Lesson 7 Form with Shading - Vase

Now that you have the form of a vase (from Lesson 6), it's time to shade it.

The first step is to look at the photograph of the vase. Where does the vase sparkle? Where are the highlights? There are many. We will take artistic license and only choose some. (I avoided the blue highlights this time, but you are welcome to use them if you'd like.) Lightly block in the highlights you want on your vase. Make them slightly larger than they should be.  Now stretch out the shadow to the left.

Find the darkest area where your true black (or 10) will be at the base of the vase. Put it in and make sure it is an absolute black.

Rough in the shadow next. It will be darker close against the vase.

Next, except for the blocked out highlights, shade the rest of vase a light tone, like a 2 or 3.

Put in the darkest shades along the sides, top and bottom of the vase. These will be 7's, 8's and 9's.

Now, working inward from the sides, shade the midtones inside the vase. These will be your 5's, 6's and 7's.

Continue to shade inward into the bowl of the vase. These are your 3's and 4's.

Next, shade the upper edge of the vase. Again, avoid the highlighted areas.

With all your shades roughed in, it's time to smooth them with your blending stick. Remember that as you blend, it will steal darkness from your darker areas, and if it's not clean, it will make your lighter areas darker. Clean the blending stick often.

We'll start in the shadow, and on the left side of the vase itself. The highlights should not be all white. I am choosing only certain of the highlights to be a true white. (Too many bright white highlights take away from the flow of the drawing.) With a clean blending stick, I'll lightly go over the highlights that I want to tone down to a 2 or 3, adding any details I see in the photo.

Now, finish off smoothing the right side and top of the vase. Tone down and add detail into the hightlights with your blending stick. Take your pencil and add dark details back where the blending stick took them out. You can use your kneaded eraser to brighten any highlights or add others.

Now you have a beautiful, proportionate drawing of a vase!

Okay, now you have the basics out of the way. Time to pull out the big guns.

Next week: How to draw a face! (There's an easy formula that anyone can do. I promise!!)