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Shading techniques | Gathered Magazines Subscribe Competitions About Us Gathered Magazine Newsletters News Health & Fitness Relationships Fashion & Beauty Food & Drink Craft Home Magazine Offers Newsletters Home Arts & Crafts Art The complete guide to shading techniques Our team independently selects products featured in our editorial content. Some articles may contain affiliate links and we may earn a small commission through them. For more information, please see our Affiliates FAQ The complete guide to shading techniques Shading is the quickest way to breathe life into your drawings. Shade like a pro with our clever tricks and techniques Get monthly inspiration to your door with our craft magazines - see our latest subscription offers iStock/Vadim Cherenko Sarah Orme Published: May 12, 2025 at 2:27 pm The complete guide to shading techniques Shading is a crucial technique to learn if you want to produce impressive pencil drawings. Smooth shading can make your pictures shine and look as realistic as a photograph. Everyone can benefit from taking the time to improve their artistic practice, whether you’re a beginner or a more experienced artist looking to hone your skills. In this guide, we’ll look at how to approach shading in your drawings from basic art principles to more advanced techniques. Keeping these ideas in mind as you work will help you to focus on the finished result, making your completed drawing look more professional. We’ll cover a variety of different shading techniques to explore, practical exercises to try at home and recommended art supplies to stock up on. Ready to learn how to shade like an expert? Read on to discover everything you need to know about shading techniques with our in-depth lesson. What is shading and drawing in art? The difference between values, tone and contrast How to shade: a quick exercise 10 shading techniques to advance your drawing skills How to shade drawings What pencils should you use for shading? What is shading in drawing and art? Shading, in drawing, refers to building layers of pencil to create different tones and contrasts. Pencil marks are blended together to produce darker and lighter areas of a sketch. Shading is widely used to refer to pencil drawings, but you can use the term with other mediums too. For example, if you’re working with a fineliner pen, you can use techniques such as hatching and cross hatching to create a shaded look. Why is shading important in drawing? When it’s done well, shading can make drawings look three-dimensional with a variety of textures. Shading can also be used to mimic light and shadow within a picture, which will make your subject leap from the page. Expert shading techniques also create hyper-realistic, photographic quality drawings. However you need to be careful! Poor shading can make your work look untidy and flat. Learning shading techniques can be frustrating at first, but the good news is that you’ll improve rapidly once you understand a few simple techniques, and the subtle differences between values, tone and contrast. The difference between values, tone and contrast If you’re new to art, you’ve probably come across terms such as values, tone and contrast, but what do they actually mean? And what’s the difference between them? Here are some quick definitions to help you understand these essential art terms: Value Value refers to how light or dark a specific colour can be. A good way to think of this is to imagine a blob of blue paint. If you added white or black paint to it, you would be able to make a whole gradient of different blues, ranging from light to dark. It’s exactly the same with pencil shading – you should be able to create both light and dark values with your pencil. The lightest tone is the highest value and the darkest tone is the lowest. Tone Tone is similar in meaning to value. It simply describes how light or dark a colour is. Easy to remember! Contrast Contrast is when two opposite values are positioned next to each other within a drawing. For example, if you put a colour with a dark tone next to a light one then you’ve created contrast. Contrast is an important concept to understand when it comes to shading. If there is not enough contrast in your drawing then it won’t stand out. In short, getting your shading right can mean the difference between a flat image and a picture that pops. How to shade: A quick exercise Shading involves building up layers of pencil markings to create a drawing with multiple dimensions. The easiest way to shade is to begin by choosing a soft drawing pencil. These super blendable pencils can be found in most drawing pencil sets – just select one marked with a B for this exercise. Start shading When you begin shading, always start with the lightest areas first and work from light to dark. Go back over the shading with your pencil to gradually develop a smooth gradient. It will take practice to get the hang of gradients, so don’t rush this bit. A quick way to improve your shading technique is to make sure that you shade in one direction. This will help you to shade evenly while you’re learning. Vary pencil strokes Another shading hack is to vary the length of your pencil strokes. Your drawing can end up looking blocky if all of your lines are the same length. Overlap your lines in an irregular way to make your shading look more professional. Choose your perfect pencil Familiarise yourself with the pencils in your set to get used to how easily they blend. Draw some test strips and practice shading your way from light to dark. Some artists prefer firmer drawing pencils, while others favour ones with a softer lead. This comes down to personal taste and in time you’ll find your own preference. 10 shading techniques to advance your drawing skills 1. Blending Blending is one of the most important shading techniques to learn – and probably the one you’ll use the most. It’s a drawing method that’s used to smooth away lines, creating soft gradients and a professional finish. So, where do you begin? We’d recommend starting with a gradient drawing exercise. Gradient drawing exercise Choose a soft drawing pencil (these are marked with a B in most pencil sets) and fill up a shape with pencil marks ranging from light to dark. A rectangle or a sphere would work well for this. Use small, side-to-side movements with your pencil to shade your shape and go back over the areas which you would like to be darker. Vary the length of your pencil strokes so that they don’t look too uniform and make sure that your lines are following the same direction to ensure that your shading looks even. You can shade in different directions if you’d like to add texture to a drawing, but that’s not the purpose of this exercise. At this point, you may find that your shading looks rough and uneven. Don’t worry, there are a few things that you can try to get a smoother gradient. How to use a blending stump Firstly, you can use a blending stump to even out pencil marks. A blending stump or tortillon is made of paper with two pointed ends. Blending stumps can be rubbed over your drawings to soften shading, concealing pencil marks in the process. Blending stumps can be used to smudge small areas of a drawing using the tip or larger areas using the side of the point. If your blending stump starts to look grubby, you can clean and sharpen the tip using sandpaper. A kneaded eraser or putty rubber will also lift off some of the pencil lead to refresh your blending stump. If you’re using graphite pencils, then you don’t necessarily need to use a blending stump. You can also blend with tissues, cotton buds or even a paintbrush. Find out how with Kirstie Partridge Art’s fantastic video tutorial: How to blend coloured pencils Coloured pencils feature cores made from coloured pigments bonded together with wax or oils, unlike drawing pencils which are made with graphite. As a result, they have a different consistency. It’s important to remember: you have to change your blending style to suit the medium. Coloured pencils can be blended together in a similar way to drawing pencils. Layer colours over one another to create an array of vibrant shades or overlap your shading to produce gradients. Start with light shading and keep going back over it until you have the tone that you want. Other ways to blend coloured pencils Blending stumps will smooth your shading, but did you know there are other ways to blend coloured pencils? For example, a colourless blending pencil or blender pen can be layered over your shading to gently merge colours together. Blender pens can also be used with graphite pencils. Another popular artist’s trick is to use baby oil to blend coloured pencils together. This can be applied with a brush or a cotton bud – just be careful not to use too much in one go, or you risk ruining the paper! 2. Contour hatching Contour hatching is a clever pencil shading technique which uses lines to create shadows on an object. Like the name suggests, contour hatching is used to follow the shape of your drawing just like the contours on a map. A good way to try this for yourself is to draw a round object such as a sphere or an apple. Sketch an outline first, then use light pencil lines to curve around the shape of the object. Experiment with different line thicknesses to see how it changes the appearance of your object. You can create shadows by drawing lines closer together or spacing them out for lighter areas. This is a really simple shading technique to try and it’s extremely effective when you combine it with other forms of hatching, such as cross hatching. 3. Cross hatching Cross hatching uses criss-crossing lines to create areas of light and shade on a drawing. This technique often has a woven look due to the way that the pencil marks overlap. This shading technique has been popular with artists throughout history, including Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo Da Vinci. While cross hatching is often used by pencil artis