Where to shade exactly to make a lifelike Anime drawing?

Answer 1

In all drawings, the placement of shadow and shading are the primary difference between line drawings and life-like or 3 dimensional drawings.

To understand where the shading goes your first step is to establish the direction and intensity of your light source.

Bright daylight outdoors is reflected from most surfaces and the shading on your character is light and subtle.

Single source faint light, like a candle on a table next to your character highlights the prominent edges of the figure, while leaving the larger portion in deeper shadow.

To become better at this, a bit of exercise work will help to "train" your brain to think of light source and shadow.

Use a sketchbook and draw a dozen or so simple geometric shapes. Make them big enough to get some real work done and set them far enough apart that you have space for cast shadows and notes.

I usually have students draw circles, as spheres are easy to work with, and complex enough that you learn how light works on the surface.

In the beginning it is easiest to work with a physical subject so get yourself something spherical, a ball, a Christmas ornament or the like. Now get a single light source, a desk lamp or even a flash light will do.

On the first circle of the exercise, place the light source directly over the subject and take a moment to observe how the intensity of the light varies as it moves away from the source.

Your light source should be at 90 degrees from the center of your sphere, between 6 inches to 1 foot from the subject.

Look carefully at the cast shadow, and the darkest shade of the subject.

Now shade your circle to match what you see. I recommend you use soft pencils, or charcoal as a beginning as you do not want to complicate the issue with color.

Blend your shade carefully and remember you can use a kneaded eraser to lift some of the graphite or charcoal off and create points of highlight.

Repeat this exercise several times until you understand how the light, shading and shadow work together to create the look of three dimensions.

This might be a good time to look carefully at the reflected light. There are spots in the deepest shade where light has reflected off of the ground and lightened the shade. Work at duplicating this effect on your sketch pad.

Once you are comfortable with your light source directly above, move the light to a different place, directly to the right of the subject, and repeat the observation and practice as you did with the first one.

When you have shaded enough circles with your light source in various places, all on the 90 degree plane, start moving the light source slightly behind the center of the subject, so that more shade and shadow falls on the observable surface.

Practice this look.

Then move the light sightly in front of the center of the subject so that more light falls on the surface of the subject. Note the changes in where the highlights, shades and cast shadows fall.

After repeated sketches and practice your work sheet should start to look like drawings of real spheres. After that, experiment with more than one light source, reflected light, and finally color.

All this is to train your mind to carefully observe your subject, and to render it onto paper accurately. Once you master simple shapes you can start working on complex shapes, a good working knowledge of anatomy will help, if your subjects are to appear life like they will have bones, muscles, and hair and then there is the whole "how fabric drapes" thing, but for now observation & practice are the best ways to get where you want to be.

Eventually you will want to enlist the help of friends and family as models... I know your brother doesn't look like your character, but he does have bones and muscles and is close enough that you can walk around him and shine a light source onto him so you can understand what your character needs to make him look real.

Just remember, observation and lots of practice will show in your end work.