hey yall its me the Art Mom™ to help you shade pretty
rule 1: DO NOT SHADE WITH BLACK. EVER. IT NEVER LOOKS GOOD.
- red- shade with a slightly darker shade of purple
- orange- slightly darker and more saturated shade of red
- yellow- i think like..a peach could work but make it a really light peach
- green- shade with darker and less saturated shade of blue or teal
- blue- shade with purple
- purple- a shade thats darker than the purple you’re using and maybe a little pink (MAYBE blue)
- pink- darker shade of red
- white- a really light lavender or blue..or i guess any really light colour??
- black- okay listen dont use pure black to colour anything unless you want to leave it with flat colours because you cant really shade black lol
- grey- a slightly darker shade of purple or blue (less saturated)
- brown- slightly darker and less saturated shade of purple or red
aaaaand thats all i got lol. let me know if there is anything i should add to this list!!
If you’re a visual learner…
I made some Balls of Colour to go with Art Mom™’s post:
thank you for the advice
^^^^
this is not how color theory works. learn color theory and lighting and stop telling people to -never- use colors. It’s true that some people misuse black in their shading but telling people how to shade across the board (especially using this boring tutorial?) won’t help them.
try to shade using nonblack colors, it will help you learn. BUT eventually you’ll get a better understanding of color, especially if you do some color theory and lighting studies and/or classes (preferably both) and understand it’s not nearly as clear-cut as this post makes it seem.
color and what colors you use to shade depend 100% on the lighting and the subject. this tutorial comes from no technical colorist basis and won’t give you great results in the long run
Also pleaaaase pay attention to your values. Colours can be pretty but if you have no contrast your art is going to look very flat and have no depth. Only the black and grey in these examples has any sense of it being an 3D object because the colours chosen lack enough value range and are chosen on the basis of looking pretty alone.
Your shadows should be defining the shape of the object & showing where there is less light, meaning the values should be darker, not just another colour with the same value level.
Shading with other colours is a nice starting point but yeah don’t rely on different colours alone