How to Shade a Sphere With Colored Pencils

Overview

Hello to all my fellow artists. Are you looking to take your artistic abilities to the next step? Then today I will be teaching you how to shade with colored pencils. At its most basic, shading is carefully choosing the proper colors and then blending them smoothly through layering. For those who are new to art, keep in mind blending colored pencil is an advanced technique. If you’re feeling ambitious, give it a shot, but if you find yourself struggling, don’t be afraid to backtrack a bit. Most artists learn to shade by starting with a greyscale, which can be done using charcoal or regular pencil.

For this example, we will be coloring a sphere, which is the easiest introduction to shading. Though in the future you will learn to shade more complicated shapes, a sphere will give you the chance to practice creating shadows and highlights on a smooth surface.

Materials

Five colored pencils

These colored pencils should be different shades of the same color. Choosing these colors will be discussed further in the first step. I will be using my Prismacolor pencils, but any colored pencils will do just fine.

Paper

Keep in mind the type of paper you use can affect the smoothness of your blend. Sketchbook paper is made to be porous, which means it can handle several layers of color. In comparison, computer paper is flat and will not hold as much colored pencil, making layering more difficult.

A blending utensil

There are dozens of ways to blend colored pencils. Each medium gives the art a different look, so don’t be afraid to experiment. You can look online for ideas, but here is a short list:

• A colorless blending pencil (this is what I will be using for the example)

• Layering your original colors

• With this method, you only need the five colors you originally chose. You simply continue layering, making sure to press lightly with the colored pencil. This method takes the longest, but ends with vibrant color.

• A white colored pencil

• Tortillons (blending stumps)

• Solvents

• Solvents include rubbing alcohol and baby oil. To blend the colored pencil, dip a cotton ball or Q-tip into the solvent and rub the page gently. Make sure the cotton ball or Q-tip is only damp.

A sharpener

Always keep a pencil sharpener on hand while working with colored pencils.

Some Tips Before We Begin. . .

Make sure your colored pencils are sharpened and stay sharpened. When a colored pencil is sharpened, it more easily fills the pores of the paper, versus a dull colored pencil, which will leave the color patchy.

Blending is all about layering. Even if you are blending with an extra medium such as a colorless blending pencil or solvent, failing to layer will leave your art looking dull and streaky. The more layering you do before you use your extra medium, the more vibrant your color will be.

Keep a loose grip on your pencil and keep your pressure light. Sketchbook paper is porous, so it can hold a lot of color. However, if you press too hard onto the paper, you will overfill the pores too quickly and flatten the paper, which makes it difficult to layer and therefore difficult to blend.

Use circular motions. When using colored pencils, you want to make sure you keep your fingers moving in a circular pattern instead of back and forth in lines. Using circular motions when coloring will help you avoid a streaky, grainy look.

Read each whole step before beginning. There are a lot of tips to keep in mind for each step, so make sure you read everything before starting each step.

Understand the vocabulary. Here is what the sphere will look like when you are finished. I labeled each part of the sphere. If you keep these parts in mind, it will make your coloring process simpler.

• The highlight is the lightest part of the sphere. In most examples, it is not perfectly centered. Usually, it is closer to the upper right or left of the sphere. In our example, the highlight will be color 1.

• The midtone is the medium shade, not as light as the highlight and not as dark as the core shadow. In our example, the midtone will be colors 2, 3, and 4.

• The core shadow is the darkest part of the sphere. Much like the highlight, it does not touch the edge of the sphere but is in the opposite corner of the highlight. In our example, the core shadow will be color 5.

• The reflected light is something most new artists struggle with. It is light that bounces off whatever object the sphere is sitting on. It can be found along the bottom of the sphere, underneath the core shadow.

Steps

Step One: Choose your colors.

This process could easily be overlooked, but it is one of the most important steps in the shading process. Changing even one color in your pallet can drastically alter your finished product.

Start with an idea of what color you have in mind and be specific. If you want to make blue, what type of blue are you thinking of? Aqua? Navy? Baby blue? Now, take a good look at your pencils and consider what colors you will need to meet your goal. For my example, I will be choosing 5 shades of blue. Each pencil is numbered, with the lightest being number 1 and the darkest being number 5. If you would rather copy my example instead of choosing your own colors, I will be using five of my Prismacolor pencils, particularly the shades cloud blue (1), blue slate (2), Mediterranean blue (3), Copenhagen blue (4), and Indanthrone blue (5). As you begin coloring, make sure you keep your pencils organized by number beside you so you can easily grab the one you need.

If you’re new to drawing with colored pencils, this can be a difficult decision. After you gain experience, however, it becomes instinctual. Some advice for beginners, make sure you have swatches of your colored pencils; take a piece of sketchbook paper and color a small space with each pencil, then label each one. This will help you determine how the color looks on your paper, because most of the time, the color a pencil draws with is slightly different than you would expect.

Step Two: Draw a circle.

To create a sphere, we will need to start with a circle. It will only become a sphere once it is shaded and has depth. For now, our drawing is a flat circle.

Grab your piece of sketchbook paper and lightly draw the outline of a circle. Your circle doesn’t have to be perfect. The process is forgiving, and even if your circle has some bumps, it will be easy to fill them out later.

However, if you do want to make sure your circle is perfect, you can trace something, such as a cup.

Step Three: Create a light base layer with color 1.

Evenly cover the entire circle, making sure to keep your grip loose and your pressure light.

Step Four: Use color 2 to create a base shadow.

Shade the edges of the circle with color 2. This layer will be thicker in the bottom left and thinner in the top right, where the highlight will eventually be.

Layer color 1 around the edges and overtop of color 2 until there is no discernable edge. Remember not to press too hard. It is ok if your color looks grainy for now.

Step Five: Color the core shadow with color 5.

And yes, this is the darkest color. We are going to be making our core shadow. The core shadow is crescent shaped and will be in the bottom left of our circle.

TIP: do not push color 5 all the way to the bottom edge, as this is where the reflected light will be.

Step Six: Color the midtone.

Use color 4 to begin blending color 5 into the lighter base of the circle. Lightly color around the outsides of color 5 and then begin layering over color 5. Make sure you keep the proper shape of the shadow. It should look like a crescent instead of being blocky or round. The blend is probably not going to look great, but we will fix that soon. And once again, remember not to push this shadow up against the bottom left edge, or you will remove the reflected light.

Color 4 should also shade around the edges of the rest of the circle.

Step Seven: Use color 3 to continue blending the core shadow.

At this point, your shadow should begin to take shape. Don’t be afraid to reconsider how far your shadow will extend up the side of your circle, but make sure you’re not covering the highlight.

Step Eight: Cycle through your 5 colors.

As you continue to layer, notice the color should be building up, steadily becoming more vibrant and solid. Your circle should be looking more like a sphere at this point. Layering comes with practice, and eventually knowing what color you need more of becomes an instinct. But if you’re unsure, continue layering by number, starting with color 1 and continuing into the darker shades (sparingly with color 5) until the colors smoothly transition and you cannot find one definite place where the shades shift. Make sure you blot out almost all white spots.

TIP: if you don’t blot out most of the white spots, the color will have a whitish tone after blending instead of bold colors.

Step Nine: Blend.

If you are blending by layering with your original 5 colors, continue repeating step 8 until your colors look solid and smooth.

If you’re blending with a blending pencil, a white pencil, tortillons, or a solvent, start by blending the lightest area (the highlight and the reflected light) and move into the darker areas. If you do this backwards, starting in the dark section and moving to the light, the dark colors will overpower the light colors, and your sphere will turn into a monochrome, flat circle. If you need to move back into the lighter areas, make sure there is no dark color left on your blending tool.

For the first time blending your colors, you should only use light pressure on the paper to avoid overfilling the pores. That way, if you come across any areas that look patchy, you can easily add more color.

Step Ten: Continue adding color as needed.

At this point, you can usually see which color your spectrum needs, but if not, you can continue to cycle through colors starting at 1 and following the pattern in the previous steps. After each layer, use your blending tool with increasing force.

Step Eleven: Clean up.

Now is the time to start cleaning things up. Add some of color 1 to the reflected light and the highlight to make them stand out. Clean up the edges of your circle if they became messy throughout the coloring process.

When you’re happy with the vibrancy of the color, you can begin blending with more intense pressure. This will seal the colors into the pores of the paper.

Conclusion

Now you have a fully shaded sphere. Learning with colored pencils can take practice, so don’t feel discouraged if your sphere doesn’t look the way you expected. Drawing and coloring a sphere is a great way to learn and doesn’t take up too much time, so try again. You’ll probably be surprised how much you improve each time.