How do I shade a drawing so it looks three-dimensional?

The difference between a flat drawing and a solid one is rarely the outline. It is whether the tones describe a light source, and whether the range of tone runs all the way from white to genuinely black.

Step by step

1. Decide where the light comes from.One light source, one direction, and keep it consistent through the whole drawing. Inconsistent lighting is what makes a carefully drawn object look unconvincing.
2. Squint at the subject.It removes detail and reduces the subject to blocks of light and dark, which is what you need to see. It is the most useful habit in tonal drawing.
3. Find the five zones on a rounded form.Highlight where light hits directly; the lit area; the core shadow, a dark band on the turning edge; reflected light bouncing back into the shadow side; and the cast shadow on the surface below.
4. Look for the core shadow.The darkest part of a rounded object is usually not its outer edge but a band just inside it, because light bounces back onto the very edge from the surroundings. Getting this right instantly makes objects look round.
5. Draw the cast shadow properly.It is darkest and hardest-edged where the object meets the surface, and it softens with distance. Without it, objects float.
6. Build tone in layers.Several light passes rather than one heavy one. Layering gives smoother, deeper tone and keeps control; pressing hard produces a shiny grey that will not go darker.
7. Push the darks further.Nearly every beginner drawing occupies a narrow band of greys. Find the darkest point in the subject, make it genuinely dark with a 6B, and judge everything else against it.
8. Keep a true white somewhere.Leave the paper untouched at the brightest highlight, or lift it out with a putty rubber. A drawing with no white and no black looks foggy.
9. Follow the form with your strokes.Shading strokes that curve around a cylinder describe its shape; strokes running any old way flatten it.
10. Vary the edges.Sharp edges where a form turns abruptly or a shadow is cast; soft edges where a rounded surface turns away. Uniform edges everywhere read as a cutout.
11. Check by turning it upside down.It removes recognition and shows the tonal pattern as an abstract arrangement, where errors are obvious.

Tips

• Squint. It is the fastest way to see tone instead of detail.
• The darkest band on a round object is just inside the edge, not at it.
• Make something genuinely black and leave something genuinely white.

Common mistakes

• Keeping everything in the mid-greys — Without a true dark and a true light the drawing has no tonal range, so it reads as flat and foggy however carefully the shapes are drawn.
• Outlining everything and then filling it in — Real objects have no outlines; edges are where two tones meet. A hard line all the way round flattens the form back into a shape on paper.

If it doesn't work

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