AND DOWNWARD GETS DARK THESE TWO BROAD GROUPINGS ALLOW YOU TO DESIGNATE A VALUE STRUCTURE ADD GROUPS OF DARKER DARKS AND EVEN LIGHTER LIGHTS TO SLOWLY ADD NUANCE TO YOUR DRAWING YOUR LIGHTS AND BROAD SWEEP SO YOUR VALUE STRUCTURE IS SET IN STONE AND YOUR DARKS DON'T ACCIDENTALLY SLIP INTO THE LIGHTS OR VICE VERSA REMEMBER ALWAYS WORK GENERAL TO SPECIFIC LEARN ALL THE DRAWING FUNDAMENTALS DRAW LIKE THIS TAP THE LINK IN MY BIO DRAWING DRILL'S COURSE