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Ehetere — Shading Tutorial
Published: 2011-04-02 09:25:50 +0000 UTC; Views: 15296; Favourites: 453; Downloads: 147
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Description
Download to read and have a closer look at my example pics!Its finally here! For all of you (66 of you
) who wanted a tutorial on how I shade, here it is! If you have any specific questions that weren't answered here, I'd be happy to help and I will add them to a FAQ section at the bottom of the artist's comments to help others 
Horse featured here is Isra' Mona, my little Arabian mare. Here is the finished pic of her: [link]
FAQ
Q. What colour are you using to highlight with? Is it solid white switched on some kind of screen/dodge layer mode, or did you just pick a lighter tone from your base colour?
A. For this I just used a lighter colour than the base shadow layer, and nothing else.
Related content
Comments: 110
I usually only use two colours: one colour which makes a flat dark base and a highlight colour which I blend using the water tool to create variation
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OHOHO I have found the secret to your fantabulous shading!
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ok question how do you make it look so smooth and rounded? whenever I try to do this it comes out just looking smudged and wierd and also how do you know where to shade and where not to?
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For both of these things it really is just a practice thing. Looking at thousands of horse pictures for where the shiny bits go etc as well as using references for particuarly tricky bits helps, but really you have to get a feel for it all. [link] is the first thing I shaded in SAI, three days before doing this. Clearly, you can see the improvement, but the rate at which it occurred I attribute purely to the fact that SAI is obviously 'my program', as well as being able to shade horses similarly before. Practice practice practice, and play around with getting just the right effect with the water tool is key: don't be afraid to leave hard edges either.
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alright 
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Nice tutorial, Ehetere. It looks particularly useful for shiny horse breeds. I'll have to try this out when I find my tablet pen.
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Thanks! I just have a slight obsession with shiny horses (who doesn't?) but the tutorial is really about the process, so anyone can easily modify it for their own purposes I'm sure. I must warn you, once you try SAI there's no going back - its just too good
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Well, I might only be able to have it on trial for a month. I'm trying to find the "right program for me." PSE7 and GIMP are fine programs, they just don't have everything I want. I also have CS5 which works pretty well.
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Yeah - SAI as much as I love it is pretty limited in its tools, but the ones it does have are unique. I also use CS4 (not brave enough to upgrade to CS5) for anything I can't do in SAI, but all my lining and shading goes on there
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This... is... brilliant. I will be trying this out. ^^
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Okay, so let me get this straight. You draw the lineart. And then on a layer below you have the very dark "shadow" layer, which at first probably looks like a dark horse silhouette. And then, by adding layers ontop of that, you go a couple of shades lighter with each layer, smudge it, and then you get this?
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In short, yes 
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SHINIES
Thank you for posting! Very helpful
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I am really glad you made this tut, i was very curious as to how you shaded your horses. I also tried your style today and i rather like it
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Glad it was useful! I find I'm rather terrible at explaining things, so I'm glad you were at least able to make some sense out of what I was saying
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i'll hve to tweek this and try in Gimp
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Oooh, I'd love to hear back from you if you can get it working in Gimp! That way I could put it in the FAQ for anyone else who wanted to use it, since I have no experience with the program myself
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oky doky
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Ooooh, very helpful! I've been snooping around for SAI tutorials, and there sure aren't very many out there, that's for sure! D: But this is great! Thanks so much! <3
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Glad you found it useful! There's probably nothing that I could have said for photoshop that hasn't been said before somewhere else, so this tutorial was probably the most helpful I can be. At least in terms of original tutorials
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I so glad you made this! I'm gonna try it out on the Dressage entry that I'm doing... :3
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Ooooh, do show me when you're done! (I'm watching you anyways, so it'll be a matter of who gets there first
Anyways, I guess it depends on whether your personal style of shading really suits it. I can't wait to see whether yours does
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You don't watch me..... 0.o I hope that it fits with my style, because my PS trial ran out last week, so now i have to figure out how to shade efficiently and make it look good. xD Your way seems to work for it...
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What! Why am I not watching you! 
Yeah: SAI I have discovered is my shading calling, but it mightn't suit everyone. I want to start experimenting with adding multiple hues for even more realism soon as well, which could be fun
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Ughh, I do too! Hate it when that happens!
Sweet! Can't wait to see! 8DD
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I love this, I'm super busy this weekend so I don't have time to give awesome feed back but I wanted to say thank you so much, once I get time this will I promise to give some amazing feed back. Thank you!
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Aww, even this lovely comment is making me grin like a cheshire cat
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I like that you work light on dark, I've been going with a middle tone then lightning and darkening as needed. I will have to try this method on horses, I've used it only for acrylics and when I do clouds. Thank you for posting this again! Its been very helpful!
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You're welcome! While the style may not suit everyone, I have always disliked laying down shadows so perhaps others will find their calling with this tutorial as well
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Harrrr
SAI user? I'm beginning to realist its rather useless for photoshop other than the 'way' I lay down my shading x.x
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Oh goodness, I need to try this. Thank you, dear!
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You're most welcome, I hope its easy enough to understand
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It is indeed. Thank you again!
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Aww, its not really! It just takes practice then it takes half the time of everyone else's shading
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haha xD
question: for blending it what do you use? smudge or the blending tool? (i'm using gimp)
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I'm not sure what Gimp's tools are exactly, but anything resembling the wet cloth / sponge / watercolour tool might suffice
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ok :3 it's a teardrop (called blur) and a finger (called blend)
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Hmm, blur definitely isn't it, and I think the finger is the same as smudge... try the finger tool, but perhaps try and find the panel holding dodge and burn, see if there's a sponge hidden there. That's where it is in Photoshop, but Gimp may not have it
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nope, no sponge
i do have photoshop though, so I'll use both programs xD
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Good idea
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For this I just used a lighter colour than the base shadow layer, and nothing else as far as highlighting goes
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What colour are you using to highlight with? Is it solid white switched on some kind of screen/dodge layer mode, or did you just pick a lighter tone from your base colour?
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For this I just used a lighter colour than the base shadow layer, and nothing else as far as highlighting goes
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Thanks 
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Aww, it means so much when an awesome artist like you says my stuff is inspiring 
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