how would you guys go about shading?

[samotny]

personally, i use this so called 1-2-3 shading technique that ive heard manga artists use. its essentially getting a flat colour and monochrome colouring of lineart, and shading:
- the areas light generally shouldnt be able to enter without any light reflecting off of surfaces,
- the area where, accounting for reflection, is harder for light to enter, and then
- the area where no light enters at all,
in that order. and then you put the colour in and it looks good and then all is good

what techniques have you guys used, found, and/or created in shading? im eager to learn!

 

[SpiderQueenPC]

Tbh when it comes to shading I just turn my brain off and autopilot. No thoughts, head empty. All lighting engine calculations are offloaded to the GPU (my subconscious).

As far as actual methods, I know doing rough/blocked-out shading everywhere and then gradually cleaning up & detailing it in waves is better practice... but like I said, my brain is off during this process. Sooo usually instead I end up going in way too hard on one area and then just... doing that over and over until it's done lmao. But I zoom out and check the whole piece pretty frequently so the end result still ends up being cohesive!

Anyway, I could say more, but I think the reasons I rarely talk about my process are already becoming apparent ::::P so I will leave it there.